Creating a Sustainability Action Plan
Fort Lewis College is developing a Sustainability Action Plan to guide its activities around campus sustainability. This comprehensive plan will include sections on Performance, Education and Engagement, Service to the Region, and Institutional Leadership. Helping to develop this plan will be a major focus of the Environmental Center during the 2008-09 academic year. Find out more about this important planning process for the College.
Step 1: Building the Foundation - Spring 2007
The Environmental Center researches what other campuses are doing to become more sustainable and learns about the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment and suggests Fort Lewis College create a Sustainability Action Plan to highlight its accomplishments and prioritize its next moves. President Bartel signs the ACUPCC on April 6, 2007 and the Environmental Center begins planning for creating an action plan
Step 2: Doing an Assessment - Fall 2007
Environmental Center students collect information and work with the firm of Woodard and Curran to complete for the College’s first-ever Campus Sustainability Assessment and Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The comprehensive report compares Fort Lewis to other college's and universities around the country and provides recommendations for improving our performance.
Step 3: Generating Ideas - Spring 2008
The Environmental Center works with the Honors class "Leaders and Difference Makers" to facilitate the 3-2-1 Sustainability Initiative that uses the assessment to come up with recommendations for the college. Students from the class facilitate seven study circles covering energy, transportation, food, purchasing, water and land-use, waste and recycling, and environmental health.
Step 4: Drafting a Plan - Fall-Spring 2008
A student committee worked with the President’s Council on Environmental Affairs (PACEA) to create a draft Sustainability Action Plan with goals, measurements, targets, timelines, and action steps. The action plan has six sections: Stewardship, Consumption, Climate, Education and Engagement, Service to Region, and Coordination and Support and inlcudes a 50-year plan to reach carbon neutrality. The Center and the College will use the action plan to focus its energy on the projects that will make the most difference and be the most cost-effective for Fort Lewis. Several important action steps identified by the plan are already underway.
Step 5: Approving the Plan - Fall 2009
This fall the Sustainability Action Plan goes out to students, staff, faculty, and administration for feedback and revision. The new Pathways to Sustainability website for the College will help gather input and the Environmental Center will be meeting with individual departments with responsibilities under the draft plan. We hope a final Sustainability Action Plan will be ready for President Bartel by January of 2010.
The EC’s project teams work in partnership with the SEEDS-Campus Ecology Club and President’s Council on Environmental Affairs (PACEA) to make the campus as sustainable as possible. In 2004, PACEA completed work on the Fort Lewis College Environmental Policy, establishing guiding principles for campus operations and management. In 2005, PACEA completed an environmental review of the Facilities Master Plan for the college.
We also maintain contact with several national groups working on campus sustainability such as:
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
National Wildlife Federation - Campus Ecology Program
