AASHE Executive Director, Tom Kimmerer

It has been a long time coming getting this video up, but things are moving pretty fast right now. My book on a Sustainable US and Canada is in the final draft stage and I am focused on getting this little bit of sustainability to light. Plus!!! The Sustainable development class is a go and I still have lots of work to make this an excellent class for the our student's future.

We were in a hot and humid Lexington, Kentucky in June this year. Tom Kimmerer, who just came aboard AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) in February, kindly submitted to my questions about AASHE, even though he had just come in from riding his bike and didn't realize we would be filming. Sorry about that! But he was gracious and willing to go ahead an educate me and now you as to what AASHE is and its mission.

EMU is not a member of AASHE, but for $1500 a year we could be and share what 300 other schools are doing to make education and our future a better place. I did ask if they took individual memberships but they do not. So its all or nothing EMU! I vote for all.

A Sustainable EMU?

Things are beginning to happen here at EMU. More student and faculty are realizing that we are on the brink of something new and that it is time for the school to be a part of it. The work is far from done, but soon, if we are lucky there will be a resolution given to the administrators to recognize sustainability issues and to create a committee to identify the issues and do something about them. I still think an environmental audit is the first step, and maybe it will actually come to be. Other faculty have been supportive and are doing "Robert's Rules of Order" things that I prefer not to get involved in. I am so happy that they care enough to push in ways that I do not. Let EMU get the message from all angles!

There is slowly building a mass of students willing to take the "Sustainable Development" course that I will be offering next semester. It will be the first time such a course is available at the school, and I am working hard to put together a worthy course to educate those who can see this future, or at least want to understand it.

That is all for now. I have a great deal of work to do, but thought I would relate the positive actions happening on our campus.

Money Available

The longer we wait to accept the future the farther behind we will be. The following was just announced. $5 Billion for exactly the types of upgrades and improvements that would help EMU become a part of the future, so we too can offer our students a place in the new paradigm. All we need to do is sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

$5 Billion in Financing Made Available for Campus Retrofits
Former President Bill Clinton recently announced a new partnership between the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and signatories of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). This partnership seeks to enable colleges and universities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower their energy bills, and upgrade campus facilities without dipping into their capital budgets or increasing monthly operating expenses. Specifically, the partnership gives signatories of the ACUPCC access to funding mechanisms, technical assistance, and discounts on products from companies who have signed Memoranda of Understanding with the CCI. The CCI has secured commitments from 5 global financial institutions to each offer $1 billion of financing for energy efficiency retrofit projects, from eight leading energy services companies to perform building retrofits and guarantee the energy savings, and more than twenty five manufacturers of energy efficient products who will offer discounts of up to 70 percent to project partners. Eleven ACUPCC signatories also announced the launch of pilot projects with the CCI that will serve as models for other colleges and universities.