Transforming Higher Education for a Sustainable Society
Our Mission and Vision for Society Second Nature’s mission is to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society by transforming higher education.
We envision a world in which all current and future humans are healthy, live in socially vibrant communities, and are personally and economically secure within a flourishing and sustainable life support system.
Cover photos courtesy of Arizona State University, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, University of Delaware, and College of Menominee Nation
from OUR Chair
The common purpose of all educational institutions is to enable our students and our societies to understand themselves and make wise and effective choices about their future. The transition to sustainability is a challenge, which permeates all that we do, and runs the gamut from the merely complicated to the most complex intellectual challenges. If the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of our societies is the “report card” for higher education, we clearly have room to improve, and the opportunity to do so is tantamount to the responsibility to act. Unique among organizations focused on this challenge, Second Nature leverages a network of insight and innovation and years of successful experience with a vision of the future transformed by the most admirable of human aspirations.
— David Hales, President, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine
“ Our job at higher education is to prepare the next generation of scientists, technicians, parents, entrepreneurs and what I call global humanitarians to bring this change forward, and we simply don’t have time to wait.” — Martha Kanter U.S. Under Secretary of Education
About Our
foUNDEr Since its inception in 1993, Second Nature has been a major driving force for transforming the education, research, operation, and community outreach of the higher education sector in order to create a healthy, just, and sustainable future for everyone. At a time when few saw the urgent need to find better and more sustainable ways of meeting human needs and creating a thriving society, Anthony Cortese envisioned how higher education, as the educator of all of society’s professionals and leaders and the generator of the knowledge on which society thrives, could lead this effort and become a model for all of society. With the encouragement and support of Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry, Second Nature was created to make this vision a reality.
aNThoNY D. CorTESE, ScD
My journey to Second Nature began with growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in the North End of Boston, then a largely Italian American working class community. We swam and harvested clams in Boston Harbor until I was about age 8, when those activities were banned because of pollution. Poor air quality and chronic respiratory disease were rampant. Throughout my education, my childhood experiences stayed with me. i wondered why we
couldn’t have human progress without pollution. For me, the journey of protecting the environment was all about measures to improve our health and well-being.
Paul Revere statue silhouetted against the Old North Church in Boston’s North End.
This led me to become a civil and environmental engineer. I was the first in my immediate family to receive a college degree (Tufts University) and later a doctorate (Harvard School of Public Health). I answered the call of President John F. Kennedy and pursued a career in public service.
“in the first part of my career,
While serving in the US Public Health Service, the original EPA, and later as Commissioner of the
most people thought there
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, I participated in some of the seminal
was a trade-off between
environmental protection efforts involving clean air, clean water, toxic chemicals and waste cleanup.
the economy, health, and the
The progress was rapid and impressive, exemplified by the first international agreement on acid rain control between the New England States and Eastern Canadian Provinces in 1993 that (then Lt.
environment. Today, for the
Governor) John Kerry and I helped shepherd. But the actions largely focused on ‘downstream’ clean-up
first time in my life, i am
rather than prevention, and the gains required almost Herculean efforts against short-term and narrow
hearing the opposite: that we
economic interests.
can’t afford not to live by the
It was then that I realized that the rapidly growing health, social, economic, and environmental
principles of sustainability.”
challenges facing the world were urgent, systemic and interdependent requiring a fundamental
change in mindset that must be led by higher education. New economic, technological and social strategies living in harmony with the Earth’s life support systems were necessary in order to meet the needs of current and future generations. I returned to Tufts University as the first universitywide Dean of Environmental Programs, helped start several new academic degree programs and, in 1989, founded the Tufts Environmental Literacy Institute — the first effort in the U.S. to equip all students, regardless of their major or profession, with the knowledge and skills to align their personal and professional lives with sustainability principles. The urgent need for all of higher education to provide this education and become a model
for sustainability in operation led to the creation of Second Nature. Since 1993 we have been a thought leader on how higher education can make this transformation and catalyzed the development of statewide, regional, and national networks of higher education presidents, faculty, administrators, staff, and students to build higher education’s capacity to lead this effort. While it is heartening to see the explosion of action on college campuses during this time, we are at the beginning stages of this transformation while the challenges grow more difficult daily. With your help, Second Nature will continue to play this important role in developing the high leverage strategies to make a sustainable society ‘second nature’ through education. —Anthony D. Cortese, ScD President of Second Nature
Anthony Cortese participates in the presidential session at the 2010 ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit in Denver, CO, where representatives from hundreds of US higher education institutions convened. Photo courtesy of Second Nature
The NEED for
Education for Sustainability Human society is on an unsustainable path. Rapidly growing population, aggressive resource consumption, and waste buildup are putting unprecedented pressure on social and natural systems while reducing their capacity to handle that pressure. Moreover, the current economic strategies are failing to make the necessary progress on public health, poverty, and wealth disparity in most countries. And for decades, our higher education system has not created solutions needed to avoid this crisis that threatens the viability of modern civilization. In many ways it has produced, reinforced, and accelerated this process, albeit unintentionally.
fig. 1
LIVING PLANET INDEX 1970-2005
index ndex (1970 –1.0)
Photo courtesy of Delta College
1.6
Decreasing Capacity
1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 1.8 0.4 0.2 1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
05
Three million students graduate from US higher education institutions each year, going on to make choices that guide and shape our society and economy. They will need new knowledge and skills to participate in a clean, green economy oriented toward increasing jobs, reducing poverty, and raising the quality of life.
1.8 1.6
fig. 2
HUMANITY’S ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT 1961-2005
Number of planet Earths
Students in the Delta College Water Environment Technology program study stream water for potential environmental impact on aquatic organisms.
1.4 1.2 World biocapacity
1.0 0.8
increasing Pressure
0.6 0.4 0.2
Source: WWF Living Planet Report, 2008
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
05
in a sustainable society...
Northland students enrolled in a special Mayterm course install 38 solar panels on the roof of the Dexter Library. Photo courtesy of Bob Gross
• all of our products and services will be designed so the materials can be repurposed or safely returned to natural systems in a ‘closed-loop’. • all energy will be safe, clean, and renewable. • We will live off nature’s ‘interest’ rather than its ‘capital’ by using resources no faster than they can self-generate — the ideas embodied in sustainable fishing, agriculture, and forestry.
Our college and university graduates, regardless of their fields of study or area of expertise, must be equipped to understand the complex interaction of social, economic, and natural systems and to appreciate the direct and indirect consequences of their actions across time and space. To do so, interdisciplinary,
systemic thinking will be necessary to integrate disciplinary studies in ways that ensure that graduates will have the knowledge and skills necessary in a sustainable economy. Research must be aimed at creating effective solutions to our largest and most urgent challenges. Campuses must ‘practice what they preach’ so they become living laboratories for their students and role models for the rest of society. Institutions must collaborate with their local communities and actors in other sectors to help them become economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. In other words, creating a sustainable society must be a core, normative goal of higher education.
Bowie State, a Historically Black University and a Kresge Fellow institution, launches a new green initiative in partnership with Toyota. The partnership raises awareness of green practices and targets students, faculty, and staff as well as the Bowie community. Photo courtesy of Bowie State University
Second Nature’s
SUCCESS
Second Nature is the international leader in building momentum, leveraging collaborations, and catalyzing change to move higher education toward sustainability. We believe that creating a thriving, enduring society is the fundamental purpose of all learning; sustainability should be a foundational principle of higher education. We call this Education for Sustainability (EfS)—a movement that has grown synonymous with Second Nature. We mobilize higher education leaders and policy makers to advance sustainability imperatives and inspire higher education to embrace sustainability as a core concept.
Implementation liaisons from dozens of institutions fine-tune their climate action plans during a workshop presented by Second Nature.
as a thought leader...
Photo courtesy of Second Nature
We are the primary force in the nation and worldwide engaging higher education senior
leadership (presidents, trustees, business officers, and provosts) to make sustainability a Over 30% of students in the US attend an institution that is part of the american College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.
33 million metric tons = current annual emissions of Co2e from aCUPCC institutions that will be eliminated when they achieve their goals.
strategic imperative for their institutions. We support the american College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The leaders of more than 670 colleges and universities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, representing one-third of the 17+ million college students in the US, have committed to climate neutrality in both practice and education. Through our advancing Green Building in higher Education program, funded by the Kresge Foundation, we work to build the capacity of minority-serving and under-
higher education has become the only sector to commit to addressing climate disruption with the scientifically necessary goal of
net-zero GHG emissions. higher education institutions contribute 121 million metric tons to total annual US greenhouse gas emissions.
resourced institutions to construct and renovate campus buildings in ways that save money, reduce negative health impacts and serve as community models for environmentally sustainable design.
As a collaborator...
Presidents from hundreds of institutions across the U.S. convene annually at the ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit. Photo courtesy of Second Nature
We worked with the Campaign for Environmental Literacy on recent amendments to the Higher Education Act that authorized $50 million annually for college and university sustainability programs, the first federal funds directed in support of EfS. We advised and partnered with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) on learning institutes focused on sustainable campus operations at Historically Black, Hispanic American
serving, and Tribal institutions. We helped grow the Education for Sustainability Western Network into the Association for the
Some of the savings realized through participation in one of Second Nature’s programs: $2 million = annual savings from Ball State University’s geothermal project
Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), a national higher education
$2.2 million = annual savings
learning community with over 1,000 member organizations.
from Los Angeles Community College District’s solar projects
As a change agent...
$260,100 = annual savings from Clemson University’s energy efficiency projects
We inspired higher education to become the first sector in society to commit to climate neutrality. We created the first comprehensive reporting system, publicly available to all of higher
$300,000 = annual savings from Tennessee State University’s behavior-change conservation efforts
education, that engages higher education in promoting sustainability. We helped coordinate efforts by hundreds of institutions to advocate for climate and higher
education federal policies around transportation, funding education for sustainability activities, and passing federal climate legislation.
For more information about Second Nature’s programs, write to info@secondnature.org
What is
NEXT?
Our work is far from done. The task of overcoming our civilization’s most urgent challenges — lifting billions of people out of poverty and creating opportunities for secure, decent lives for all, without undermining the natural systems upon which we depend — is a marathon, not a sprint. All of us, as producers, consumers, and citizens need the knowledge and skills that only higher education can provide to meet these challenges.
Photo courtesy of Arizona State University
The “innovation Curve” graphic shown here is a conceptual representation of the spectrum of progress institutions of higher education in the U.S. have made in addressing the sustainability challenge. Many are still at the very early stages. Some have already made sustainability a core, normative goal of the institution. Most are somewhere in between, having completed some energy efficiency measures, developed some sustainability-focused curricula, or engaged some departments to focus on these issues —but not yet established sustainability as a strategic imperative.
BEGINNING
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
670+ ACUPCC Institutions 15% have completed Greenhouse Gas (GhG) inventories
(539 ACUPCC Institutions)
9% have completed Climate action Plans
(327 ACUPCC Institutions) Sustainability is a core, normative goal of the institution
persistent, and strategic effort from Second Nature. Over the past 20 years — and particularly in the last
ACUPCC signatory Cornell University’s Frank Perry (left), Combined Heat and Power Plant Associate Project Manager, meets with Sierra Club’s Bruce Niles at the new plant, opened in 2009. Turbines fired by natural gas and waste heat from the turbines generate electricity. Exhaust from steam turbines circulates through underground tunnels and warm radiators all over campus. The result: a 28% cut in emissions.
5 years—our programs have accelerated the progress of hundreds of schools from the “beginner” stage
Photo courtesy of Cornell University
We are still a long way from shifting all institutions into the “advanced” category — but when critical thresholds are crossed, the shift can happen quickly. It will require ongoing collaboration within higher education and among business, government, local communities and civil society — and concerted,
to “intermediate” and “advanced.”
With your help, Second Nature will continue to play its leading role in developing leveraging strategies to make this a reality—so that a sustainability perspective will be “second nature” for all graduates, in all they do.
“ Second Nature is helping leaders at Penn State develop a comprehensive Strategic Sustainability Plan that will help us capitalize on our cumulative teaching, research, outreach, and operational efforts in sustainability, and also to take advantage of the size, breadth, and global reach of our University.” — David Riley Executive Director, Penn State Center for Sustainability
This high-performance facility at Ithaca College, affectionately referred to as “The Gateway,” houses senior administrators as well as the Office of Admissions and Human Resources. It was designed to achieve LEED Platinum rating. Photo courtesy of Adam Baker/Ithaca College
S E C o N D N aT U r E S U P P o r T E r S CURRENT INVESTORS 2009–2010
Dr. David Shi, President Emeritus of Furman University, Supporter, and Second Nature Board Member
Richard and Frances Bechtold
William Johnson
The Bonwood Foundation
Elisabeth Keller
James and Dee Buizer
Michael Kempa
Patricia Calkins-Martin
Dolores Kong
Lee Caras
The Kresge Foundation
Jayni and Chevy Chase
Teresa Lahti and Richard Cook
Donna and Anthony Cortese
The John Merck Fund
Douglas and Jeanne Dockery
Toni Nelson
Paul Dumanoski
Carlo Obligato and Dianne Dumanoski
Michelle Dyer Larry Eisenberg Flora Foundation Thomas Frostman The Garfield Foundation Charles E. Glasser Joseph and Marie Grasso in honor of Cecelia Cortese Jonathan Wege, Wege Foundation
David and Elaine Orr Frank Powell The Prentice Foundation Lowell and Kris Rasmussen Rockefeller Brothers Fund The Rockefeller Foundation Phil and Jane Scanlan
Greenland Enterprises LLC
Susan and David Shi
Judith Groleau
Sodexo
David Hales
Surdna Foundation
Linda Harrar Productions LLC
The Wege Foundation
Tom Hellman
Anonymous (Foundation)
Robert and Donna Hilgenbrink
Anonymous (Individual)
Robert Hollister
Anonymous (Individual)
Ed Johnson
Anonymous (Individual)
Jessica E. Boehland, Program Officer, The Kresge Foundation
Our special thanks to Lindenmeyr Munroe for its generous donation of the 100% recycled paper used in this publication.
S E C o N D N aT U r E S U P P o r T E r S EARLY INVESTORS 1993-2008
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Heinz Family Foundation
Susanna Natti
Amherst Alumni Association
The Teresa and H. John Heinz III Charitable Fund
Newtork
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. AT&T Foundation
John Henshaw
James and Rachel Austin
Hewlett Packard
North American Association for Environmental Education
Benjamin Moore & Co.
Hill, Holliday, Connors
Ellen Parker
Boston Globe Foundation
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Peter Roudebush
Samuel and Martha Hoar
Frank Powell
Hardy Holzman
V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation
Raelene Hourany
Richmond Hardware and Paint
Humane Society of the United States
Okamoto Saijo Architecture
Frank and Laura Ingeme Interface, Inc.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP SSOE, Inc.
International Paper
Elissa Skop
Lindenmeyr Munroe
Madeline Snow
Johnson Foundation
John D. and Carolyn Spengler
Laurel Johnson
Bradford Stevens
Erika Jones
The Sudbury Foundation
W. Alton Jones Foundation
The Summit Foundation
Joyce Foundation
Swan Fund
Nicholas and Celia Cortese
Stephen Kandel (on behalf of Dr. Anthony Kandel)
Cosmopoulus, Inc.
Henry P. Kendall Foundation
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust
Jeffrey Kunz
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
Lotus Development Corporation
Elena D’Alessandro Family Trust
Thomas Lovejoy
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
Mindy Lubber
Noemi Dominguez
Marilyn and John MacDougal
Dow Chemical
David Martin
Earth Day
Massachusetts Medical Society
Karen and Lewis Edgers
William McDonough Consulting, LLC
Catherine Farrell
Amy Meblin
Fleet Bank
Merck Family Fund
Douglas Foy
Herman Miller
Furman University
Michael Milner
Gensler Green Mountain Coffee
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation
E. F. Harris Family Foundation
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Anonymous (Individual)
Mark and Maryanne Harris
National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences
Anonymous (Foundation)
Kofi Bota Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Carnegie Corporation of New York Catalogue for Philanthropy Catharine M. de Lacy Foundation CERES CH2MHill (in-kind support) Jean-Lou Chameau City of Boston Dr. Allen Clapp Clark Atlanta University Clean Air-Cool Planet Compaq Computer Corporation Compton Foundation, Inc.
Heinz Endowments
Dane Nichols
Pfeiffer Associates LLP
The Campaign for Environmental Literacy The Educational Foundation of America Trinity Conference Center Tufts University Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim Union Carbide United Negro College Fund, Inc. University of Massachusetts, Boston Waterless Co., LLC WDHB Consulting Group Wilson D. Morgan and Kristin Wilson The Winslow Foundation WMX/Greenwire
S E C o N D N aT U r E T r U S T E E S BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Hales President College of the Atlantic Bar Harbor, Maine Chair William C. Johnson Vice President Haley & Aldrich, Inc. Manchester, New Hampshire Vice Chair George Bandy, Jr. Vice President Sustainability Strategy and Diversity Interface Americas Atlanta, Georgia James L. Buizer Senior Advisor to the President Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona Patricia A. Calkins Vice President Environment, Health and Safety Xerox Corporation Stamford, Connecticut
Ed Johnson President The San Juan Colleges San Juan Capistrano, California Mike Kempa Director of Sustainable Solutions Energy Services Marketing Honeywell Golden Valley, Minnesota Ulrike Klein, Ex Officio Director of Communications & Operations Second Nature Clerk David Martin, Ex Officio Director of Finance The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, Inc. Boston, Massachusetts Treasurer Nilda M. Mesa Assistant Vice President Columbia University New York, New York
Anthony D. Cortese, Ex Officio President Second Nature, Inc. Boston, Massachusetts
Ed Poppell Vice President for Business Affairs Florida State University Gainesville, Florida
Georges Dyer, Ex Officio Vice President Second Nature, Inc. Boston, Massachusetts
Judith A. Ramaley President and Professor of Biology Winona State University Winona, Minnesota
Larry Eisenberg Executive Director Facilities Planning and Development Los Angeles Community College District Los Angeles, California
David E. Shi President Emeritus Furman University Greenville, South Carolina
The past decade was the warmest ever on record, according to NASA data.1 The US higher education sector graduates approximately
3 million students
each year—the vast majority of which are not equipped with a systemic understanding of sustainability principles and are thus ill prepared to create a sustainable society through their actions in their personal and professional lives.4
Gravity data collected from space by NASA found that antarctica has been
100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice each year since 2002. losing more than
2
3
Over Billion people, almost half of the world’s population, live off less than $2.50 per day.5
2050
By , total water demand in the U.S. is projected to increase by as much as 12.3%. however, 70% of all U.S. counties’ water supplies will be experiencing water shortages due to climate change.3 according to the United Nations Development Program, the world’s poorest people walk the Earth with a very light carbon footprint. We estimate the carbon footprint of the
poorest 1 billion people on
3
the planet at around percent of the world’s total footprint. Living in vulnerable rural areas and urban slums, the poorest billion people are highly exposed to climate change threats for which they carry negligible responsibility. Comparisons: US: 20.6 tons per capita. India:1.2 tons and Ethiopia: 0.1 tons.6
This brochure is printed with soy-based ink on process chlorine-free Mohawk Via Smooth 100% PC White, which is made with 100% post consumer recycled fiber and is Green Seal certified. Mohawk Fine Papers purchases enough Green-E certified renewable energy certificates (RECs) to match 100% of the electricity used in their operations. The paper selection for 1,000 copies of this brochure prevented 426 lbs net greenhouse gas emissions, preserves 5 trees for the future, averted 1,957 gallons of wastewater flow, and saved 3,264,000 BTUs of energy.
1 Cole, Steve, and McCarthy, Leslie. “NASA Research Finds Last Decade was Warmest on Record, 2009 One of Warmest Years.” NASA. 21 01 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010. 2 Conway, Erik. “Is Antarctica Melting?” NASA. NASA. Web. 21 Oct 2010. 3 Altman, Peter, and Spencer, Theo. “NRDC: Climate Change, Water, and Risk.” Natural Resources Defense Council. NRDC, 01 07 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010. 4 Aud, S. et al. “The Condition of Education 2010 (NCES 2010-028).” National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC. (2010). 5 Shah, Anup. “Poverty Facts and Stats.” Global Issues – Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All. Global Issues, 20 09 2010. Web. 15 Oct 2010. 6 United Nations. “Inequalities in carbon footprinting-some people walk more lightly than others.” United Nations Human Development Report. (2007/2008).
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EXTraorDiNarY By helping higher education leverage its resources, energy, and innovative spirit, Second Nature is paving the way for the creation of a healthier and more sustainable society.
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Help Second Nature ensure that higher education is equipped to prepare its students to create a sustainable society—one where future generations can live and thrive. Your generous contribution will strengthen and sustain these extraordinary efforts and its impact will extend to an ever-widening circle of concerned citizens and organizations who will become part of the solution. We invite your participation in this necessary, challenging, and ambitious effort.
For more information, please contact: Judy Groleau, VP for Development 617- 722- 0036 x 204 jgroleau@secondnature.org
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“With your help, Second Nature will continue to play its leading role in developing high leverage strategies to make this a reality — so that a sustainability perspective will be ‘second nature’ for all graduates, in all they do.” —Anthony D. Cortese, ScD President of Second Nature