Hanley Sustainability Institute

By Andrew Bartsch, Amelia Dougherty, Shannon Dennemann, Bryan Mitchell and Cassie Austin

This past October, student leaders from the Hanley Sustainability Institute (HSI) attended the three-day Annual AASHE Conference & Expo in Anaheim, Calif., to explore sustainability in higher education. In addition to participating in a variety of sessions focused on campus sustainability, the students facilitated a 45-minute networking session aimed at connecting campuses interested in offering more sustainable beverage options. Over 40 individuals from colleges and universities across the country joined the session to discuss strategies for providing beverages in aluminum-based sustainable packaging, sourcing from locally owned companies and engaging students in the process.

Attending conferences as a student offers opportunities to explore potential career pathways, ask meaningful questions and reflect on personal and professional growth.

Hear from the student attendees about their favorite conference sessions and how they envision these ideas shaping UD’s sustainability efforts.

Shannon Dennemann

Before the conference even kicked off, I was able to attend a networking session around faith-based institutions. Since our Catholic perspective influences our passion for sustainability, I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn what other institutions are doing. At the session, I got to talk to people at multiple institutions, both universities and organizations that work with schools, religious and secular, with the intent of better understanding how religion can better influence our work. The session was divided into smaller groups of about eight people and our conversation centered around various ways to measure the work we do. 

As the student director of Impact Reporting, this is directly related to my position. Hearing the different methods people use was very interesting, but was not what made this session unique. Looking at reports through a religious lens was something I am not used to, but I found it very insightful. I typically have not viewed reports as a way to see what values a group has, and how their beliefs impact their actions, but this session allowed me to build a deeper connection with the work we do. I hope to bring this to the students at UD by helping them also see the connection between the Earth and our faith, with the idea of getting more people involved and giving deeper meaning to our work.

Andrew Bartsch

The session I attended was “Tracking and Driving Progress in Sustainability Goals through Data and Dashboards." Hosted by the University of Southern California (USC), the presenters demonstrated and explained their public dashboard that tracks data from areas such as education, operations and engagement. Created by the Office of Sustainability’s Sustainability Data Intern, the dashboard compiles and presents data from various sectors to aid in tracking progress for achieving campus sustainability goals, identifying data gaps, assisting with data-driven decision-making and even helping with AASHE’s STARS reporting. Powered by PowerBI, the dashboard represents data qualitatively and quantitatively through graphs, charts, timelines, and dials. Due to the large amount of data that goes into the dashboard, data is not updated in real-time and must be updated periodically. 

Seeing what USC was able to create showed me how powerful compiled data can be to inform decision-making. A visual representation of progress can help motivate students and stakeholders to want to do more to “fill the dial” or “lower the trendline” to move the campus in a more sustainable direction. A more expansive dashboard would be beneficial to have at UD and even be integrated into the Residential Energy Team’s work to inform decision-making and align values with what’s going on at campus. 

Amelia Dougherty

The University of Colorado, Boulder facilitated a session that inspired our own HSI Energy Team. Known as the “Sustainable Buffs of the Neighborhood” (after their mascot the Buffalo), a team of students at the university works to educate fellow peers on energy efficiency in their off-campus (landlord-owned) homes. Only freshman students live on the university campus, meaning these student-rented houses contribute directly to the emissions of the City of Boulder. The Sustainable Buffs have a contract with the City to negotiate a yearly budget to fund this program, which directly reduces the carbon footprint of the Boulder area. These funds allow for the purchase of supplies for an “Eco Kit” that consists of a recycling and composting bin, reusable utensils, weather stripping, window film, and more to equip students with the ability to make their homes more energy efficient. As an added incentive, they will have lower energy bills from incorporating these retrofits. The Sustainable Buffs also conduct a guided walk-through of the house where they teach the residents other energy-efficient measures they can incorporate into their day-to-day life.  

The HSI Energy Team hopes to develop a similar program on campus that is inspired by the work of the Sustainable Buffs. The UD student neighborhood is the sixth largest electricity user on campus, following only behind the largest users such as Curran Place and UD Arena. It is important for students to understand their energy habits, especially as future homeowners. The program will aim to simultaneously educate students on reducing their electricity usage and improve UD’s energy portfolio.

Bryan Mitchell

One session I attended, “It’s All Connected! Climate Change, Social Justice, Basic Needs Support, and Student Leadership,” provided an insightful overview of the Basic Needs, Sustainability and Leadership (BNSL) program at Portland Community College (PCC) in Portland, Oregon. This program is designed to address interconnected and systemic issues that affect communities by focusing on a comprehensive support model.

The BNSL group runs a variety of programs that tackle issues such as food insecurity through campus food pantries, providing transportation solutions, eco-social justice grants and collaborations with the PCC Legal Resource Center. Additionally, PCC has four student leadership teams: BNSL Ambassadors, Pantry Ambassadors, Legal Resource Center Ambassadors, and the HUS Program Peer Resource Navigators. These teams are similar to the work of programs like HSI, with each focusing on a different aspect of sustainability across campus.

BNSL has a service model that is structured around four main components: 1. providing basic support for students through resources such as SNAP, supplies, transportation, and hygiene products; 2. peer-to-peer support; 3. community building through programming; and 4. building resiliency and skill development.

Overall, it is beneficial for someone who is in a sustainability student leadership position, such as myself, to interact with other students in a similar field. Ideas can be bounced between each other. Success stories can be shared, and challenges that one group has, another may have a solution/idea on how to attack it. Potential collaboration with BNSL, or another student leadership program is something that HSI/UD would greatly benefit from to improve our sustainability efforts.