In support of our commitment to social justice and equity, we invite you to explore the resources below and join us in reflecting on their role in our shared sustainability work. Recently at WOHESC, we heard from a variety of presenters about pathways for decolonization and fighting racism through education.
“Land-Grab Universities” explains how the land-grant system was built from the expropriation of Indigenous lands through the Morrill Act. This article traces millions of acres of college endowment land to their Indigenous origins.
“Environmentalism’s Racist History” shows how parts of the mainstream environmental movement were founded by white supremacists, and how this legacy continues to impact environmentalist rhetoric and policies today.
On January 12, the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Carbon Commitment held a forum to update the Oregon State community on OSU’s carbon commitment and how the university is progressing toward its goals. Attendees heard about accomplishments such as policy changes, refined building heating and cooling controls, large scale solar installations and construction of the OSU Energy Center. Most importantly, steps were outlined to encourage climate action within departments, colleges and divisions, help meet the carbon goals.
Learn more about the Carbon Commitment Committee and watch the recording here!
Are you interested in learning about OSU’s Travel Offsets program or purchasing offsets for your OSU funded travel? Take a look at this video to learn about the process. The video explains what the offsets are and how they are used to make our university more sustainable!
An offset is an optional added fee to the cost of traveling (air or ground transportation) to fund a separate project that reduces carbon emissions elsewhere, such as a wind farm or forestry project. Offsets in some cases can make the net carbon footprint of travel effectively zero. Watch the video to learn more!
Install Ecosia, the browser that plants trees, as your default today and encourage your peers to join you! Our custom link will count your searches towards Oregon State University's tree count total. This is another easy way that we can create a more sustainable virtual community during distance learning!
Step 1: Visit http://Ecosia.co/oregonstate
Step 2: Add to browser
Step 3: Add extension
If you already have Ecosia and want your searches to count towards the OSU total: uninstall, delete your cookies, and re-install using the steps above! #sustainablebeavs
In December 2019, OSU received its ninth Gold designation in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, making it one of a small handful of colleges and universities to reach that milestone, and use STARS each year. STARS provides a complete set of sustainability assessment data for university curriculum, research, operations and outreach.
As shown in "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency", scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented, they have declared, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.
Read more news below...
The first fully virtual Washington Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference (WOHESC) was a huge success! Our student, sustainability leadership, faculty and operations attendees walked away with inspiration to drive forward sustainability, resiliency and social justice action in higher education for the future. OSU had the second highest attendance of any school, with 49 attendees. Lets […]
The post WOHESC was a Success! appeared first on Ecologue.
Congratulations to the Applied Economics Department for earning the Silver-level Green Office Certification! The Sustainability Office is excited to share some of the amazing progress made by the Applied Economics Department in making their office space more sustainable. Some highlights from their results include: Always using Campus Recycling’s event recycling service when coordinating events Providing […]
The post The Applied Economics Department gets Silver Certified! appeared first on Ecologue.
Congratulations to the OSU-Cascades Office of Student Life on earning the gold-level Green Office Certification! The Sustainability Office has been working with the Office of Student Life on Cascades campus to make their office space more sustainable, and they’ve made some awesome progress! Some highlights from their results include: Ensuring that all electronic devices are […]
The post The OSU-Cascades Office of Student Life wins Gold! appeared first on Ecologue.
In 2021, the Sustainability Office will be reviving an old Ecologue series- highlighting Alumni who were involved with sustainability during their time at OSU. Meet Brandon Larrabee, a 2019 graduate in Geology with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems. With the GIS certificate, Brandon has been able to use mapping technology to support his Tribe’s […]
The post Sustainability Alumni Profile: Brandon Larrabee appeared first on Ecologue.