Last block, Kyra Wolf, Academics Intern for the Office of Sustainability, attended the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference in Minneapolis to represent Colorado College, where she presented on the Green Science project that has been undertaken by the Office of Sustainability.
Colorado College is associated with AASHE through their Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System. In 2014, the Office of Sustainability first self-assessed their programs through STARS and earned a Silver Star.
Wolf’s presentation covered Green Sciences on campus, a joint effort between the Office of Sustainability and the Science Departments to reduce the environmental impacts of the labs on campus.
“With the green sciences project we are trying to reduce the carbon footprint of the Lab Sciences,” said Wolf. “Labs are often very energy-intensive.”
At the conference a variety of students and professors presented on sustainability related topics.
Over 2,300 people attended the conferences from 17 countries. This year was the tenth anniversary of the AASHE conference, and the theme was Transforming Sustainability Education.
“I was really inspired by the story of a Native American man who talked about cultural sustainability,” said Wolf.
Ian Johnson, the Campus Sustainability Manager and Christine Siddoway, a geology professor, also attended the conference.
AASHE’s mission is to make higher education the catalyst for global sustainability initiatives.