How sustainable is The Evergreen State College?
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Transcript of How sustainable is The Evergreen State College?
2011 - 2012Research by Clay Showalter and Arij Beebe-Sweet
Energy Systems and Climate Change,The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
How sustainable is The Evergreen State
College?
H1: Evergreen is sustainable.H2: Evergreen is sustainable to some degree,
but needs to improve certain elements to become truly sustainable.
H3: Evergreen is not sustainable.Null: There is no way to measure Evergreen’s
sustainability.
Hypothesis
What is Sustainability?The capacity to
endure.
People
Planet
Profitgeo Logic Systemshttp://geologicsystems.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/a-business-case-for-sustainability-attention-alberta-oil-sands-operations
/
Why is sustainability important?
All living things are reliant on a healthy ecosystem.
All creatures impose a load on their environment’s ability to supply what they need and absorb what they excrete.
Carrying capacity is the maximum persistently feasible load for a given creature and way of life.
Carrying Capacity
Technological advances can increase the Earth’s human carrying capacity.
Phantom carrying capacity.
Each enlargement of human carrying capacity means diverting some of Earth’s life supporting capacity away from other species.
Humans & Carrying Capacity
There are several established ways for measuring sustainabilityLife Cycle AnalysisEnvironmental Sustainability IndexEcological Footprint AnalysisAnthropologists Cultural Approach
AASHE STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, for Colleges and Universities)Current system used and acknowledged by
Evergreen.
How is sustainability measured?
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)The GRI framework is the most widely used
standardized sustainability reporting framework in the world.
Developed by NGO’s CERES and Tellus Institute (supported by UNEP) in 1997
Has gone through several revisions as an understanding of the metric has evolved current standard G4 is in practice.
Choosing our Metric
EnvironmentalHuman RightsLabor Practices and Decent WorkSocietyProduct ResponsibilityEconomic
Six Performance Indicators
MaterialsEnergyWaterBiodiversityEmmissions, Effluents, and WasteProducts and Services
Environmental
Investment and Procurement PracticesNon-discriminationFreedom of Association and Collective
BargainingSecurity PracticesIndigenous RightsAssessment/Remediation
Human Rights
EmploymentLabor/Management RelationsOccupational Health and SafetyTraining and EducationDiversity and Equal OpportunityEqual Renumeration for Women and Men
Labor Practices and Decent Work
Community engagement
Operations impacts on local communities
Compliance with laws and regulations
Society
Lifecycle stages of products with health and safety impacts
Practices related to customer satisfaction, such as surveys and evaluations
Product/Services Responsibilities
Direct economic value generated and distributed
Policy and practices of spending
Hiring procedures for administration
Economic
Should Faculty and Student commuting practices be included in our GRI?
Boundaries
GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelineshttp://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8B503A9-070C-43DB-AD0F-5C4ACB1EBF39/0/G31RefSheet.pdf
Decision Tree
Critical evaluation of metric (GRI) and its implementation.
Global Reporting InitiativeSystems Thinking
Vision of the FutureQuestion society faces: What impacts are we
willing to absorb or endure?
Conclusion