Governance & Administration
President's Climate Commitment
Georgia Tech signed the President’s Climate Commitment in March, 2007 and committed to becoming carbon neutral. Georgia Tech has undertaken the greenhouse gas inventory.
The three tangible actions that Georgia Tech committed to were:
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Alternative Transportation expanded
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EnergyStar being formally added to our Green Purchasing Program
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LEED policy for green building
Sustainability Policies
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Georgia Tech signed the President's Climate Commitment and has undertaken its greenhouse gas inventory (2007) and updated it (2009). Georgia Tech has published its Climate Action Plan as specified under the President's Climate Commitment.
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Our policy explicitly states: All new buildings and renovations will meet or exceed LEED Silver design standards, since 2007. LEED Silver has been the standard within our Design Standard (Yellow Book) since 2002. In 2009 LEED Gold became the minimum standard on campus.
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Georgia Tech has a comprehensive Stategic Plan (published in 1995). It has sustainability in the Mission Statement. Sustainability is mentioned a total of 9 times in our strategic plan.
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The Campus Master Plan from 1997 links Georgia Tech's Strategic Plan, Mission Statement and the Master Plan for a living, sustainable campus. The 2004 Campus Master Plan Update focused on specific elements of Sustainability: to reduce hydrocarbonemissions, reduce material consumption, reduce water consumption, and reduce storm water runoff.
Georgia Tech has a policy of purchasing local and organic whenever cost neutral options for doing so are known and available to us in a reason manner.
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Georgia Tech established its Sustainability Center (ISTD) in 1992, making it one of the earlist in the country. ISTD has now transitioned into the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Sytems.
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Green Purchasing Policy since 2003.
Alternative Transportation Manager since 2001, Recycling Manager since 1996.
LEED Silver design standards since 2002.
LEED Gold design standards since 2009.
Organizational Structures
In 2007, Tech created an Office of Environmental Stewardship with a fulltime Director to ensure the campus realizes its sustainability goals. The Institute has several full-time employees who work on sustainability initiatives, including 2 Energy Reduction Management Engineers, a Recycling Manager, a Recycling Administrator, a Landscape Master Planner, a LEED Certified Green Building Director, and Alternate Transportation Manager.
Advisory Council
Georgia Tech's Advisory Council for sustainability consists of recognized leaders in Administration, Operations, Research, and Eduction, with input from members of Environmental Stewardship, the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development (ISTD), student leaders, and non-campus leaders, as appropriate.
Georgia Tech is also a member of a number of sustainability organizations:
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Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
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US Green Building Council (USGBC)
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National Wildlife Federation (NWF) (Campus Ecology Program leader in Recycling and Transportation)
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Sightlines
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Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA)
Websites
Tech implemented an introductory portal, GreenBuzz, targeted for student involvement and integrating websites for educating community in 2007. It is integrated to the more campus operational and detailed website for the Office of Envirnmental Stewardship and the more research oriented Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development, sustainability student organizations, and various other environmental and sustainability oriented websites at Georiga Tech, academia, and community.
Student Involvement
Students are involved in every aspect of sustainability on campus including recycling, sustainable food, building design, building efficiencies, alternate fuel research, policy, sustainability education, and awareness programs. Sustainability is integrated into new student orientation via student organizations, Housing, Recycling Office, and Office of Environmental Stewardship. Over 20 student organizations focus on sustainability on campus and in outreach programs. Students participated in over 50 sustainability projects in 2007 through student organizations, classes, campus stewardship projects, research, and outreach doing education and awareness, efficiency analysis and upgrades, research, and outreach such as EarthDay and ThinkGreen Week, Campus Water Conservation Taskforce, Sustainability Lecture Series, Energy Audits, Green Building, Sustainable Design and many other projects. There is an Eco-rep for each building for recycling/sustainability. Campus sustainability data used in Public Policy and Environmental Courses. Students work across campus in recycling, research labs and student teaching in the 100+ courses across all colleges which teach sustainability. Tech has co-op program and technology transfer programs to connect students with off campus job opportunities, including in sustainability and environmental jobs. Our goal is to have every student take at least one sustainability course before graduating. (Tech offers over 264 courses on susstainability, across all colleges.)
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There are 20 student organizations focusing on sustainability at Georgia Tech
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The list of projects and activities for Jan-June 2010 has over 120 items on it.
Sustainability and the University
Our President, Provost, and Director of Sustainability co-authored an article entitled “Sustainability and the University “ which was published in the Winter of 2006. http://www.sustainable.gatech.edu/resources/Presidency-article.pdf (429k Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Tech's Twenty-Year Agenda
In 1992, Georgia Tech embarked on a twenty-year program of institutional transformation. Our goal is to incorporate concepts of sustainable technology and development into every academic program, to promote innovation through our research and development programs, and to model sustainable practices in the way we manage the built environment of our campus. We believe that sustainability is everyone's responsibility, and that each discipline, inter-discipline, and profession has a particular contribution to make.
"Georgia Tech will be a leader among those few technological universities whose students, alumni, faculty, and staff define and expand the frontiers of knowledge and innovation. |
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Institutional Commitment
It takes inspired and visionary leaders to transform the mindset of an entire university.
Then President, G. Wayne Clough"Beyond the buildings and structures, a campus is shaped by the land and space that gives it form. For many a year, concern for the land and open space of the Georgia Tech campus was a lost concept, but it is necessary to embrace it if we are to harmonize our intent to be at the cutting edge of things in our work with our respect for the environment and the need to demonstrate our aspirations to lead in sustainability."
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Then Chief Academic Officer, Jean-Lou Chameau"Our vision for sustainability is to engage the campus. We incorporate practical sustainability in the development of the campus outside of the buildings, and inside the buildings, we advance knowledge about sustainability in our academic and research activities."
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Then Georgia Tech Chief Financial Officer, Vice President for Finance and Administration Robert Thompson"Georgia Tech is proud to receive LEED Silver certification for the business school building in Technology Square, as well as to have included many of the LEED requirements in all the buildings that were recently constructed there. Sustainability and environmental consciousness are major elements in Georgia Tech's education and research programs, and this project is an example of our efforts to 'walk the talk' in all our Georgia Tech building projects."
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The campus master plan sets the stage for long-term development of our built environment. Robert Thompson made sustainability a central theme for the master plan in 1997. Since then, his team has moved this commitment into engineering, architectural and landscaping standards, programs for energy conservation, and management, recycling, and procurement.
The Campus Master Plan from 1997 links Georgia Tech's Strategic Plan, Mission Statement and the Master Plan for a living, sustainable campus. The 2004 Campus Master Plan Update focused on specific elements of Sustainability, Accessibility, the ground plane, collaborative planning with community constituencies and carrying capacity for new facilities.
History
Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, the founding director of the Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development, catalyzed Georgia Tech's commitment to sustainability when he proposed the establishment of a center in 1992.
The Georgia Tech Advisory Board, 1995
This vision to transform the mindset of a university must be shared by the members of its Advisory Board. In 1995, the chair of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board was none other than Ray C. Anderson, CEO of Interface Corporation and former co-chair of the U.S. President's Council on Sustainable Development from 1993 to 1999. Anderson received a degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1956. In his groundbreaking book Mid-Course Correction, Anderson says the following about Georgia Tech:
"...I look for Georgia Tech to be a force in America's climb towards sustainability, and the Center for Sustainable Technology [now the Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development], ...to be a powerful catalyst in generating that force..."
Callaway Gardens Retreat, 1996
By 1996, many members of the Georgia Tech faculty were engaged in research and educational programs relevant to sustainability. Dr. Chameau and Carol Carmichael brought together fifty professors and administrators for a two-day retreat at Callaway Gardens to get a snapshot of the campus activities and begin exploring Georgia Tech's strategy. This retreat helped build a sense of community among the fifty faculty members present, representing a wide cross-section of the academic units. The participants recommended the creation of a Sustainability Task Force to continue the development of an Institute-wide strategy.
The Sustainability Task Force, 1997
The Sustainability Task Force met monthly for fifteen months in 1996 and 1997 to clarify the goals and objectives of our strategy for sustainability, as well as define the scope of activities appropriate for a technological university like Georgia Tech.
The task force decided that rather than create new "stovepipe" programs labeled as "sustainability," we should focus our efforts on creating mechanisms for capacity-building and coordination among existing and emerging programs involving faculty, staff, and students who maintain their institutional affiliations. Their recommendations were as follows:
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We recommend that the Institute establish an organization to serve as an Institute advocate on sustainability issues, encourage activities among all faculty, staff, and students in the Georgia Tech community interested in exploring their role in sustainability, and carry forward the recommendations in this report.
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We recommend that the Institute's commitment be reflected in investment priorities and policies for professional development, program development, and the built environment—and be explicitly addressed in key documents or other forms of communication describing them.
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We recommend that the Institute capitalize on its leadership position among research universities, and its particular responsibility in engineering in the State of Georgia, to stimulate activity at other universities and in industry, government, and the community at-large by creating and sustaining mutually beneficial relationships.
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We recommend that the Institute establish processes for integrating campus master planning and facilities management with research and educational activities that focus on the long-term campus environment.
Mission and Vision
The 2010 Strategic Plan Draft for Georgia Tech includes sustainability. "The most difficult challenges of the future – such as energy, water, sustainability, security, poverty/development, and natural disasters -- will require global solutions, and Georgia Tech will be engaged around the world in developing these solutions."
Georgia Tech has a comprehensive strategic Plan (published in 1995). It has sustainability in our mission. Sustainability is mentioned a total of 9 times in our strategic plan.
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Our mission is clear: "to provide the state of Georgia with the scientific and technological knowledge base, innovation, and workforce it needs to shape a prosperous and sustainable future and quality of life for its citizens." ….
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Georgia Tech will also encourage interdisciplinary collaboration with other universities, industry, and government. Social responsibility and sustainability should continue to be imbued through Georgia Tech’s entrepreneurial spirit……
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Continue developing research initiatives––especially in the areas of microelectronics, nanoscience and technology, bioscience and technology, manufacturing, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and telecommunications––that take advantage of Georgia Tech’s multidisciplinary strengths as well as our work with other institutions. ….
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When partnered with social and environmental responsibility, economic development is the key to fostering a sustainable society….
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Lead the development of technology policies that link economic, social, and environmental sustainability. ….
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Increase recognition, support, and advocacy for contributions by Georgia Tech to the state’s and the nation’s sustainable economic development.
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Likewise, the effective use of information technologies is transforming the administrative processes of the campus, and the efficient and effective use of these technologies is an essential element of our strategy for creating and sustaining a world class administration…..
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Develop the campus in a way that supports the larger aspirations of the Institute by encouraging the development of a sustainable campus community, creating distinctive architecture and open spaces, and setting standards for others to emulate in the new century…..
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Further develop research areas where we have developed world-class excellence and expand into new areas of excellence. This must include assuring sustainability and success of our national centers of excellence and attracting additional centers.
http://www.gatech.edu/president/strategicplan.html