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Publication Date
2018-5
Document Type
Capstone
Study Type
ENV 312: Sustainable Solutions
Department
Environmental Science and Policy
Advisors
Alex Barron
Abstract
The climate is changing at an unprecedented rate (IPCC, 2014). Addressing the complex problem of climate change requires creative sustainable solutions that many college campuses are equipped to create. Smith College does not have a clear structure in place to empower students to create their own sustainable initiatives and oncampus projects. Our goal is address the SGCC recommendations to “explore the development of sustainability innovation funds to implement cost and carbonsaving programs” (SGCC 2017). Our objectives include assessing the need for implementing a sustainability innovation fund at Smith College. We also aim to identify the resources students need to implement sustainable projects on campus. ` Our methods included an anonymous student survey, semistructured interviews with key stakeholders on campus, and a literature review of peer institution sustainability project programming. Our survey results indicate that students have specific project ideas for oncampus sustainable innovation, but lack the resources to access funding on campus. Semistructured interviews with key stakeholders indicate that there are a considerable amount of existing funding sources on campus, including the newly developed House Sustainability Challenge. Based these results, we conclude that there is not a need for an entirely new Sustainability Innovation Fund. Instead Smith College should utilize existing resources to engage and empower students to create innovate sustainable project oncampus. Furthermore, we recommend that the House Sustainability Challenge act as a foundation to expand into a Sustainability Innovation Initiative (SII) for studentled projects on campus. We provide additional recommendation regarding governance, funding source, project eligibility, applicant eligibility, programming and publicity engagement of the proposed Sustainability Innovation Initiative (SII).
Rights
©2018 Rachel Moskowitz
Recommended Citation
Moskowitz, Rachel, "Exploring the Development of a Sustainability Innovation Initiative at Smith College." Group project by Moskowitz, Rachel & Breanna Parker. (2018). Other Projects. 7. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/other_projects/7
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Comments
This project report summarizes the semester-long efforts of group members to identify a problem in sustainability; gather background information; collect data through surveys, interviews, or experiments; analyze results, and report findings to the public in an oral presentation. Each member of the group was required to submit a separate written report. This student’s report was selected by the course’s professor to represent the project.
Project group members:
Rachel Moskowitz
Breanna Parker