The summit was created to not only raise awareness for sustainability, but also to share best practices at all of IU’s branches, University Director of Sustainability Bill Brown said.
One of the main discussion topics of the summit will be the IU Bicentennial Strategic Plan. The plan, which was approved in December, identified sustainability as one of the University’s core values. It calls for IU to use campuses as “living labs” that incorporate the University’s sustainability goals into its classrooms.
Brown said to achieve this goal, classes can look at campus energy efficiency problems as research questions.
“It allows students to work on real-world issues while highlighting sustainability as a goal for the whole university,” Brown said.
He said the campuses at the summit will discuss how to link their individual programs to the IU Bicentennial Strategic Plan.
IU has branch locations all across Indiana. They vary from rural to urban, commuter to residential. Brown said the different branches have independently developed sustainability programs to address their specific needs.
“Each campus has its own success story,” Brown said, “but we’ve never been together in one room before.”
He said IU-Bloomington will talk about its popular internship program, which works with between 18 and 20 students each year. Brown said although IU-Bloomington has the oldest sustainability program, he thinks the regional campuses have a lot to teach. He is specifically interested in hearing from IU-South Bend about its efforts to engage the local business community in sustainability projects.
Only three IU campuses have established official offices and centers, but Brown said that doesn’t mean the other branches are ignoring sustainability.
“We do feel like there’s probably good work whether the campus has an office or not,” Brown said.
Project Coordinator for Sustainability Hilary Horrey said one faculty member and one facilities coordinator was invited from each campus so all the branches would have equal representation.
Horrey is working with IUPUI to serve a catered green lunch for the summit. IUPUI leads the branches in food sustainability due to its Campus Kitchen, which takes potentially wasted food and turns it into nutritious meals. “We want to show the other campuses what a green event looks like,” Horrey said.
