Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Spider's Guide To Sustainable Living, Office For Sustainability

Guides

Thank you for checking out this guide to caring for our future and ourselves. We're glad you did, because we need you. From the climate emergency to emerging health crises to social unrest, the need for change is all around us. The UR Sustainability Plan envisions "a future where sustainability is woven into the fabric of the University" in which we cultivate a culture of caring for people and the natural world. Consider this your invitation to join the movement to make this vision a reality.

Throughout the Spiders Guide to Sustainable Living, we will point out actions you can …

Spotsylvania Solar: A Stakeholder Analysis Of Corporate Involvement, Merissa Shebell

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This report investigates the major corporations that hold a stake in sPower’s 500-Megawatt Spotsylvania Solar Project through the framework of corporate social responsibility. The major corporations include the investors in the project, Microsoft, Apple in collaboration with Akamai, Etsy, and Swiss Re, and the University of Richmond, as well as the energy provides and distributors, Dominion Energy and PJM Interconnection. Through an evaluation of the investors’ sustainability and environmental reports, the motivations behind their agreements with sPower can be attributed to a desire to meet their renewable energy goals. By purchasing a portion of the electricity generated by the solar …

University Of Richmond Sustainability Plan 2019-2025, University Of Richmond

Plans

University of Richmond’s Sustainability Plan is a blueprint for how we as a campus community will achieve a long-term vision of integrating sustainability into the fabric of the University. The result of a yearlong collaborative effort involving hundreds of stakeholders, the plan lays out clear steps to bolster the development of sustainability in the curriculum, support environmental management of our campus, promote a culture of sustainability, and further integrate stewardship into administrative policies and procedures. The time frame for the goals, strategies, and actions articulated in this plan is 2019-2025.

University Of Richmond 2018 Climate Action Plan Update, Robert Andrejewski

Reports

In 2007, University of Richmond (UR) signed onto the the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, pledging to become carbon neutral by 2050. Three years later, UR published its first Climate Action Plan, a framework that committed the university to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 30% below 2009 levels by 2020 and 65% by 2035, on its way toward eliminating net carbon emissions.

This Progress Report and GHG Inventory will explain UR’s emission calculation methodologies, provide a detailed analysis of the inventory, and document UR’s current GHG current footprint.

University of Richmond’s Climate Action Plan aims to provide …

University Of Richmond Sustainability Report, Robert Andrejewski

Reports

The 2016 University of Richmond Sustainability Report represents where we are now, recognizes significant accomplishments, and provides a launching point for future endeavors. We all have a role to play in the continued stewardship of this great place.

This document presents a summary of the data we collected. It serves the dual role of providing information on the considerable sustainability efforts underway and establishes a benchmark for our efforts as we move forward. There is much to be celebrated, and there is much to be done.

Sustainability & The Environment, Marissa Parker

George Modlin Book Award

Marissa Parker, Environmental Studies and Geography, Class of 2016 at the University of Richmond, describes her process of building a book collection focusing on Sustainability and the Environment.

Renewable Energy, Mary Finley-Brook

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Renewable energy installations are expanding around the globe. Although there is excellent potential for achieving sustainability with multiple types of renewable energy, no energy source is a panacea. There are place-specific costs and benefits from every energy type, and the scale of production influences impacts. Industrial-scale renewable energy sources usually merge into existing energy grids and may often be connected to broader economic and political initiatives. Such as regional integration, development of new growth poles to stimulate economic expansion in areas without infrastructure, job creation, or trade expansion. With the exception of desert solar projects or initiatives in remote areas, …

Hydropower, Mary Finley-Brook

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Hydropower dates back to the use of waterwheels to grind grain in Greece over two thousand years ago. Modern hydropower is a mature industry that has been used to generate electricity since the 1880s by capturing flowing water with a dam or other diversion structure and channeling it through a waterwheel or turbine. According to a 2012 report by the International Energy Agency, internationally dams are responsible for the largest amount of power generation from a renewable source; yet they have come under scrutiny as a result of environmental and social impacts perceived to be unsustainable (McCully 2001). Specific impacts, …

Boldly Sustainable: Hope And Opportunity For Higher Education In The Age Of Climate Change (Book Review), Mary Finley-Brook, Breana Coleman, Kaitlan Lawrence

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Peter Bardaglio and Andrea Putman’s groundbreaking book, Boldly Sustainable, provides a powerful strategy for colleges and universities to achieve renewal and relevance in the 21st century through innovation, academic rigor, and pragmatism. The book combines a refreshingly optimistic message of hope and opportunity with an honest critique of higher education, highlighting the need for transformative change. Case study examples throughout the book show how sustainability initiatives can stimulate excellence in teaching and learning while also encouraging improvements in physical operations. With a broad range of cases from public and private institutions of various sizes and rankings, the authors convincingly …

Earth University (Costa Rica), Mary Finley-Brook, Caroline O'Rourke

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

EARTH is a private nonprofit international university located in the town of Guácimo in the province of Limón, a lowland region in the east of Costa Rica. EARTH derives its acronym from the Spanish title Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda (Agricultural School of the Humid Tropical Region). The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Costa Rican government worked with other national and international agencies to create this unique university in the mid-1980s. The higher education initiative emerged from recognition that unsustainable agricultural practices were damaging and straining soil, water, forest, biological, …

University Of Richmond Climate Action Plan, University Of Richmond

Plans

The Climate Action Plan for the University of Richmond establishes the framework for achieving the University’s climate action goals under the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The University of Richmond’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2020 and 100% by 2050. In addition to emissions reduction, the Climate Action Plan articulates goals for embedding sustainability into the curricular and co-curricular aspects of a Richmond education. The plan has been developed under the leadership of the Sustainability Working Group and the University’s Sustainability Coordinator. Climate Action Plan subgroups, with representation of staff, faculty, and students, drafted …