Climate Change, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/7637
2024-03-03T20:28:22ZSustainability and Education Abroad: Sharing Ideas--Taking Action!
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/9171
Sustainability and Education Abroad: Sharing Ideas--Taking Action!
Sustainability is a critical focus for international educators, but knowing how to get started or how to make progress on sustainability initiatives can be challenging. The presenters will provide examples of strategies implemented to incorporate sustainability goals into all areas of education abroad program development and execution as well as office management and practices. Participants will be engaged in brainstorming project plans for their office, program, and/or institution.
Presented at the 2022 NASFA Region II Conference, which took place October 17-21, 2022, in Flagstaff, AZ.
2022-10-20T00:00:00ZPolicy Brief: Alternatives to In-Person American Society of Landscape Architects Conferences on Landscape Architecture
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/8177
Policy Brief: Alternatives to In-Person American Society of Landscape Architects Conferences on Landscape Architecture
Annual, in-person professional meetings at a single location yield several personal and organizational benefits. Yet greenhouse gas emissions from organizing, executing, and attending conferences contribute significantly to the climate crisis. Within at least the last decade, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has claimed to continually reduce the carbon footprint of the annual meeting and EXPO by performing a variety of actions. ASLA supports global and national greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets to limit global warming to 1.5°C and has committed to measuring, understanding, making public, and reducing the organization’s emissions. To date, ASLA has not released information on its progress toward these goals. This study extends my previous work by estimating carbon dioxide emissions from the venues of the 2018 and 2019 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO and from travel and hotel accommodations for the attendees and 711 EXPO exhibitors. This study used online carbon calculators, refereed literature, and building energy benchmarking data. The results indicate that featured speakers and EXPO representatives originated from a small number of metropolitan areas, thereby supporting potential future decentralized meetings. Additionally, attendees’ and exhibitors’ total four-day conference emissions estimations were equivalent to the entire annual per capita emissions of someone residing in Ethiopia. In light of these results, I present ideas for several alternative means of convening. My emissions estimations of alternative conference modes indicate that emissions reduction targets could bemet in the short term by immediatelymoving to hybridizedmeetings requiring virtual attendance fromat least half of the participants from the most distant locations. In the long term, and by 2030 at the latest, ASLA’s annual meetings should be held entirely online.
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZTravel-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions from American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meetings
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/8176
Travel-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions from American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meetings
The logo of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) proclaims it to be “Green Since 1899.” Annual meetings convened by the ASLA necessitate that many attendees travel by air. Carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft operations accounted for 2–3 percent of annual global emissions in 2010. Emissions are rising, despite the need to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide and reduce global emissions by 45 percent before 2030 and 100 percent before 2050, relative to 2010 levels, to limit global warming to 1.5°C. No public estimations of travel-related carbon emissions associated with ASLA annual meetings are available. Using two web-based carbon calculators, meeting programs, websites, handouts, and ASLA meeting attendance numbers, I performed two travel-related carbon emission estimations: for 2,821 education session featured speakers who presented at annual ASLA meetings in 2011 and between 2013 and 2019; and for annual ASLA meeting attendees between 1960 and 2019. By applying findings from scientific literature to these emission estimates, I also calculated the area of September Arctic sea ice loss that may be attributed to ASLA annual meetings; the labor productivity losses in purchasing power parity that may be associated with ASLA meeting emissions; and the quantity of trees that would be needed to negate the meeting-related quantity of atmospheric carbon dioxide. I conclude by suggesting alterations to the format of annual ASLA conferences that would eliminate travel-related emissions in the future and narrow the gap between the ASLA’s actions and proclaimed values.
2019-01-01T00:00:00ZTeach-in: How to be a Climate Activist
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/8175
Teach-in: How to be a Climate Activist
This teach-in was hosted by the Office of Sustainability as part of the Worldwide Climate Justice Teach-in celebrated across the globe through learning and advocacy events facilitated by sustainability scholars and other professionals. This workshop invited a broad coalition of sustainability stakeholders to learn about how to act on climate justice and inspire advocates with creative solutions of collective action. During this session, Sustainability Manager, Caroline Burkholder, and featured Temple Sustainability alumni and local political organizer with Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light, Amani Reid, CLA '20, discussed how to design and execute a successful campaign for environmental action on and off campus. Highlighting the role of the university and other key players in the local scene, attendees learned best practices for organizing and amplification and gained insight into their levers of power and workshop ideas for action steps.
2022-03-01T00:00:00Z