Agnes Scott College
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) Objectives for a Sustainable Curriculum (ESS Plan drafted and approved by ESS co-chairs and the Center for Sustainability)

In order to maintain the interdisciplinary nature of the ESS program at Agnes Scott College, our objective is to maintain the number of regularly offered and diverse courses for the ESS minor, required or elective, at 15 or more. We intend to sustain and increase the number of relevant courses for the minor program by the following methods:
- Continuing to interact with our Public Health department faculty in order to cross-list courses that overlap between disciplines,
- Auditing the list of required and elective ESS courses to ensure they remain relevant;
- Mining the STARS data for new courses that may be potential ESS electives;
- And by maintaining our connection to Emory University’s Piedmont Project which offers training for faculty in sustainability across the curriculum such that the faculty participants may come to see aspects of their courses, with or without modification, as being relevant to environmental issues and as ESS electives.

We will grow and maintain the combined number of ESS minors at a minimum of 12 students. We will do this by:
- Incorporating more real-life, issue-oriented case into our gateway course, Introduction to Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS 101);
- Making clear to students the correspondence between many ESS topics and Public Health, a popular major at the college;
- Being clear about the relationship between the ESS academic program and the visible and successful Center for Sustainability;
- And making clear the linkage between the philosophy of environmental student organizations and the ESS minor program.

In addition, we continue to lobby for a full time faculty member for the ESS program.

Included within the college’s strategic plan is a strategy to develop mission-aligned use of properties and partnerships that support learning, attract students, raise the college’s profile and attract investment. Included within this strategy is the sustainability focused objective to:
- Become a recognized thought leader taking full advantage of Atlanta’s resources in areas such as public health and sustainability
This objective will involve increasing the level of community and public engagement for the Center for Sustainability.

In addition, one of the principal goals of the Comprehensive Master Plan is to build partnerships between Agnes Scott and the City of Decatur, which includes objectives for increasing the walkability of the boundary of Agnes Scott’s campus and extending the college’s tree canopy to this area.

The college’s principal plan for measured sustainability objectives related to operations is the Comprehensive Master Plan. Sustainability is fully integrated into the plan’s recommendations. In addition, the plan includes a set of Sustainability Guidelines which provide a framework for implementing the plan in support of the college’s climate action plan. These objectives cover Buildings and Landscapes, with subtopics for Energy, Water, Materials, and Education. A sample of these objectives is included below.

Buildings
Energy
- Site buildings’ long-facades facing north-south wherever possible to take advantage of passive solar radiation, including desired heat in winter and optimal shading in summer
- All building projects should include individual metering of all utilities and metering relevant to LEED certification
- All capital improvement building and landscape projects should conduct feasibility studies to test the cost-effectiveness of introducing geothermal energy

Landscapes
Water
- New plant material should be selected for low or no irrigation needs, drought tolerance, and should be native to the area
- Stormwater should be stored and treated through passive means, such as through rain gardens, bioswales, and other passive strategies
- Utilize strategies to reduce the rate and volume of stormwater runoff and allow for better infiltration, such as incorporating permeable pavers in new or renovated hardscapes

The Division of Equity and Inclusion led the college’s efforts to develop a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Plan for the 2020-2021 academic year. This plan includes five goals with individual objectives for each. Listed below are the five goals and a sample objective for each.
- Advancing a Culture of Anti-Racism: hold weekly healing spaces for our Black, Indigenous, and faculty and staff of color to come together, decompress, and heal.
- Inspiring and Supporting our Students: facilitate the inclusion of new students into the community by ensuring that justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are integrated into new student orientations, Legacy and SUMMIT. This includes training student leaders in global and cultural competence.
- Develop and Caring for our Employees: reinvent human resources to support the needs of employees to take on the challenge of renewal at the #1 innovative institution in the nation, align talent management with institutional strategy, and foster a culture of community and high performance.
- Driving Inclusive Excellence through Training, Education and Research: conduct regular analyses of student achievement, withdrawal, and completion rates by race and socioeconomic status to identify haps, if any, and provide needed support.
- Impacting Communities: prominently promote our social justice commitment on the college’s website and ensure it is embedded in every department.

Trustees passed resolution of support for the definition and mission outlined below.

Sustainability Definition – approved 2008

Following the college’s mission to live honorably, Agnes Scott accepts the challenge of environmental stewardship, commits to education and leadership in sustainability, and seeks to balance what the college takes from and returns to the world’s natural resources.

Center for Sustainability Vision Statement
Providing the place for the Agnes Scott community to learn about the challenges of global climate change and to collaborate on innovative solutions for campus sustainability