Old Dominion University
PAE-20: Inter-Campus Collaboration on Sustainability

ODU faculty, staff, and students collaborate with other colleges and universities to support and help build the campus sustainability community. Presentations at conferences, participation in educational programs, and sponsoring events at ODU are examples. ODU has sent a delegation staff to the last three AASHE Conferences (2008, 2010, and 2011). For the past two years, Krista Harrell-Blair has presented. ODU student delegates attended the AASHE conference for the first time in 2011. Each year, the ODU delegation attends the presentations and workshops to learn and share knowledge and data to support sustainability on campus and across higher education. ODU was also part of Tidewater Virginia's Unit 6 Unplugged, designed for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 competition, is a modular house that blends seamlessly into a historic center-city neighborhood. Unit 6 is conceived of as part of a larger, six-unit multifamily building. By sharing infrastructure costs between units of the building, this energy-efficient house is made more affordable. In the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, collegiate teams design and build energy-efficient houses powered by the sun. These teams spend almost two years creating houses to compete in the 10 contests of the Solar Decathlon. ODU and Hampton University were selected again to compete in the 2012 Solar Decathlon. http://www.solardecathlon.gov/blog/archives/1978

Old Dominion University is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) as well as the Colonial Academic Alliance Sustainability Group and Steering Committee. The CAA a consortium of twelve institutions works to promote collaboration among the members to increase academic quality and institutional effectiveness including Sustainability efforts. http://www.aashe.org/membership/member-directory

Dr. Patrick Hatcher, Old Dominion University faculty member serves as executive director of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium (VCERC). VCERC, which is headquartered at ODU, also includes as members: the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, George Mason University, James Madison University, Norfolk State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia and Hampton University. Specifically, VCERC provides the research and development required for the commercialization and implementation of renewable energy by using algal biomass, wind and wave resources available in Virginia. Algal biomass energy removes pollutants from Chesapeake Bay, represents an innovative win-win wastewater remediation-biofuel production technology, and avoids utilizing food crops, trees, and other valuable natural resources to produce fuel. Project expansion in algal biofuels and wind power will lead to spin-off industry, creating jobs, investment and lowering fuel prices in Virginia. http://www.vcerc.org/