Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.55
Liaison Aaron Klemm
Submission Date Sept. 15, 2011
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.0

San Jose State University
PAE-24: Sustainability Policy Advocacy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Loren Lewis
Project Coordinator
Office of the President
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution advocated for federal, state, and/or local public policies that support campus sustainability or that otherwise advance sustainability?:
Yes

A brief description of how the institution engages in public policy advocacy for sustainability, including the issues, bills, and ordinances for or against which the institution has advocated:

U.S Congresswoman visit SJSU
http://blogs.sjsu.edu/today/2011/u-s-congresswoman-zoe-lofgren-visits-sjsu-to-seek-student-input-on-sustainability-issues/
In observance of Earth Day, 30 SJSU students met on SJSU campus with U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. The event was sponsored by the SJSU Environmental Resource Center, the Office of the President’s Sustainability Initiative, and Environment California. Lofgren was interested in getting feedback from SJSU students. The topics discussed varied from nuclear power to ethanol to oil extraction fees, but the group spent the most time on the issue of climate change. The discussion centered around identifying pathways and actions that Congress and individuals can take to accelerate the national debate on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

Gulf Coast Civic Works Act
http://www.sjsu.edu/people/scott.myers-lipton/publications/
http://www.sjsu.edu/news/releases/releases_detail.jsp?id=2670
Since Hurricane Katrina, SJSU Sociology Professor Scott Meyer-Lipton has been active in a national effort to pass federal legislation entitled the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. If passed, this Act would create a minimum of 100,000 prevailing wage jobs and training opportunities for local and displaced workers on infrastructure projects and restore the coastal environment using emerging green building technologies. HR 4048, legislation introduced by U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, is based on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, which was founded at San José State in November 2006. Professor Myers-Lipton wrote the original proposal for the project, which combined his academic interests in poverty, service learning and social change with student outrage over the hurricane's aftermath. His students followed up by building a national network of college students and faculty supporters, many of whom have visited the Gulf Coast to learn from local people what should be included in the legislation.

State Advocacy
http://www.sjsu.edu/sustainability/news/
On October 21, 2010, SJSU sponsored Proposition 23 Debate. Campus organizers worked with Environment California to run “No on Prop 23” campaign. If enacted, Proposition 23 would have suspended California’s landmark legislation AB 32 and thereby ended the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions at the state level. In November 2010, the proposition was defeated by a 23% margin. The event attracted more than 280 attendees, which included students, faculty, staff, and members of the public.

Local Advocacy
http://ecocloud1.ning.com/page/water-policy-planning
In Spring 2010, the University hosts quarterly SSV EcoCloud Event. EcoCloud represents a consortium of universities, private companies, NGOs, municipalities, and utilities applying principles of industrial ecology to Silicon Valley. For the past year, the SJSU Director of Sustainability has been actively involved in conversations with representatives from the City of San Jose, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Sustainable Silicon Valley, and the CA Department of Water Resources specifically about reporting and analysis tools that could be used to for scenario planning related to sustainable integrated water resource management. SJSU is one of the leading partner agencies, along with SSV and Stanford, leading work on this project.


The website URL where information about the institution’s advocacy efforts are available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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