South Seattle College
PAE-1: Sustainability Coordination

From the Seattle Community College's Sustainability Business Plan: "Our sustainability vision is to achieve a recognized leadership position among community colleges as we integrate sustainability principles and practices into everything we do, including our business practices and our instruction. We will accomplish this by: • Infusing sustainability principles into the curriculum; • Expanding sustainability practices in business operations; • Promoting sustainability awareness among students, faculty, staff, and the community, and fostering a campus sustainability culture. In promoting sustainability, the Seattle Community Colleges will achieve the following objectives that are critical to its continued viability as a state-supported higher education institution: • Meet the needs of our students and our community by who prefer an educational program that is rich in content regarding sustainability principles and practices. • Educate and train students with the knowledge and skills they will need to be effective in a society that seeks solutions for achieving a sustainability transformation. • Meet our Greenhouse gas reduction targets (15% below 2005 levels by 2020, and 36% below by 2035) in accordance with the State Agency Climate Leadership Act of 2009. • Reduce the cost of college operations by using less energy and other natural resource inputs. Achieving these objectives will help us remain viable as a higher education institution through increased enrollments, lower costs of operation, and compliance with statutory obligations."

District Carin Weiss, Vice Chancellor John Lederer, Director of Research & Strategic Planning Betty Lunceford, Director of Telecommunications & Facilities Judy Reed, Development Manager, Advancement Gracelyn Sales, Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor Dawn Vinberg, Executive Director for Financial Services & Planning Ian Siadak, Sustainability Coordinator Central Linda Chauncey, Associate Dean of Seattle Culinary Academy Wendy Rockhill, Dean, Science & Mathematics Chuck Davis, Director, Facilities and Plant Operations North Mary Ellen O’Keeffe, Vice President of Instruction Orestes Monterecy, Vice President for Administrative Services Peter Lortz, Dean of Math & Sciences Benjamin Silver, Sustainability Coordinator Assistant Christian Rusby, Sustainability Coordinator South Frank Ashby, Vice President, Administrative Services Steve Morgan, Director Facilities & Plant Operations

Background and Objectives This new position will build on the current work of the Chancellor’s Sustainability Initiative and advance it to the next level. The initiative’s district-wide Leadership Team has developed a Preliminary Sustainability Business Plan for the Seattle Community Colleges, however there are no District staff dedicated to complete and carrying out the plan and the existing members of the team lack the time and resource capacity to collectively assume this role. This proposed position will assure that the District makes substantial progress achieving the plan’s vision to: • Infuse sustainability principles into the curriculum; • Expand sustainability practices in business operations; • Promote sustainability awareness among students, faculty, staff, and the community, and fostering a campus sustainability culture. In order to achieve this vision, the District and the colleges together need to: • Meet the needs of our students and our community by offering an educational program that is rich in content regarding sustainability principles and practices. • Educate and train students with the knowledge and skills they will need to be effective in a society that seeks solutions for achieving a sustainability transformation. • Meet our Greenhouse gas reduction targets (15% below 2005 levels by 2020, and 36% below by 2035) in accordance with the State Agency Climate Leadership Act of 2009. • Reduce the cost of college operations by using less energy and other natural resource inputs. By achieving these sustainability objectives the Seattle District will also succeed in increasing college enrollments and student retention by providing students with the sustainability knowledge and skills that local employers demand. Our District will gain public recognition as destination colleges for sustainability. We will also reduce the growth of overhead costs by reducing energy and natural resource utilization. Finally, our District will develop new partnerships with outside organizations and provide community leadership on sustainability. In, January 2013, the Vice Chancellor’s office hired Ian Siadak on an hourly basis to serve as the District’s Sustainability Coordinator Intern through June 2012. Funding for this position came from the District Innovation Fund. To date, Ian has done an excellent job overseeing the administration of the AASHE STARS sustainability assessment process at all three colleges, overseeing teams of 4-5 students on each campus to collect the data needed for the comprehensive, structured review. The STARS assessment data will be used to identify best practices and cross-college gaps that will comprise a District-wide sustainability action plan that will complete the Business Plan described above. Implementing the action plan will be difficult, if not impossible, unless there is someone designated to lead the effort. Of the three colleges, only North Seattle has been able to identify resources (primarily student activity fees) to maintain sustainability programs and coordination on campus. Currently, only Seattle Central has an active sustainability-focused student group. A District sustainability coordinator would sustain progress developing organization and resources to support campus sustainability efforts. Recent experience has shown that having an active sustainability initiative can attract outside funding. At a recent meeting with Jobs for the Future (JFF) staff, there was interest in financially supporting advancement and dissemination of our sustainability activities. JFF’s interest would likely not have been shown if we had not hired a Sustainability Intern and been actively engaged in the STARS assessment process and in building out our business plan. Specific Duties of the Sustainability Coordinator and Relation to Strategic Plan Goals A Sustainability Coordinator would help ensure that we make rapid progress achieving the goals outlined above and in our Sustainability Business Plan for the Seattle Community Colleges. Success will help the Seattle colleges achieve all three Strategic Plan goals and increase enrollments as the Seattle District becomes the destination colleges for learning and applying sustainability knowledge and skills. The list below shows the specific duties and activities led by the sustainability coordinator, organized by the SCCD Strategic Plan Goal they help to achieve. Student Success: Becoming Destination Colleges for Sustainability Knowledge and Skills • Identify and disseminate models and resources to faculty for infusing sustainability concepts and skills into the curriculum; • Assist administrators and faculty in identifying programs and courses where sustainability components can be developed; • Help coordinate and develop opportunities for undergraduate research and service learning opportunities related to sustainability concepts and projects; • Sponsor and advise students seeking to organize events and activities around sustainability issues and awareness; • Assist students, faculty, and staff in the development of sustainability awareness events on campus; • Disseminate best practices from other community colleges regarding sustainability activities and practices; • Identify resources for supporting student-led sustainability projects on campus; • Assist student government in organizing sustainability activities. Partnerships: Working with the Community to Enhance Sustainability Education and Best Practices • Develop and sustain partnerships with outside organizations engaged in sustainability activities on college campuses and in the community such as AASHE, AACC/SEED Center, World Wildlife Fund, Jobs for the Future Seattle 2030 District, Emerald Cities Seattle and neighborhood-based sustainability groups; • Promote on-campus sustainability activities in the local community; • Maintain the District’s sustainability web pages; • Identify and engage community groups in sustainability activities that are either on-campus or in the local community. Innovation: Showing the Community How Institutions Can Reduce Energy and Resource Consumption • Assist the Chancellor’s Sustainability Leadership Team in developing a sustainability business plan that identifies near and long-term action plans for each college and the District as a whole. • Generate data and provide administrative support to ensure compliance with state greenhouse gas reduction targets and City of Seattle utility benchmarking requirements. • Provide information (from the STARS assessments and other sources) to the facilities director to help them make informed decisions regarding investment in energy and resource utilization reduction measures. • Identify opportunities to disseminate the District’s best practices to other community colleges and stakeholders. • Identify grant and other resources that can support college and district sustainability-related activities.