Transylvania University
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

* August 24, 2010: A staff workshop focuses on sustainability, with 112 participants identifying ways they would like to see Transylvania become a more sustainable institution. • September 6, 2010: As part of orientation, 316 incoming students brainstorm about sustainability initiatives they would like to see in place before they graduate. • October 6, 2010: At a student sustainability workshop, 35 students identified ways they would like to see Transylvania become a more sustainable institution. • October 11-19, 2010: In a faculty survey on sustainability, 12 faculty members identify ways they would like to see Transylvania become a more sustainable institution. • October 19, 2010: The President’s Council on Sustainability convenes for the first time with 18 of the 19 members present. The council consists of students, faculty and staff. • November 11, 2010: A Sustainability Council meeting focuses on identifying broad institutional goals, using input from the whole campus community, resulting in 11 visions. • November 29, 2010: Representatives of the council meet with President Williams to discuss the sustainability visions as they had been conceived thus far. Some visions are rephrased and consolidated, resulting in an eight-vision plan. • January 7, 2011: Council meeting focused on brainstorming ways to achieve the visions. • January and February 2011: Visions, along with suggested methods for achieving them, are shared with the Transylvania community through Moodle and a series of open meetings. These documents include all ideas generated by the council as well as those resulting from the staff workshop, orientation sessions, student workshop, and faculty survey. • March 2011: Visions are restructured and a work group is created for each vision. Work groups are tasked with suggesting a concise list of strategies for achieving their vision. All council members plus 10 other students, faculty, and staff serve on the work groups. • April 26, 2011: The council meets to review and prioritize strategies suggested by the work groups. An outside consultant facilitates this process and helps the group write action plans for each strategy. All work group participants are invited to the meeting. • September 2011: The Sustainability Master Plan Framework is officially rolled out.

The plan is divided into eight visions. These visions are then divided into a number of strategies necessary to accomplish the visions. Visions include the following: Vision 1: Integrate sustainability across the curriculum, Vision 2: Instill a culture of sustainability throughout campus, Vision 3: Manage, renovate, and construct buildings sustainably, Vision 4: Develop and manage land sustainably, Vision 5: Serve healthy, sustainably produced food, grown locally when possible, Vision 6: Achieve a zero landfill waste dining service, Vision 7: Incorporate sustainability in all administrative and strategic decisions, and Vision 8: Help advance sustainability in Lexington and beyond.

Each vision has a team focused on moving that vision forward. Each year, the team must report on progress made and next steps. This year, work on several of the visions is on hold while the council focuses on the climate action plan.