Report: The Future of Sustainability at Bryn Mawr

Short-term goals can be implemented relatively easily and require only maintenance checks once implemented.

Improving signage around campus so that members of the community are appropriately recycling and/or disposing of waste could be easily implemented through the President's Office. Research regarding where our waste goes, and what is and is not compostable should be included in this work. Figuring out the most effective methods of communication is an essential part of improving signage. Along this line, we also see an intersection with an interest among community members in increasing the college's sustainability communication. We are aware that this is something the President's Office is working on, and we recommend that this work continue to be shared with the college community.

Most of the above are small goals, yet some of the medium goals listed in the previous section may also be completed in the short-term. Installation of energy efficient washers, rain barrels, and other machines and technology on campus could be a relatively easy and fast, though pricey, change to make on campus. This reflects the community’s desire to add heat control sensors to dorms and buildings--though it's unclear to us what the current program's footprint is--as well as investing in sustainable science equipment.

We also suggest that having a community freecycle event could be easy to implement, perhaps once a semester, as well as hosting 1-2 events per semester around special recycling for batteries, electronics, Styrofoam, and plastics. We recommend connecting with Rabbit Recycling for these efforts.

Longer-term efforts typically fall into the medium and larger goals categories. In our review here, we hope to highlight what seems most possible and group some of the suggestions together so that they are categorically linked. Long-term goals require multiple areas of the college to come together to implement and need sustained commitment to continue these sustainability efforts over time.

Among the most striking of the long-term goals is the creation of a public sustainability budget. We feel that this would be best produced through a coalition of members--the President's Office, the new sustainability hire, and supporting students and faculty. We believe the budget should be public and easily accessible so that the community can remain on the same page about costs and goals. Becoming carbon-neutral is another long-term goal that is related in process to the creation of the budget. We recommend the same committee/task force be involved in overseeing this.

There are longer-term material changes that community members would also like to see. We imagine that these changes could be part of the carbon-neutral plan. These changes include aquifer thermal energy storage, additional solar panel installation, and creating a sustainable landscape plan. Creating a sustainable landscape plan overlaps the expressed desire to engage local Indigenous communities with regard to land stewardship on campus. We wonder what it might be like to include in the hiring of the new sustainability position a focus on Indigenous practice and/or a desire to build across regional settler and Indigenous land practices with the expressed goal of sustainable landscape design/use.

Collaboration with our nearby neighbors in the township, and in Philadelphia, is also important to the community. Equitable and inclusive social actions, including environmental justice actions, should be developed in partnership with community members. We think that the Civic Engagement Office could be brought into this conversation, and that, if they have bandwidth, they would be excellent support for this effort. It is very likely that many connections already exist, and that engaging these connections more fully could lead to stronger sustainability connections regionally, and greater resilience as we head into an uncertain climate change future.

Agriculture on campus is important to community members, and they see lots of space for improvement in the use of the gardens as well as existing greenhouses. A key part of these efforts would also be to encourage sustainable and locally based food production as well as provide hands-on education opportunities. Additionally, this goal can be effectively integrated into the workings of the sustainable landscape plan, engaging Indigenous practice, as well as the creation of the carbon budget and carbon neutrality.

We believe that these goals should not only be integrated into the job ad, but we also believe that we can begin to meet some of these long-term goals by creating a physical sustainability hub on campus. An example of this is how we imagine something like a sustainability-centered greenhouse, that can be used for agroecology, composting, beekeeping, and meetings of various fellows, faculty, and staff. This reflects the president’s vision of having our campus be a place where we engage with learning and acting together. We hope Bryn Mawr’s sustainability vision centers around these principles as they best reflect the unique perspectives of our community and where we hope to go as a collective.

• Include carbon damage charge for travel and carbon shadow price for building

• Offset all employee business and study abroad air travel
• Have annual environmental justice courses taught

• Develop an energy website for the college that displays the college’s current energy usage and energy data in one place that is accessible
• Develop Green Purchasing Guidelines
• Ensure that a minimum of 5% food purchases are locally sourced
• Standardize campus recycling signage
• Develop Restorative Land Management Guidelines and commit to a compliance of 80% of all outdoor practices on campus
• Assessing flights sponsored by the college and seeing if more sustainable modes of travel like trains would be feasible

• Expanding the ecological diversity on campus through landscape design and maintenance
  • Signage about plants and species
• The Sustainable Office Certification and Sustainable Living Certification Programs for offices and dorms
• Student run campaigns like Sustainability Month Energy Competition, RecycleMania, Coal Action Week, and Earth Week
• Create a Center for the Environment
• Incorporating sustainability into first-year orientation

• Environmental Dashboard project (a good example of sharing sustainability progress through an interactive platform)
• Adam Joseph Lewis Center (a good example of a learning laboratory used for sustainability)

• Develop an Integrated Pest Management plan
• Develop a digital resource for sustainability internships, careers, opportunities, etc.

• Food Recovery Network helps donate excess food to local community
• Make sustainability a priority for the Office of Engagement

• Catalog and measure the carbon sequestration of plots of forested land
• Arboretum events
• Window replacements
• Hamilton Cram and Scram

• Replace existing heating steam infrastructure with a low-temperature hit water (LTHW) system --> eventually implementing geothermal energy
• Electric-powered maintenance equipment for landscaping

• Tracking university spending with underrepresented businesses
• Procurement from small, local, women, and minority-owned business
• Contribute to neighborhood canopy + more green spaces in community
• Making sure relations with community are accountable, inclusive, equitable, and do not create an extractive dynamic
• Co-create research project with community organizations

This position reports directly to the VP of Finance and Administration with a dotted line to the Chief of Staff and works alongside the Director of Facilities and faculty leaders. The role will work closely with key partners on campus like the Civic Engagement Office, Transportation Services, Dining Services, Facilities, Library and Information Technology Services, and faculty, students, and staff to ensure sustainability initiatives are incorporated into daily operations, planning, construction, student life, and curricula. As a sustainability liaison for the college, the Director fosters collaboration with off-campus stakeholders to manage and lead sustainability goals as they engage our changing ecosystems and environments in conversation with our regional neighbors, surrounding communities, and Tri-Co partners. The Director will be a strategist with entrepreneurial experience who will lead our sustainability program through innovation with an explicit goal of long-term and sustained carbon neutrality.

Development, Strategy, and Partnership – 50%

Develop and execute an environmental action and sustainability strategy rooted in sustainable energy usage, land stewardship, sustainable operations and practices, and curricular innovation. Spearhead studies that deepen the approach to this strategy like an energy audit, a waste stream study or food stream assessment, and a land use study. Build initiatives that envision solutions to the results of the conducted studies, such as a waste management plan, a decarbonization plan, a sustainable food systems program, green purchasing guidelines, sustainable building practices, and a restorative land stewardship plan. Develop collaborative partnerships with internal partners and local organizations, townships, and groups, including Recycling and Waste organizations, regional agroecology and Indigenous tribes and nations, as well as Lower Merion Township, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Commission (PEC), to work together on strategic campus initiatives. Engage faculty expertise and on campus committees to enhance and strengthen sustainability curriculum, including programing for first-year students within Custom’s Week and/or Thrive. Highlight sustainability course offerings to students, including TriCo offerings, and work with faculty to increase sustainability course offerings.

Monitoring, Internal and External Reporting – 10%

Track metrics, report to Second Nature, and complete the AASHE STARS report. Create an Environmental Dashboard for the college that makes public our environmental actions, sustainable development strategies, and progress in real time. Collect, monitor, digitize, and report progress of student sustainability groups like Green Ambassadors and Sunrise.

Multiple Domains of Knowledge and Practice

• Expertise in the areas of sustainability policies, sustainable building, environmental conservation, energy transformation, waste systems, or sustainable food systems.
• Demonstrated ability to unite multiple, and intersecting, areas of sustainability knowledge and practice, such as sustainable building and environmental action.
• Expertise in environmental data collection, processing, and reporting. 
• Knowledge of sustainability principles including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Interpreting and consistently applying a wide variety of complex policies and procedures where specific guidelines may not always exist.
• Demonstrated ability to manage the details necessary to implement environmental action and sustainability efforts; a high level of productivity and accuracy / attention to detail.
• Possession of strong analytical and research skills with a demonstrated ability to gather, evaluate, and to develop well-reasoned conclusions and recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience in management, leadership, and aspects of programming.

Communication

• A demonstrated ability to develop sustainability communications that are transparent and accessible to internal and external stakeholders, both verbal and in writing.
• Expertise in engaging a diverse range of methods of communication involving computer proficiency with a variety of applications from word processing, spreadsheets, databases, online systems, social media platforms, Internet as well as online calendaring and email.
• Passion for deep listening in engaging faculty, staff, students, and regional stakeholders.

Community Leadership

• Willingness to and work effectively in a bureaucratic environment which requires regular interaction with a number of levels within the organization and multiple outside agencies.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills with the demonstrated ability to set own priorities to coordinate multiple assignments with fluctuating and time-sensitive deadlines.
• Flexibility and the ability to communicate effectively even under pressure or moments of contention.
• Expertise, and proven track-record in, initiating, establishing, and fostering teamwork by maintaining a positive, cooperative, productive work atmosphere within a diverse population and with those from various cultural backgrounds.
• Demonstrated ability to provide training and direction to student assistants.
• Working knowledge or ability to quickly learn, university infrastructure, policies, and procedures.

Bachelor's degree required; Advanced degree, or equivalent work experience preferred, in a relevant field, such as Environmental Studies, Environmental Science, Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Public Policy, Sustainability Management, Energy Systems, Ecology, Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning, or Public Policy, or related social science/environmental degree

• 7-10 years of experience in a related field