Delta College
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

1 - Sustainability Task Force: Formal planning toward campus-wide sustainability began in 2007with the Sustainability Task Force. The Task Force, a representative group of faculty, staff, and students, was charged with advising the college President on matters pertaining to the environment and sustainability as it directly relates to Delta College in order to engage the college in an ongoing dialogue about environmental sustainability, integrate sustainability with campus programs in education, operations, and community service, and instill a culture of sustainable long-range planning and forward-thinking design.

2 – AQIP: The Academic Quality Improvement Process (AQIP Accreditation) Steering Committee is comprised of college-wide representation including executive staff, administration, faculty, and support staff. The steering committee adopted sustainability as a Strategic Priority under the Strategic Focus Area ‘Using all resources in an efficient and sustainable way’. As the strategic priority is incorporated into department level planning and the employee appraisal system it benefits by input from all service areas employees.

1 - Sustainability Task Force Plan: To encourage a thorough evaluation of the broad spectrum of sustainability and to consider its implications to the triple bottom line, the Task Force employed the Sustainability Tracking & Rating System (STARS Pilot) categories as a template. Each category was reviewed to determine existing programs, initiatives in the planning process, and areas of potential future development. In 2008, the Task Force prepared a series of recommendations including strategies for implementation.

2- AQIP: The specific strategic initiative to establish measurement was to implement a comprehensive institutional effectiveness program; proactively increase the efficiency of resource use to financially support the achievement of our mission; and to develop a comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality.

Sustainability was also adopted as a Distinctive Objective for the AQIP Systems Portfolio. It became one of nine categories the college developed for review by the Higher Learning Commission in October 2010. The specific measurements focused on a comprehensive awareness program, meeting the requirements of the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), and the Academic Sustainability Team (AST) sustainability curriculum development.

1 – Sustainability Task Force Plan: Beginning in 2009 and each year to follow, a summary of the original recommendations is compiled to provide a status report to the college community. STARS Pilot has now transitioned to STARS 1.0 and the recommendations will be revised to meet the updated criteria.

Members of the original Sustainability Task Force participate in the development of initiatives and processes in both administrative/operations and academic areas. These initiatives and processes are reviewed on an on-going basis. All program processes and projects are periodically reported and reviewed with the Director of Facilities Management, the Vice President of Business & Finance, the College President and involved stakeholders. Additionally, progress of incorporating sustainability into the curriculum is reviewed through the curriculum process.

2 - AQIP: Specific timeframes for accomplishing objectives is determined—generally reportable within a year. The 2008/09 Action Plan focused on the STARS Pilot and completion of a nine year greenhouse gas inventory and in 2009/10 the target goal was the publishing of a Climate Action Plan. A close out process is followed to which members responded questions such as: What was the actual completion date?; What is the primary reason for closing this project?; What aspects of this project would you categorize as successful?; What aspects of this project would you categorize as less than successful?

The requirements of ACUPCC, most specifically the greenhouse gas inventory data, is analyzed and evaluated for trends of annual emissions. Results from the STARS Pilot allowed for the measurement of criteria across all campus sectors. Progress of the AST is evaluated via a curriculum process assessment mechanism of sustainability-related courses and sustainability-focused courses.