Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 51.76
Liaison Audrey McSain
Submission Date Nov. 16, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Lehigh University
EN-3: Student Life

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Delicia Nahman
Sustainability Officer
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have one or more active student groups focused on sustainability?:
Yes

A brief description of active student groups focused on sustainability:

Green action and Engineers without Borders are also student groups whose interests are sustainability-focused or related. Their descriptions are below:

Green Actions-is focused on reducing pollution of harmful chemicals, reducing global climate change, and reducing the depletion of vital natural resources, as well as promoting renewable energies, recycling, and discouraging environmentally irresponsible behaviors.
Members of Green Action attend national and state-wide conferences to learn more about the environment, lobby US Senators, and protest America's less environmentally friendly activities. Green Action has performed waste audits, promoted plastic bag recycling and reusable take-out containers, among other actions.

Engineers without Borders- Started in 2002, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is an international non-profit humanitarian organization that works to provide basic needs to communities in need. EWB is a multidisciplinary group of students, from all majors and programs, dedicated to learning about and tackling issues of global poverty, international development, and sustainability. Their mission is to both educate a new generation of students about global inequalities through workshops and presentations and to enable students to use this knowledge to design workable solutions to real life problems. The organization is composed of both university and professional chapters that focus on specific projects addressing issues such as providing clean water, education, sanitation, and renewable energy. EWB focuses on low cost, high impact projects.

To promote sustainability the organization partners with host communities on projects so that the communities can manage the systems autonomously in the future. The project gives students a range of experience from international relations to technical engineering skills. Today there are over 300 chapters and 12,000 members in the United States alone.

The projects EWB takes on are initiated by, and completed with, contributions from the host community working with the EWB project team. The organization has previously designed, funded, and implemented a small-scale water treatment project in Pueblo Nuevo, a village of approximately 1,500 people in northwestern Honduras.


The website URL where information about the student groups is available (optional):
Does the institution have gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and sustainable food systems?:
Yes

A brief description of the gardens, farms, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery programs, and/or urban agriculture projects:

Lehigh University has several urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and/or sustainable food systems. At present the University's South Side Initiative manages several community gardens on the South Side of Bethlehem, PA. One of these gardens (approx. 1 acre) is on the Lehigh University campus, and it provides plots of land in which students can grow organic food. This garden also reserves land for larger student projects, such as composting and 4-square intensive gardening that provides for local food kitchens. (See: www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2013/09/lehigh_university_student_crea.html .) The other gardens are located on city land and provide a space for students to work with members of the local community to grow fresh, healthy food. Currently the South Side Initiative's Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture Working Group and the CLIP Permaculture Initiative run programming out of these gardens for children from low-income families who rely on the Bethlehem Boys & Boys Club, as well as children from Broughal Middle School, and Big Brother, Big Sister. In these programs, university students grow, harvest, cook, and eat fresh and organically grown produce with program participants. (See: http://ssi.cas2.lehigh.edu/community-gardens-and-urban-agriculture and https://www.facebook.com/clip.permacultureinitiative?fref=ts .) Lehigh University also offers an Urban Agriculture course during the summer in which a urban planner and a professional organic farmer from the Rodale Institute uses the community garden to teach students about organic growing methods, pest management, weed management, and soil management, as well as how cities can use local land management tools to support urban agriculture projects. This year students are also undertaking a major project to create the plan and attain the funding to start a larger produce farm on campus that would sell its vegetables to the campus food provider (Sodexo) and Campus Dining Services.


The website URL where information about the gardens, farms or agriculture projects is available (optional):
Does the institution have student-run enterprises that include sustainability as part of their mission statements or stated purposes (e.g. cafés through which students gain sustainable business skills)?:
No

A brief description of the student-run enterprises:

N/A


The website URL where information about the student-run enterprises is available (optional):
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Does the institution have sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives through which students can develop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives:

The GreenFund was created to provide financial resources to members of the Lehigh community who want to create a greener, more environmentally sustainable campus. One-time grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded to students, faculty, and staff to facilitate green projects.


The website URL where information about the sustainable investment funds, green revolving funds or sustainable microfinance initiatives is available (optional):
Does the institution have conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
Yes

A brief description of the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability:

Keystone State Environmental Histories: A Public Lecture Series

This lecture series is open to the public but have students as the intended audience. Many professors bring their classes to the lectures with the intention of diversifying students' knowledge of environmental history. Topics cover energy supply, development of hiking trail system in PA, cities and forests, and the history of Earth Day. Students are invited to eat lunch with speakers and learn more about the topic.


The website URL where information about the conferences, speaker series, symposia or similar events related to sustainability is available (optional):
Does the institution have cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability that have students as the intended audience?:
Yes

A brief description of the cultural arts events, installations or performances related to sustainability:

Trashion Show: An exhibition of clothing made entirely out of trash or recyclable materials. Students planned the event for during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Recyclemania tournaments, designed the clothing, and attended the show.

Unplugged Open Mic Night: Members of the Office of Sustainability hosted an open mic night in November 2015 and November 2016 with a variety performances during our energy conservation competition.


The website URL where information about the cultural arts events, installations or performances is available (optional):
Does the institution have wilderness or outdoors programs (e.g. that organize hiking, backpacking, kayaking, or other outings for students) that follow Leave No Trace principles?:
Yes

A brief description of the wilderness or outdoors programs that follow Leave No Trace principles:

The Outdoor Adventure Community promotes outdoors sports, activities, and responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Hall/Floor activities will appeal to a variety of interests and skill levels, from weekend camping trips to hiking and skiing to themed movie nights - the choice is yours! The community goal is for individuals with a shared interest in nature to join together in outdoor activities and adventures, and to develop and spread their values of responsible management of our beautiful outdoor spaces and resources.


The website URL where information about the wilderness or outdoors programs is available (optional):
Does the institution have sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences (e.g. choosing a sustainability-related book for common reading)?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-related themes chosen for themed semesters, years, or first-year experiences:

As part of the first-year experience, students have the option of attending a faculty lecture during Orientation that addressed the issue of sustainability in the business field. We also offer a 3-day pre-orientation program focused on sustainability called SustainabLEHIGH.


The website URL where information about the sustainability-related themes is available (optional):
Does the institution have programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills?:
Yes

A brief description of the programs through which students can learn sustainable life skills:

The Eco House is an environmentally themed community serving as a hub for people who value environmental awareness in their living space. As a close knit community sharing similar interests, the Eco House community plans to apply knowledge they have obtained from their studies to hands-on engineering projects in which they work as a team to exercise and expand upon their engineering skills to contribute to environmental awareness. Projects will include hosting campus speakers, building rockets, utilizing a solar shed and composting program, and making physical improvements to their house in order to minimize their impact on the environment. Members of the community collaborate with other campus organizations, such as EcoReps and Green Action, in order to engage the Lehigh community in sustainable programs.


The website URL where information about the sustainable life skills programs is available (optional):
Does the institution offer sustainability-focused student employment opportunities?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-focused student employment opportunities offered by the institution:

The Office of Sustainability provides student employment opportunities year-round to bother undergraduate and graduate students. These employment opportunities are in support of achieving Lehigh's Campus Sustainability Plan goals, creating a culture of sustainability, and providing students with skills that they can transfer to their professional careers.


The website URL where information about the student employment opportunities is available:
Does the institution have graduation pledges through which students pledge to consider social and environmental responsibility in future job and other decisions?:
No

A brief description of the graduation pledges:

N/A


The website URL where information about the graduation pledges is available (optional):
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Does the institution have other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives?:
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A brief description of the other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives:

N/A


The website URL where information about other co-curricular sustainability programs and initiatives is available (optional):
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Estimated percentage of students (full-time and part-time) that participate annually in sustainability-focused co-curricular education and outreach programs (0-100):
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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