{"id":26125,"date":"2014-07-16T11:07:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T21:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=26125"},"modified":"2021-10-28T15:31:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T01:31:05","slug":"university-of-hawaii-system-recognized-for-sustainability-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2014\/07\/16\/university-of-hawaii-system-recognized-for-sustainability-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> System recognized for sustainability efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Organizers of the 2nd Sustainability Summit, Aurora Winslade (left), former UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa sustainability coordinator and Daita Serghi (right), former UH<\/abbr> System interim sustainability coordinator receiving the award on behalf of the UH<\/abbr> System Sustainability Task Force with (from left), Grace Simmons, hazardous waste section supervisor; Mark Glick, energy administrator, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Energy Office and Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Friday, July 11, the state honored 13 business and nine events for their outstanding and innovative clean energy efforts at the 2014 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Green Business Awards. The awards were presented by Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui and hosted by the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Energy Office<\/a> of the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism<\/a> (DBEDT<\/abbr>), the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Health<\/a> and the Chamber of Commerce of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a>. <\/p>\n

During the ceremony, Sustainability at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> System<\/a> was recognized for environmental stewardship during the 2nd Annual Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Sustainability in Higher Education Summit<\/a>. The 3-day event, funded by the Vice-President for Community Colleges John Morton<\/strong> and sponsored by Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Energy, HECO<\/abbr> and Johnson Controls Inc., was held on March 13–15, 2014 at Windward Community College<\/a>. Approximately 300 participants representing faculty, staff, students and administrators from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> 10-campus system, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Pacific University<\/a>, Brigham Young University-Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a>, Chaminade University<\/a> as well as invited politicians, state and federal officials, local and national sustainable business representatives, non-profit organizations leaders, and community members convened to establish and advance sustainability goals through work sessions, sharing best practice and building lasting relationships to support institutional sustainability transformation in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The event implemented green and sustainable practices, including striving for zero waste (no paper handouts, no plastic bottles or cups provided, food was composted), having attendees bring their own bottle\/mug (with a compliance of almost 100 percent), reusable plates and utensils, providing healthy cuisine prepared by a local caterer with sustainable practices, encouraging carpooling, and collaborating with a local sustainable reforestation company to offset carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

According to the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Energy Office<\/a>, the Sustainability Summit has scored the second highest out of all 16 of the green events awarded by the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Green Business Program<\/a> since 2012.<\/p>\n

Sustainability is one of the major priorities of the UH<\/abbr> System. In January, the Board of Regents unanimously approved to modify the mission and purpose of the university to include a sustainability statement which commits the university to sustainably allocating and using resources for the well-being of our communities and state, and sets ambitious goals such that the university will achieve carbon neutrality, zero waste, and local food self-sufficiency. Additionally, sustainability is one of three major themes of the UH<\/abbr> System strategic direction and the UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges strategic planning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sustainability at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> System was recognized for environmental stewardship during the 2nd Annual Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Sustainability in Higher Education Summit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[73,947,66],"class_list":["post-26125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-system","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26125"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150780,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26125\/revisions\/150780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}