Congratulations to all of the participants. Regardless of server problems, bot voting, or not; each video presented unique ideas that we all can consider as we strive to achieve carbon neutrality on our campuses by 2025. Personally, I think the videos get better every year, and I’m encouraged to hear from colleagues, that students are [...]

I appreciate the comments of Steve and Joe regarding bot voting and the video competition. It helps clear things up. It is unfortunate that St. Louis Community College was brought into this. Actually, St. Louis Community College is in a separate Carnegie Classification, competing against Bellevue College, Kaua’i Community College and Glendale Community College for [...]

Well apparently the technology gremlins were at it again this weekend. For those of you trying to vote for GCC’s video, The Legend of the Green Gaucho, the Planet Forward web site was temporarily out of commission. Many thanks for your good intentions and emails. As of this post, the site is again operational, so [...]

Eight Days Remaining When I was much, much, much younger, there was an amazing publication with the first picture of Earth from space on its cover. That publication was the Whole Earth Catalog. It was published from 1968 through 1972, a few editions sporadically thereafter. It offered “access to tools”, tools to sustain and protect [...]

Though every day is Earth Day for the Green Gaucho, celebrate today by recycling, joining your colleagues in the college’s Waste Minimization program and voting for The Legend of the Green Gaucho video (daily during the month of April). Go Gauchos!

OK Gauchos a lot has happened over the past two weeks: server issues on the host site that hindered voting for several hours and undetermined problems that caused vote counts at several institutions to go into the stratosphere. But Planet Forward and Second Nature continue to address each challenge and the competition remains on track. [...]

On April 12th, I posted on GCC’s success during the 2012 RecycleMania competition. Today, Chanda provided the results of the 2013 competition, and again, Glendale Community College (GCC) performed exceptionally well. GCC competed with 527 other colleges and universities in the 2013 RecycleMania tournament which lasted from February 3rd until March 31st. Included in the [...]

In Boston today. Still able to dry my hands with one towel. On the way back to Groton, CT I saw a billboard sign that sums it all up, “One in three people born today will live to be 100 — Sustainability now for a future tomorrow.”

Today I’m traveling on the New Jersey Transit and Amtrac lines from Long Branch NJ to Groton CT. I’ve always been a fan of rail travel, but heavy rail, unless we’re talking freight, is an oddity in Phoenix. And I’m not alone in my desire to use efficient mass transit, you actually have to reserve [...]

I read with interest the post by Michael B, because he took the time to review the Legend of the Green Gaucho very thoroughly, and he identified several truths. We must reduce water consumption and toward this goal we actually have increased the use of desert landscaping (Life Science Building, around the High Tech Centers [...]

One member of the GCC community recently asked if the college participated in the Recyclemania competition. Not only does GCC compete in the competition, but in one of the tougher components of that competition–waste minimization. We will soon have the results from this years competition, but Chanda graciously provided the results from 2012. According to [...]

First, I need to correct information I posted earlier. The movie Out of Africa took place from 1913 – 1931 in British East Africa (now Kenya) not during the 1860′s. This week I traveled to New Jersey for a conference. While enroute, my seat companions and I talked about the “green movement” on college campuses [...]

As many of you know, the Second Nature servers experienced a catastrophic hard drive failure at their data center. Backup systems were impacted as well. Luckily Second Nature was able to retrieve most of the data from other back up sites and restore the site; but only to late Sunday evening input. Monday and Tuesday [...]

Well we’ve come to the end of the work week in the Climate Leadership video competition and it looks like a large number of students, faculty, staff and community members have checked in to learn about the Green Gaucho and GCC’s progress with recycling and waste minimization. For those who may not have noticed, please [...]

What a stellar group of colleges these videos depict. I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in the quality and creativity in every entry over the years; not to mention the level of engagement in sustainability across the United States. But of course, I have my favorite (I never tire of promoting the college). As I review [...]

Did you notice the label on the paper towel dispenser (1:42 into the video). It reads, “Less than three saves our trees.” A small point to most but it actually raised comments about the correctness of the phrase. Should it not read “Fewer than three?” This was the position of several English faculty and one [...]

I viewed the Legend of the Green Gaucho video yet again today. I only do that with special films: Gladiator, Top Gun, Act of Valor, anything Rocky. This time I focused on the behavior of a faculty member drying his hands in one of the college’s rest rooms (1:45 into the video). Four paper towels, [...]

What a great video! The story line is so interesting, that time literally flew by. I love the focus on what every educational institution can realistically do to promote a more sustainable society; modeling the way for future generations. What better way, then to focus on recycling and waste minimization; green behaviors that cost little [...]

Congratulations to GCC on becoming a 2012 climate leadership finalist and in accomplishing so much to conserve resources and reduce the institution’s carbon footprint. The video says so much about GCC: grass roots sustainability beginnings, support across the college, comprehensive programs and committment, and success; just check out those graphs at the end. This truly [...]