Sustainability at JCC

Green Living Tips: Leave Less of a Footprint

Download our [PDF [6]] and take this tips with you!

More Tips for Green Living

1. Drive less! Or, Drive Part of the Way? [7]
   Driving less is a great way to be sustainable. If getting where you’re going by bike or public transit alone isn’t going to happen, consider driving part of the way and then jumping on public transit or your bike.
2. Eat Locally [8]
   Americans treasure the delicious fruits and vegetables grown by local family farms. In fact, more than a million customers visit farmers markets each week, and that number is growing as more and more communities bring a farmers market to their locale.
3. Go Organic [9]
   When it comes to buying fruits and vegetables that go easy on the earth, it's hard to beat organic
4. Make Your Laundry Green [10]
   If every U.S. household used the most-efficient washers, it could save the equivalent of up to 40 million barrels of oil a year!

Want more tips? Head over to EarthShare [11].

Sustainability is not just another college initiative. It's a lifestyle and an outlook, a way of thinking that begins with each and every student at Jamestown Community College and builds outward until it's a part of the culture of the campus and the community. That's why the JCC Office of Sustainability actively looks to involve the student body by providing student leadership opportunities through several internships:

• Recycling [12]
• Energy Use Reduction [13]
• Greenhouse Gas Inventory [14]
• Do One Thing Campaign [15]
• Sustainability Communication and Awareness [16]
• Residence Hall Eco Rep [17]

Internships are open to students who have successfully completed at least 12 credits and earned a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0. To apply, please contact the Office of Sustainability via e-mail [18], as well as your advisor.

JCC and the ACUPCC

Former prresident Greg DeCinque made JCC a signatory of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in an effort to move closer to a more sustainable campus and healthy environmental living. Since signing the climate commitment in 2008, JCC has:

• Set the target date of 2030 for the college to achieve climate neutrality (net total of zero greenhouse gas emissions)
• Completed a baseline GHG inventory for 2008 [19]
• Updated the GHG inventory for 2011 [20]
• Completed a Climate Action Plan in 2010 [21]
• Developed an environmental science program (2011)
• Constructed a new Science Center, which has received LEED Gold certification (2011)
• Established an Office of Sustainability, which is staffed with a sustainability coordinator (2012)
• Established sustainability internships [22] within the environmental science [1] and communications [23] programs
• Achieved Tree Campus USA designation (2009)
• Established a Zero Sort recycling program (2010)
• Instituted a green purchasing policy (2009)
• Implemented both long- and short-term actions to reduce GHG emissions college-wide

From the Presidents' Climate Commitment [24]:
"The American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is a high-visibility effort to address global climate disruption undertaken by a network of colleges and universities that have made institutional commitments to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions from specified campus operations, and to promote the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate."

JCC and AASHE

JCC is also a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education [25]. AASHE's goals are to:

• Make sustainable practices the norm within higher education
• Facilitate institutional efforts to integrate sustainability into teaching, research, operations, and public engagement
• Disseminate knowledge and best practices and promote resource sharing
• Support all sectors of campus in achieving sustainability goals
• Increase collaboration among individuals, institutions, and external partners to speed the adoption of sustainability practices
• Influence education policy so that sustainability is a focus at local, state and national levels

Green Man
In a world with irresponsible wielders of carbon emissions and babies with an astronomical carbon footprint rule the Earth..who will save us from ourselves? 

The adventures of Green Man continue as he faces off against his archnemesis: The Litterbug.

Earthfest 2012, celebrating Earth Day, was held on April 25. Members of the JCC community and the community at large joined together in celebration of the Earth and learned more about how to be better stewards of the wonders that nature provides. The event was sponsored by JCC's Earth Awareness Club and the college program committee of the JCC Faculty Student Association.

We relocated ten mature sugar maple trees to accommodate site preparation for a new residence hall.

Get a glimpse of what went on at the Eco Warriors summer camp on the Cattaraugus County campus. Kids spent a week learning about the environment and how to protect it and then ended the week with a presentation for their parents.