Conference registration and needs assessment exercise

Opening comments and introductions

Understanding the Academic Impressions Sustainability Model

This opening conference session will provide you with an in-depth overview of the Academic Impressions sustainability model. You will be assigned pre-conference homework to familiarize yourself with the premise of the model, and you are encouraged to come prepared to ask questions of our expert faculty members.

Break

Curricular/Co-Curricular Education

Identifying existing sustainability programming on your campus and building upon those offerings is a great start to developing cohesive curricular and co-curricular offerings. During this session, you will learn how to survey the types of education currently happening on campus and will be advised on strategies for coordinating and building upon that foundation.

Working session: Initial Assessment of Your Campus

The final session on the first day of the conference will be a working session that will allow you to work in small groups to document the existing curricular and co-curricular programming on your campus and draft a plan for uncovering other grassroots educational offerings.

Day 1 wrap-up

Networking reception (included in registration)

Continental breakfast (included in registration)

Inclusive Goal-Setting and Public Commitment

A crucial component of ensuring your sustainability initiatives are successful is garnering both campus and community-wide commitment. This session will walk you through the process of identifying the right stakeholders, bringing them together, and including all stakeholders in collaborative goal-setting.

Working session: Collaborating Visioning and Goal-Setting

During this session, you will participate in a sustainability visioning and goal-setting exercise that you can facilitate on your campus to collaboratively plan for sustainability.

Morning break

Efficiency and Cost-Control Projects

As your campus is working to gain traction around its sustainability initiatives, it is important to share successes early on in that process. During this session, you will gain an understanding of the importance of focusing on efficiency and cost-control projects early in the process of greening your campus, as well as tips on how to start small and grow to deeper investments and demonstrate financial gains of energy efficiency with campus administrators.

Working session: Prioritizing Projects

In this working session, you will analyze and prioritize efficiency projects for your school and identify how to approach them.

Lunch roundtable discussion: Sustaining Student Support (lunch included in registration)

Every freshman class can have new priorities and interests and every graduating senior class can leave professional staff struggling to find student leaders whose priorities align with their own. Lunch on Day 2 will consist of discussions focusing on how to sustain student support and engagement on campus sustainability initiatives.

Full Cost and Benefit Evaluation

Traditional financing and accounting in higher education use practices that do not recognize the full value of sustainability investments. In order to fully account for the benefits associated with green initiatives, institutions need to set a minimum payback period and create a comprehensive sustainability dashboard for campus executives to monitor progress. This session will show the different types of green financing that are most appropriate for sustainability initiatives — those that account for both financial and non-financial returns.

2:45–3:00 p.m.
Afternoon break

Working session: Assessing Cost Evaluation at Your Institution

In this working session, you will perform a gap analysis for sustainability returns at your school, rating whether your institution takes each return into account. You’ll then prioritize those returns to set your focus for advocating for full cost evaluation on campus.

Day 2 wrap-up

Continental breakfast (included in registration)

Marketing and Branding Green

The morning of the final day of the conference will provide you with insights and best practices and pitfalls for sharing your green story. Incorporating examples of green marketing, tips for avoiding green-washing, and appropriate messages for different campus audiences, attendees will leave this sessions with ideas for marketing their sustainability initiatives to prospective students, prospective donors, faculty and staff, and the surrounding community.

Working session: Compelling Green Stories

During this time, you will develop compelling green stories for internal and external constituents. You will consider what messages to highlight for administration, faculty, staff, students, donors, and community members.

Morning break

Strategic Mapping Planning

The final component of creating a sustainability road map for any institution is to create a strategy that incorporates an institution’s society, technology, and resources (STR). During this session, attendees will learn about the importance of integrating the sustainability road map with an institution’s campus-wide strategic plan. Sample strategic plans from other institutions will also be reviewed.

Working session: Creating Your Road Map

In this final working time, you will work through the comprehensive road map — identifying both gaps and areas of progress, attendees will leave this session with a prioritized action plan for returning to campus.

Q&A panel and closing comments