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Furman hosts conference for sustainability coordinators


Last updated May 29, 2014

By Tina Underwood

Furman University will host a conference of regional university sustainability directors and coordinators June 2–4. The meeting will take place at the Shi Center for Sustainability and other locations in Greenville.

Established in 2009 and spanning states from Texas to Maryland, the Southeastern Campus Sustainability Coordinators Network is a regional resource for primary sustainability coordinators from colleges and universities in the Southeast who wish to collaborate and share best practices.

Furman anticipates more than 20 registrants for the event including sustainability staff members from Auburn, Duke, Emory, Georgia State, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, and Winthrop.

The theme for the upcoming conference is social sustainability. Discussion topics include diversity, community-building, and strategies for developing meaningful partnerships between campuses and their local communities.

In addition to social sustainability conference sessions, agenda items include a campus sustainability tour, a tour of downtown Greenville via Swamp Rabbit Trail, Greenlink bus, or car, and a poverty tour of the city.

Says Yancey Fouché, associate director and Campus Sustainability coordinator for Furman’s Shi Center for Sustainability, “In the relatively new professional field of sustainability in higher education, the Southeastern Campus Sustainability Coordinators Network has developed as a model for grassroots collaboration. As a complement to our organizational email forum and monthly conference calls, the annual conference is an important opportunity for members to network, share content, plan strategically, and learn about sustainability successes of the host campus and community.”

Fouché says the conference also offers an alternate meeting venue for individuals who are not able to attend lengthy, more expensive trips to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) taking place this year in Oregon, Second Nature’s Climate Leadership Summit (Washington D.C.), or other national sustainability conferences.

For more information about the conference, contact Yancey Fouché at (864) 294-3656, or yancey.fouche@furman.edu.

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