Trusteeship - September/October 2024 - 20

THE ROLE OF GOVERNING BOARDS IN ADVANCING CLIMATE ACTION
like flood inundation and storm surges. The cooperative has
hosted more than 200 interns and provides conferences and
training for community partners.16
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental
Science (UMCES) engages citizens in research, ensuring that
those most affected by environmental change are empowered to
make evidence- based decisions. Their annual report card on the
Chesapeake Bay and its watershed measures the ecosystem's social,
environmental, and economic health. Codeveloped with community
stakeholders, the report card raises awareness of environmental
issues important to local citizens and creates opportunities to remediate
them.17
One such opportunity is UMCES's oyster hatchery,
which produces most of the spat used for Maryland's large- scale
oyster recovery efforts, critical to bay health.18
Because a student's path to environmental literacy begins well
before college, the USM also partners with K- 12 teachers and students
to help them develop environmental and climate concepts.
For instance, through the Aquaculture in Action program- part
of Maryland Sea Grant, located at UMD- K- 12 teachers develop
classroom aquaculture projects as a basis for learning environmental
science and stewardship. The Center for Urban Environmental
Research and Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County supports the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, which has
worked with hundreds of educators to teach biodiversity, ecological
systems, and environmental citizenship. Additionally, the University
of Maryland Eastern Shore- a historically Black institution
and an 1890 land- grant university- manages the Paul S. Sarbanes
Coastal Ecology Center, a research, teaching, and outreach center
that features K- 12 programs on restoring and conserving coastal
bay ecosystems.19
Colorado Mountain College (CMC). In Colorado in 2022,
CMC collaborated with Holy Cross Electric and Ameresco on
the completion of the largest solar array and battery storage
facility in the state. The system, which is situated on CMC land
at its beautiful, south- facing, 800- acre Spring Valley campus
near Glenwood Springs, provides power for this location as well
as campuses in Aspen and the Vail Valley, as well as hundreds
of Holy Cross customers, benefiting numerous community
members and the college simultaneously. Holy Cross Energy
expects to provide its members with 80 percent renewable energy
by the end of 2024.20
In addition, CMC continually interacts with the communities
located within its sprawling 11- campus geographic footprint. Now
in its eighth year, the college's virtual Sustainability and Ecosystem
Science Conference welcomes community members to attend
and interact with students and keynote speakers. In 2024, speaker
and Ute Indian Tribe Elder Forrest Cuch, former director of the
Utah Division of Indian Affairs, outlined the history of Ute tribes
in Colorado and Utah, and spoke of the importance of the Utes'
20 TRUSTEESHIP SEP.OCT.2024 ©2024 AGB.ORG
matriarchal society as it relates to caring for Mother Earth. The
conference also included breakout sessions for CMC students,
employees, and community members to attend capstone presentations
from seniors graduating from the ecosystem science and
stewardship and sustainability studies programs. In- person, open
events are also held at several campuses.
The Yampa Basin Rendezvous is a two- day annual conference
hosted by the CMC Steamboat Springs campus that connects students,
researchers, institutions, and community members to share
the science and practice of building climate resilience in the face of
the western water crisis. At the seventh conference, in 2024, with a
theme of " Connecting the Drops: Linking Weather, Watersheds, and
Communities for a Resilient Water Future, " water experts and managers
from across the western states joined CMC students, elected
officials, and the public for morning talks and afternoon field learning.
At the gathering, Colorado's governor signed two water conservation
bills and underscored the protection of water resources.21
Modeling, Developing, and Researching Mitigation
and Adaptation Solutions
The higher education sector contributes significantly to our
nation's carbon emissions, serving 19 million students and powering
210,000 buildings with 6.2 billion square feet of floor space.22
Many of the nation's 4,000 colleges and universities function like
small cities, serving tens of thousands of students, faculty, administrators,
support staff, and visitors through energy use, transportation,
buildings, athletic facilities, food systems, waste management,
purchasing, and land use. They also spend a significant amount
of money to power campuses- $36.8 billion annually on facilities
operations, maintenance, and utilities.23
To address climate change globally, all of society, including higher
education, must take steps to conserve natural resources, reduce
carbon emissions, and adapt to a changing climate. As leaders and
hubs for innovation, institutions of higher education can model,
Located on campus land near Glenwood Springs owned by Colorado
Mountain College, the Solar Array and Battery Storage Complex came
about through a partnership with clean technology leader, Ameresco,
and local energy and solar companies, including Holy Cross Energy.
The array can provide 1,000 homes with renewable energy and will
move CMC toward its 2050 carbon neutrality goal.
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