This year’s Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability (TRACS) conference hosted some fantastic speakers. One particularly interesting talk was given by Richard R. Johnson, Director of Sustainability at Rice University.

Back in the year 2000, Rice U. was trying to address their carbon footprint but found a larger force impeding their efforts. Staff and students realized they needed to tackle administrative challenges to sustainability before effectively addressing their ecological impact.

Mr. Johnson identified the following problems and solutions:

Organizational Management

• Problem: Lack of a person to speak for environmental issues
• Proposal: Hire a sustainability coordinator

Policy

• Problem: University not fulfilling commitments as a signatory of Talloires Declaration
• Solution: Enact a university sustainability policy

Rice has a very impressive sustainability resume. Richard R. Johnson, Director of Sustainability at Rice, clearly expressed the importance of addressing administrative challenges in order to better address campus sustainability.

Thanks to everyone at TRACS for the great information!

UT Environmental Health Services (EHS) has a good list of contacts for various environmental concerns: