Northwest Higher Education Sustainability Consortium: a long name, nice sounding words, but not a tongue-twister. It is actually a fairly simple educational design founded by five regional institutions of higher learning.
I'm willing to bet that you haven't heard of them, but your university is a charter member and the chair institution for the 2011-2012 academic year. What is more, this consortium is working on your behalf, and on behalf of the northwest Washington region, to improve education opportunities, connect individuals and organizations with similar sustainability goals, and serve sustainability research and projects in academics and industry.
Ready to get involved? NHESC is the Northwest's only inter-collegiate campus sustainability partnership, and that is something worth notice.
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In no particular order, the Consortium partners are Skagit Valley Community College, Bellingham Technical College, Whatcom Community College, Northwest Indian College, and Western Washington University. These five institutions have defined a relationship within the context of four interconnected goals.
- First, to facilitate communication and knowledge-sharing between the individual campuses and the communities they serve.
- Second, NHESC promotes scholarship that helps to define sustainability issues for a diversified audience in the Pacific Northwest.
- Thirdly, the Consortium makes introductions and mediates partnerships that advance sustainability.
- Fourth and finally, through campaigns and drives, these member colleges work together to expand opportunities for sustainability development through skills training, resources provision, and organizing workshops for public education.
In 2009 the Consortium launched their pilot project with sponsorship from St. Joseph Peace Health. Students from three member campuses came together to research alternative power sources for the medical center. They were Erika Rednizak, a Western junior and self-design major through Huxley College of the Environment; Richard Bruno, a WCC two-year-degree student and future WWU transfer student; and Sheila McElhinney, a BTC civil engineering student and former Energy Conservation staff member for Puget Sound Energy. They began their research during the 2009 spring quarter and concluded at the end of summer session, examining opportunities for solar panels, a fuel-cell array, and a heat-and-power system. Other components of the investigation included a general goal to replace older technology with high efficiency designs, incorporate or introduce locally produced options, and reduce St. Joe's overall carbon footprint.
The Consortium hopes the project will serve as a model for inter-campus collaboration and community partnerships in the future as the region strides toward sustainable solutions to common problems. 