California State University, Chico
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

The Institute for Sustainable Development and the Associated Students of CSU, Chico co-host this annual event. This year, we would like to welcome you to our 13th annual This Way to Sustainability Conference. This year’s conference theme, “When will climate neutrality become our climate reality?,” recognizes that we are increasingly confronting new global socioeconomic and environmental challenges. This conference represents a time to reflect on and explore innovative ideas, grounded in sustainable development principles, which can help guide us through the uncertainties of our shared future. We encourage you to join in open conversation, learn from each other, and build new friendships and professional associations. During the next two days, we will explore collaborative and interdisciplinary solutions to unsustainable practices; to that end, we have organized cross-disciplinary conference tracks, investigating the interface between environmental, cultural, economic, and social concerns. We look forward to hearing the perspectives you bring to our shared hopes and vision for a sustainable future.

This two-day conference, now in its 13th year, hosts nearly 100 sustainability professionals from throughout the nation in 65-80 panel presentations and workshops each year. Participants include over 800 CSU, community college, and K-12 students, as well as campus and community members totaling between 1,200-1,500 attendees each year. The conference engages our students and community members in volunteer opportunities to host the conference. These volunteers, estimated at 80-100 each year, not only gain the experience of hosting the largest, student-run sustainability conference of its kind in North America, but are also given the rare opportunity to engage on a professional and more engaged level with sustainability professionals, and make long-term connections that may provide an advantage in applying for future career opportunities.

The Wildcat Sustainability Showdown is CSU, Chico’s take on the nationally coordinated energy conservation program Campus Conservation Nationals. For three consecutive years the Institute for Sustainable Development coordinated participation in this Program in two of our residence halls – Shasta and Lassen. For three weeks the two halls compete for the greatest reduction in electricity consumption. This reduction is measured against a two-week baseline of average electricity consumption in both halls taken just prior to the competition. The two halls compete against each other for the greatest reduction – with the winning hall hosting the Green Cup for the next year – and with their combined average reduction our campus competes against others across California and the nation.

The first year the two halls reduced their electricity consumption by 12.3% and 13.1%, with a combined campus average of 12.7% which took first place in the CSU/UC PowerSave Campus League. The second year the two halls reduced their electricity consumption by 23.7% and 23.9%, with a combined average of 23.8% which again took first place in the CSU/UC PowerSave Campus League and first place nationally out of over 100 participating colleges and universities. The third year, 2015) the halls reduced by 23.8% and 27.8% , with a combined average of 25.9% which took first place in the inaugural year of the CSU Jupiter Energy Conservation League and was a top ten finish nationally out of over 100 participating colleges and universities.

The Institute for Sustainable Development hosted a series of four films during the month of October in honor of Campus Sustainability Month. These films were free and open to the public and helped to generate conversation about a variety of sustainability-related topics. See attached poster for outline, including a live stream Q&A with Former Vice President Al Gore and screening of the film An Inconvenient Truth.

Each film screening hosted between 30-50 participants, students, staff, faculty and community.