Campus Sustainability Advisory Council
Announcements
CSAC is now accepting applications for its major projects grant program! For more information about these funding opportunities and how to apply, please visit the Funding Requests page.
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability includes (but is not necessarily limited to) energy and resource management, conservation and stewardship as affected by systems, campus culture, transportation, the built environment, individual actions and behaviors, and more, for the long term benefit of the environment. It is a pluralistic approach to ensuring human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations.
About CSAC
The MSU Campus Sustainability Advisory Council (CSAC) was created in 2008 with the following charge:
a. Provide a university framework to coordinate and advise sustainability efforts on a campus-wide basis
b. Advise the University President regarding national, regional, institutional and community-based sustainability efforts.
c. Explore and propose methods to fund campus sustainability initiatives and improvements. Review, analyze and determine funding support for sustainability proposals, including performance measures, progress reporting, etc.
d. Sponsor and guide the development of policies to increase and promote sustainability. As noted in the MSU Vision Statement: sponsor “a comprehensive Campus Sustainability/Energy Policy that includes guidelines for building energy conservation, new construction criteria, water conservation, transportation, purchasing, and recycling, with the goal of minimizing our impact on the environment and develop and implement an educational outreach program and oversee a baseline inventory of campus energy consumption, benchmarked against national and international standards, and establish meaningful timelines and goals to optimize consumption.”
e. Guide the development of a set of sustainability measures/indicators for the campus.
f. Guide the development of a communication strategy to promote, publicize and raise awareness of MSU’s sustainability efforts, benefits and successes among campus, community and statewide constituents.
g. Solicit and support the involvement of students and student organizations relative to sustainability efforts undertaken by the Council.
h. Advocate strategic planning for continued sustainability to MSU governance groups.
i. Guide coordination with university system and state government sustainability efforts.