The International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) provides a global forum to support leading colleges, universities, and corporate campuses in the exchange of information, ideas, and best practices for achieving sustainable campus operations and integrating sustainability in research and teaching. During its 2011 conference, June 8-10, in Gothenburg, Sweden, the network will announce the winners of the third ISCN Awards and present them with sustainably harvested bamboo plaques during an evening ceremony attended by campus sustainability practitioners from around the world.

The winner of the ISCN Award for Excellence in Campus was Brown University and the winner of the ISCN oikos Student Leadership in Sustainable Campus Award was a project team from Cornell University's Sustainable Design Program. The ISCN Awards are open to any college or university world-wide that has developed outstanding construction or educational projects that promote sustainability on campus and in the surrounding community. Over the past three years, over 100 applications have been submitted for these awards, from schools in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and Australia.

"The ISCN Excellence Awards were started in order to recognize outstanding projects in campus sustainability from around the world," stated Bernd Kasemir, ISCN Program Manager. "Over the past few years, it has been a privilege to see the innovative projects that are happening on the campuses of colleges and universities. As these are the places where the next generation of our world’s leaders are educated, their commitment to sustainability will hopefully infuse the students with the same ideas. The winner of this year’s awards, Brown University and the winners of the ISCN oikos Student Award for Sustainable Campus from Cornell University demonstrate exactly that high level of commitment."

Brown University received the ISCN Excellence in Campus award for their Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program and Goals. Brown University has shown an impressive pace in implementing their comprehensive program involving all relevant stakeholders on campus. They are well ahead of their initial schedule with a greenhouse gas reduction of 21% since 2007 and annual savings of $1.8 Million USD.

The Cornell University Sustainable Design Program won the ISCN oikos Student Leadership Award in Sustainable Campus for their Schoolhouse South Africa project, an interdisciplinary student-led design-build project and research endeavor to finance, design, and build a 6,000 square foot preschool and teacher training center in South Africa. This award was initiated in collaboration with oikos International and is sponsored by the oikos Foundation, an international student organization with 30 chapters based at universities around the world.

Background about the ISCN:

The ISCN is a global network of colleges and universities that are actively pursuing sustainability across their educational and research missions and operations. The ISCN offers a sustainable campus charter and sustainability reporting framework in conjunction with the World Economic Forum's Global University Leaders Forum, and has active working groups and conferences/events to promote best practice exchange. More information on the ISCN and its members can be found at http://www.international-sustainable-campus-network.org/.

Background about the ISCN Excellence Awards:

2011 is the third year that the ISCN Excellence Awards have been presented. Previous award winners include King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), University of Bradford (United Kingdom), University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Leuphana University (Germany), Ecole Polytechnique de Federale Lausanne (Switzerland), and Australia National University (Australia).

The international jury responsible for selecting the winners has included Professor John Spengler (Harvard University), Professor Jelena Srebric (Pennsylvania State University), Professor Jenny Su (National Cheng Kung University Taiwan), Dr. Peter Hopkinson, (University of Bradford, and HEEPI UK), Professor Yong Kwet Yew (National University of Singapore), and Professor Hongwei Tan (Tongji University). The ISCN Working Group responsible for designing and managing the awards process is led by Professor Claude Siegenthaler (Hosei University), and is supported by the ISCN secretariat.

sustainserv, inc.

sustainserv, inc.

Sustainserv is a management consultancy based in Zurich, Switzerland and Boston, Massachusetts that offers smart, structured and simple solutions to corporations of all sizes to help them integrate sustainability into their strategies, operations and communications.

More from sustainserv, inc.