History

// about / history

Students for a Sustainable Stanford was formed in the Spring of 2000 by a small group of individuals, some of whom wanted to encourage green building on campus, and others who wanted to reduce Stanford's greenhouse gas emissions. Our primary focus during our first year-and-a-half was to increase the incorporation of green building strategies and techniques in campus buildings. We joined forces to work toward getting a green building policy in place on campus. Our central argument was the following: green and energy-efficient buildings not only save resources, but also save the University a significant amount of money by reducing energy operating costs over the life of the buildings. We hold that while remaining sensitive to economic concerns, it is possible to construct buildings that are healthy for their occupants and are respectfully integrated into the local environment.

Since Fall 2001, the group has been extremely successful in advancing these policies. To raise general awareness and support for these issues on campus, we mounted a large campaign to educate students, faculty, administrators, and the Board of Trustees. We have also published op-eds in the campus newspaper and have had several articles published about our work. We successfully lobbied both the Associated Students of Stanford University and the Graduate Student Council to pass statements of support. Both of these organizations delegated their negotiating authority to our Task Force on these issues so that we spoke for over 15,000 students when advocating our proposals. We have collaborated a great deal with key faculty members, especially those with expertise in the engineering aspects of green building, and we have met in strategy sessions with outside experts and alumni in the green building field. We have also communicated with several members of the Board of Trustees concerning our proposals.

In March 2001, the top Land and Building administrators made a proposal to us to create a new committee within their administration to review past projects and to make a policy recommendation on green building. Negotiations stemming from this proposal ultimately resulted in the formation of the Environmental Stewardship Management Group, a committee composed of Land and Buildings staff, faculty, academic staff, and student representatives from our group. The committee was charged with the creation and implementation of Stanford-specific sustainable building guidelines for future construction on campus. In Stanford’s first formalized attempt to incorporate green building principles into its buildings, these new Stanford Guideline for Sustainable Building was released in March 2002.

Since those formative years, the group has acquired more areas of interest, more fields of organizing, and other methods of action. At various times, we have met with the University President, Provost, and Assistants to the President. We also met with the top energy administrators on campus and began a process with them to identify problems and solutions to incorporating more sustainable procedures and techniques within the institution. Currently, we run a variety of campaigns and events on campus. For more information, visit the projects page.