EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University has received a national leadership award in recognition of its efforts to promote sustainability on campus. 

At its annual meeting, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) gave MSU the Campus Sustainability Leadership Award for schools with enrollment of more than 7,500 students. 

Terry Link, the director of MSU’s Office of Campus Sustainability, said the university’s growing commitment to sustainability is what helped it earn the prestigious award. 

“We have adopted environmental stewardship as a major component of our campus vision,” Link said. “For example, we have committed to 2 percent annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through our participation in the Chicago Climate Exchange.” 

The Chicago Climate Exchange is North America’s only, and the world’s first, greenhouse gas emission registry, reduction and trading system for all six greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride).  

Other examples of the university’s commitment to sustainability include: 

• MSU’s commitment to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for new buildings. Those standards are nationally accepted benchmarks for design, construction and operation of so-called “green” buildings.
   
• MSU’s lowest electrical consumption per square feet among Big Ten universities.
   
• MSU’s wide variety of academic programs and research initiatives related to sustainability. In addition, five times more courses on sustainability were offered this year compared to 2000, and a new sustainability specialization is now being drafted. 

Link added that MSU earned the award because it looks at more than just environmental issues when it comes to sustainability. 

“Sustainability is about relationships and responsibilities such as humans to the natural world and to each other across the human family with a due consideration for the generations that follow,” Link said. “Our highly regarded sustainability reports have taken great care at trying to be mindful of those relationships and balancing them with a long-term view.” 

MSU was selected from more than 20 applicants for the award. 

“We had a very competitive pool of applicants this year, so winning one of these awards is a major achievement,” said Tom Kimmerer, executive director of the AASHE. 

Sustainability is generally described as the ability to provide for the needs of the world's current population without damaging the ability of future generations to provide for themselves. 

MSU’s Office of Campus Sustainability was organized in 2000. For additional information, visit the Web at www.ecofoot.msu.edu. 

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.