The Purpose Driven Stimulus Package

In his first weekly YouTube address as president, Barack Obama outlines the Administration's plan for the forthcoming stimulus package which he hopes will be signed into law within a month.

From the Whitehouse.gov website:

"(T)he plan will update our electric grid by laying more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines; weatherize 2.5 million homes; protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans in danger of losing their coverage; secure 90 major ports; renovate 10,000 schools; and triple the number of science fellowships."

A link to the full transcript and video:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/president-obama-delivers-your-weekly-address/

Green Campus Movement

Did you know that many US college presidents are working in a concerted effort to green our nations campuses?

Signatories of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment agree to institute proactive measures to cut campus emissions and waste. The document specifies several areas of action including a commitment to design new buildings to meet or exceed the US Green Building Council's LEED silver designation.

FYI: LEED has four levels of certification - certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The lowest level, Certified, indicates that some measures have been taken to minimize the building's carbon footprint. A Platinum designation is meted out for an A++ in sustainability; not many currently exist. Silver and Gold are somewhere in between.

President Martha Dunagin Saunders of the University of Southern Mississippi (where I am teaching a sustainability seminar this spring) signed the document when she was chancelor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and then again as president of USM.

To view the commitment - it's only two pages, go for it - click here:

http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.pdf

And check to see if the leader of your institution of higher learning is a signatory.

http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/signatories.php