Campus Sustainability Council

The mission of the Campus Sustainability Council (CSC) is to make Colorado College a model for campus and community sustainability.

The CSC, an advisory committee appointed by and reporting to the President's Office, works to design, promote, and implement initiatives that are ecologically viable, economically sound, and socially just, now and for future generations. The CSC plays a key role in raising campus awareness and keeping sustainability issues at the forefront, reminding us all to live up to Colorado College's core value of nurturing a sense of place and an ethic of environmental sustainability.

Each year, members of the Campus Sustainability Council work together on a wide range of projects. In addition to a specific focus on timely topics, the regular agenda includes advancing strategies for carbon neutrality, reporting and benchmarking progress using STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System), expanding community outreach and collaboration for sustainability, and administering a $50k annual Sustainability Project Fund.

In collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, the CSC:

  • Initiates and directs carbon neutrality efforts through energy efficiency, community conservation, and renewable energy projects
  • Cultivates allies around campus and across our region
  • Consults with campus constituencies to provide strategies and plans to meet identified goals
  • Funds innovative and measurable projects to promote and pursue a climate of sustainability at CC
  • Proposes, measures, and reports on sustainability metrics and goals
  • Serves as a forum open to the entire community
  • Advocates for further institutional commitment to develop and instill a literacy around sustainability issues

main goals

Academic Year 20-21 Update: The Campus Sustainability Council's Steering Committee will be using the opportunity presented by these uncertain times to re-evaluate how the CSC functions and provides meaningful engagement and information gathering and dissemination pertaining to sustainability at CC. We do not plan to formally constitute a Campus Sustainability Council this year, but instead, plan to hold meetings twice a semester in a town hall format to continue to inform our campus of the work that is happening. We know that while that work dovetails with many other efforts across the college, much of it happens behind the scenes, and communication of that work continues to be important, as is gathering of input on our next steps.

During this year, we plan to address and gather information primarily around the following themes:

  • What comes next at CC for sustainability, now that we have hit the milestone of carbon neutrality
  • Continue to increase the transparency and recognition of sustainability work that is happening in offices and departments across campus
  • Explicitly connect sustainability and Racial Equity and Social Justice issues

In the immediate future, the Steering Committee will continue to highlight the importance of support for campus-wide sustainability efforts for the acting co-presidents and the Board of Trustees, reiterating the importance of leadership that supports progressive sustainability and climate action in the presidential search as outlined in Storbeck Search & Associates' presidential search document.

Thank you for your continued interest and work supporting and advancing sustainability efforts across the college, especially during these uncertain times.

~The Campus Sustainability Council Steering Committee

our findings: what's next?

Through the various changes in leadership and challenges to continuity presented by COVID-19, the Office of Sustainability and the Campus Sustainability Council have carried on with the work that began with the Climate Change Task Force under Provost Townsend. The committee has spent this past year researching best practices, comparing leading and peer institutions, and surveying ideas, attitudes, and hopes of the campus community and beyond to determine what comes next for sustainability at CC all compiled into a report to President Richardson. 

In this report, several key pieces of information that support this work and give contextual background before diving into the findings were included. As well as, a compilation and analysis of a survey to serve as a conduit for the voices and trends across higher education as well as the CC community. 

  • Brief Historical Context of Sustainability Efforts at CC 
  • Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System: STARS® Priorities
  • 2020-21 Sustainability Survey: Findings
  • Comparison of CC’s Sustainability Programming to Leading/Peer Institutions 

We view the current moment in time — both due to the pandemic and due to the change in leadership — as an opportune time to address this question, provide recommendations, and begin planning for our next steps.

Our overarching recommendations are: 

  • Maintain and strengthen institutional focus and commitment to sustainability at CC by building on past successes.
    • Determine new goals and next steps, including stretch goals by determining resources as needed to work towards goals.
  • Clearly connect sustainability efforts at CC to other campus-wide commitments and strategic initiatives that are inherently connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
    • Examples: becoming an antiracist institution; creating equitable access to education; promoting social justice, emphasizing health and well-being for the community, etc.

To that end, our primary requests at this time are:

  • To formally constitute the Campus Sustainability Council (CSC) as a Presidential Advisory Committee as in prior years for the upcoming academic year.
    • Work with the Steering Committee to identify and appoint individual members to CSC and develop a charge for the committee.
  • To meet in person in late summer/early fall to determine the above institutional goals and the strategies required to achieve them in partnership with the CSC.

View the full report

Report an issue - Last updated: 09/08/2022

View Our Latest Report

Check out the CSC's latest report to President Richardson about sustainability at CC.
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Steering Committee 20-21

Amber Brannigan
Associate Vice President - Facilities Services

Luke Cammack
Patron Experience Manager - FAC

Filip Carnogursky
2nd Year Student

George Eckhardt
Campus Planner - Facilities Services

Ian Johnson
Director - Office of Sustainability

Stephany Marreel
Director - Planned Giving

Ty Nagamatsu
Estate Settlement & Gift Planning Officer - Development: Gift Planning

Kimberly Reeves
Interim Director - Sustainability Office at UCCS

Mae Rohrbach
Paraprofessional - Office of Sustainability

Benjamin Swift
4th Year Student


If you have the interest and capacity to be more closely involved with Steering Committee discussions, please contact Ian Johnson, Director of Sustainability, to be added to the contact list. The steering committee generally meets 1stand the 3rd Mondays of the block from 3:30-4:30 pm. 

Watch the CSC Town Hall Today

Missed the CSC's Fall Town Hall? Just click below to view the presentation.

CSC Goals & Recommendations Document

Click here to access the Campus Sustainability Council Goals and Recommendations to the President - Updated January 7th, 2019.