VCU honored for leadership in higher education sustainability

By Megan Schmidt

Virginia Commonwealth University was honored recently by the 2014 Energy and Sustainability Conference with a Crystal Award in higher education for a four-year public university. The Crystal Awards highlight public and private sustainability best practices in six market sectors, including government, manufacturing and commercial real estate. The other higher education recipients this year included Tidewater Community College and Washington and Lee University.

The conference’s higher education sub-committee selected VCU for its leadership in campus sustainability, but also specifically for the vision of departing director of the Office of Sustainability, Jacek Ghosh.

The award came as a surprise to Ghosh, who had been misled by the chair of the conference, Larry Cummings, to think that a different university had won.

“Jacek’s a great guy,” Cummings said. “We wanted to surprise him with this award. He’ll be missed, but he did a great job at VCU.”

After accepting the award on behalf of VCU, Ghosh reflected on its meaning.

“It’s very heartwarming and I’m glad that we were recognized as a university and all of the various folks that make it happen,” Ghosh said. “Sustainability is a many person game, not one person.”

Ghosh was appointed to his position in 2008 and has since been a guiding force behind the formation of a universitywide sustainable committee, 10-LEED certified buildings on campus in the past five years, solar and wind applications, single-stream recycling, RamBikes bike loan system, the installation of three green roofs, rain gardens, bayscaping, a community garden, the acquisition of electric fleet vehicles and charging stations and much more.

He leaves at the end of February to join the sustainability team at Temple University in Philadelphia.

The conference, held on Feb. 11 – 12 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, featured more than 500 business and industry leaders focused on using sustainability practices to change their organizations and achieve results. It was hosted in part by VCU and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

 

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