EcoAmerica News Blog

The Presidents Climate Commitment Transforms Higher Education

Climate Leadership For America, the 2007 Annual Report for the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, has been released by supporting organizations ecoAmerica, AASHE (the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) and Second Nature.  The document showcases the most prominent successes of the program to date.

Download the Report here.

ecoAmerica Annual Report

We completed our first year of operations with some stunning successes and daunting challenges.  Get the details in our 2007 Annual Report.

Download the 2007 ecoAmerica Annual Report

Princeton Review to Include ‘Green Rating’ in Annual Guide

The Princeton Review (TPR) recently announced its recent addition of a Green Rating to flagship publication, The 368 Best Colleges.  The Rating was created in partnership with ecoAmerica and will be released online and with TPR's college guide later this summer.

'Start With People' - A Successful Model

In its first 18 months, ecoAmerica launched a set of high-impact programs including the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, GreenCareers and the American Environmental Values Survey.

The organization has partnered up with some of the largest names in the environmental and business community including: Environmental Defense Fund, Monster.com,  the Clinton Foundation, National Geographic, The Princeton Review and SRIC-BI.

These partnerships gave ecoAmerica the leverage to engage over 4 million students and 500+ leaders at higher education institutions in all 50 states.

ecoAmerica "starts with people" and uses consumer research, partnerships and engagement marketing to shift the personal and civic choices of mainstream Americans.  Read more in the 2007 Annual Report.

Download the 2007 ecoAmerica Annual Report

'Green' Bandwagon is Getting a Big Push

Originally posted March 24, 2008
By Marilyn Elias, USA Today

"The missing ingredient is the force of public opinion."

That's the line Cathy Zoi recalls from former vice president Al Gore when he urged her to become CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Green Planning on a Grand Scale

Originally posted March 4, 2008 
By Ella Powers, Inside Higher Ed

It’s a warm and brilliantly sunny February afternoon, even by Southern California standards, and hundreds of cars are parked beneath canopies at East Los Angeles College. Several other spots on campus offer temporary shade, but this one has an added purpose.

Green Marketing Shakeout in 2008

2007 was a breakout year for green marketing.  High visibility marketing efforts from giants like GE and Wal-Mart moved into full steam and buzz around green marketing jumped dramatically. 

David Wigder writes:

…interest in green marketing continued to trend upward in 2007. In fact, according to Technorati Charts, the average number of daily references to “green marketing” in the blogosphere doubled from about 150 per day in 2006 to more than 300 per day during the second half of 2007.

How many times have we seen “It’s easy being green” as a headline?  That may be about to change.

ecoAmerica Job Opening: Program Director

Have you always wanted to use your project skills to make the world a better place?  We are on the lookout for someone with excellent project and program management expertise to help save the planet.

All I Want for Christmas Is a Compost Bin

Originally posted Nov. 29, 2007
by Sara Schaefer Munoz, The Wall Street Journal

Eco-Friendly Retailers Tout
'Green' Holiday Presents;
Carbon-Offset Gift Certificates

Are soy candles and spinning composters on your holiday list this year? A bevy of so-called green retailers are hoping so.

Things moving fast

Things are moving fast. Just a few weeks ago the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) set a goal for getting all new construction in California to be climate neutral by 2030.  Whether by accident or by design, this parallels the Architecture 2030 initiative led by American Institute of Architects, US Green Building Council, Pacific Gas & Electric and numerous others.  The city of Santa Barbara had just passed an ordinance to implement Architecture 2030, the first public ordinance implementing the 2030 goals, almost simultaneously the CPUC decided to stake it’s claim on similar ground.