1. Environmental Sustainability on Campus
The 1999-2000 school year has been a successful one for Appalachian State's Sustainability Task Force, and for the students, staff, and faculty associated with it. Building upon the campus-wide sustainability assessment, completed by Billy Schumann in May 1999, the Task Force was able to address specific needs identified in that initial report. The recycling efforts of our campus residence halls was identified as an area in need of improvement, and was our Task Force's first priority for the school year. A meeting between the Housing Operations manager and Task Force members Jeff Boyer, Dennis Scanlin, Jim Rice, Amanda Morse, and Logan Brown yielded almost immediate and very successful results. The residence halls now have an aluminum recycling receptacle on each floor and their recycling rates have already doubled. The plan is to increase all levels of student recycling with a stepped up educational campaign as students go through freshman orientation. One of the earliest programs implemented by Appalachian State during the 99-00 school year was our Physical Plant's cooperative effort between students and campus food service providers to begin composting cafeteria feed wastes. Our Physical Plant's recycling specialist, Jim Rice, was able to combine the research efforts of students with the willing cooperation of food service director Ron Dubberly to create a composting project that is slated to remove at least two tons of food scrap annually from our campus' waste stream. The compost will be used by campus landscapers as fertilization. Future plans are to expand this composting to its legal limits. Students Actively Volunteering for the Environment (SAVE), Appalachian State's student environmental organization, has become more involved than ever with the campus physical plant. Jim Rice was selected by the group to be their staff advisor. This has allowed the students to work closely with the physical plant on all their sustainability endeavors. This relationship is planned to continue in the foreseeable future. Lee Echols, a SAVE member, has been very successful in facilitating a campus-wide recycled paper purchasing initiative. He recently received the support of Chancellor Borkowski and his advisors to mandate the use of paper with a 100 percent post-consumer waste content on campus. This paper will be provided with each departmental order unless otherwise specified by the department. Next year we shall report on the growth in use of this recycled paper across the campus. A major long-term Task Force project is the construction of a "Green" pilot building project on campus. With the support of the Governor and the State Office of Construction, the Task Force met several times to discuss how we might influence the construction process of a future building. A meeting with the Chancellor garnered his general support. A subsequent meeting with Vice Chancellor Jane Helm was very promising. Vice Chancellor Helm suggested that our Task Force, in conjunction with other interested students, meet with the architect for the new student recreation building to discuss what measures of sustainability we'd like to see in the structure. We hope that this pilot project is the beginning of a wider trend toward green construction. Next year we hope to report specific details of the planning and initial site preparation. Task Force members represented Appalachian State at several state-wide and regional environmental conferences this school year. At a meeting of North Carolina's 16 Campus Sustainability Task Forces, we had an opportunity to outline Jim's new composting program as well as our "Green" building interests. Jim Rice and Logan Brown represented Appalachian State in Atlanta at a Second Nature's Southeast Regional environmental conference. We were invited to be among the schools that presented their sustainable campus practices. We plan a campus presentation on what constitutes "best practice" in the coming fall semester. In addition to Chapel Hill and N.C. State's representation of their respective campuses, Appalachian State's environmental sustainability officer Jeff Boyer has been asked to speak on behalf of Appalachian and all other state campuses at Governor Hunt's second annual Project Green Conference in Raleigh this April 28. This honors Appalachian State's efforts and reinforces our feeling that our campus is becoming a leader in working to implement environmental sustainability measures as well as teaching it and researching it.
2. ASU's Sustainable Community Outreach
Through the Sustainable Development (SD) Program, Appalachian State, with support from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, has carried out community outreach in its mountain region since 1997. Along with land use and recycling initiatives in the town of Boone, this partnership concentrates in the rural community of Cove Creek with extensions to other sites in Watauga, Ashe, and Avery Counties. Cove Creek has become a veritable model of participatory sustainable development for other communities. The leadership of sustainable communities coordinator, Tommy Walsh, has been critical in all this activity. The SD program and Cove Creek citizens together conducted a needs assessment which enabled the newly formed community council to draw up its county recognized plan for watershed and farmland protection, preservation of historical sites, an active promotion of Appalachian traditions and culture, micro-enterprise development, and sustainable agriculture. This initiative helped Cove Creek to save its closed high school building from demolition and become the central site of a health care clinic and training school, the home to the new Doc and Merle Watson Folk Life Museum (with an annual Doc Watson concert), a day care center, and this year, the home to a new Internet support company for web- based businesses and a yard sculpture firm that together will employ 70 people. The restored building is also site of Tommy Walsh's office, appropriate for ASU's community outreach. Two other initiatives took place in the 1999-2000 year. First, a "Citizen's of the New River Headwaters" training program was held on April 17, 1999, in cooperation with the New River Community Partners. Educational workshops were held on seven aspects of community-based sustainable development. Second, Walsh has worked closely with the Nature Conservancy and the state Wildlife Commission to protect thousands of acres of Ashe County's amphibolite mountains, the home to many rare and endangered plant and animal species. Outreach plans for the rest of 2000 include the following:

* In Cove Creek, the installation of a geothermal heating system for the WPA high school building, the expansion of the health clinic and training school, the opening this summer of the Internet and yard sculpture firms and both the Doc Watson Concert (July) and third annual Farm Heritage Days celebrations (September).
* The SD Program's agroecology and sustainable agriculture program will reopen the ASU hillside training and research farm in the Cove Creek community.
* Community needs assessments for the possible formation of community councils will be completed in Shawneehaw and at least one other community.
* The formalization of agreements for the protected amphibolite mountain area of Ashe County with the state and other authorities; initiation of a major fund-raising campaign.
* Continuing efforts for sustainable communities coalition-building across Appalachia, and through the national Citizens Network for Sustainable Development (CITNET), the United States, part of the global movement to implement Earth Summit's Agenda 21.
* In all of these initiatives, both faculty/student research and students internships will expand in number and in kinds of projects.

For Further information, please contact:

Dr. Jeff Boyer
Sustainable Development Program
Appalachian State University
(828) 262-6384
boyerjc@appstate.edu

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