Back to School Shopping Madness: From Kindergarten through College, It’s Time to Curb the Stuff

Robin Shreeves — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:14:13 +0000

According to a recent article in USA Today, Costly College Prerequisite: Decorate Dorm, 17.6 billion dollars is expected to be spent on back to school shopping for students in kindergarten through college this year. That’s $527.08 per family - an 18% rise from last year. Back to school shopping falls right behind holiday shopping for retailer’s most profitable season.

Why?

Sure, there are some necessities that need to be bought when going back to school. My sons both have a page long list of items that they are required to have on the first day of school - pencils, composition notebooks, scissors, a box of tissues, etc. When I was a kid, schools supplied those things, but budgets are ever tightening and now families are required to buy them. I certainly won’t be buying $527.08 worth of necessary supplies, though. I don’t think anyone will be buying $527.08 of necessary supplies, unless their definition of necessary is different from mine.

I was in Target last night, and there was an entire section dedicated to the necessities for a college dorm room. This was separate from the traditional back to school section with school supplies. This section had coordinated dorm bedding, rugs, lamps, wall hangings and desk top accessories. Other items that many college kids consider necessities are computers (okay, I’ll give them that), microwaves, TV’s, DVD players, gaming consoles, mp3 players, hand held gaming systems, and stereos.

Measuring Sustainability on Campus: AASHE Launches Pilot of STARS

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:33:35 +0000

What’s the best defense against charges of “greenwashing?” Its measurement, of course: accurate, verifiable assessments provide evidence that an institution is “walking the walk” in its efforts to operate more sustainably. While the business world might have the most to gain in terms of releasing concrete data regarding sustainability initiatives, higher education’s enthusiastic embrace of green initiatives has also drawn scrutiny from a variety of stakeholders: students, faculty, administrators, alumni and board members all want to know that a campus’ efforts to “go green” represent sound investments in both the institution’s, and the planet’s, well-being. While a number of reports have measured various aspects of college and university environmental programs, no single method for assessing campus sustainability exists… well, until now.

Last week, I ran across an article from the Washington University Record noting that it, along with 89 other institutions, was participating in the pilot stage of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). The pilot represents the start of “a collaborative process to develop a campus sustainability rating system” with the following goals:

Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education, from governance and operations to academics and community engagement.
Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education.
Create incentives for continuous improvement toward sustainability.
Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance.
Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community and promote a comprehensive understanding of sustainability that includes its social, economic and environmental dimensions.

Green Options » college

Back to School Shopping Madness: From Kindergarten through College, It’s Time to Curb the Stuff

Measuring Sustainability on Campus: AASHE Launches Pilot of STARS