Sustainability

Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC)

PCC’s Sustainability Practices and Resources for Curriculum (SPARC) Council is a volunteer council that oversees the integration of sustainability into PCC’s curriculum across all disciplines. SPARC members include staff, administrators, and instructors from across the disciplines. SPARC facilitates sharing, design and development of all curriculum between faculty. This is done through workshops, meetings and conferences (see below for events). It also serves as an advisory board for sustainability-related academic curricular and program development. As part of this latter work, SPARC coordinates the Student Sustainability Focus Award. The committee regularly meets each term and if you are interested in participating or getting more information, contact the SPARC Co-Chairs: Roberta Richards [opens in new window] and Peter Ritson [opens in new window].

Check out this story about one of the awardees Heifara Wheeler earning national New Century Scholarship!

Events

Meeting Minutes

Winter 2023 Meeting Minutes

Climate Justice Education Week

This spring PCC will join schools and colleges in 40+ nations to participate in Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week, April 7-13, 2025. There are multiple ways you can participate and join our college in being part of the climate solution. PCC is hosting events all week long, see below for details. See full list of events on the event website. Note, some events do require pre-registration.

Bonus! Students who attend an event during the week and fill out a follow-up survey will be entered into a drawing for one of four $50 gift cards, to either Fred Meyer or DoorDash.

Contact SPARC co-chairs Peter Ritson[opens in new window] [opens in new window] or Roberta Richards[opens in new window] [opens in new window] with questions.

Spring Term Meeting

More details to come.

WOHESC 2025 Conference

PCC was a proud co-host of the Washington Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference (WOHESC).

SPARC, the Sustainability Department and Student Life & Leadership provided funding for staff, faculty and students to attend the conference this year.

The WOHESC 2025 Conference is scheduled to be in person at PCC in March of 2025!

If you are interested in attending this conference or need help with funding, contact Briar at briar.schoon@pcc.edu [opens in new window].

News

Check out these stories about the amazing accomplishments of Kim Smith, PCC Sociology Faculty. Kim has received recognition for her terrific work with sustainability, in these two articles: EcoChallenge and on Hope and Resilience.

Sustainability Focus Award

The PCC Sustainability Focus Award is designed for students who are interested in exploring the interdependent social, economic and environmental pillars (the triple-bottom-line) of sustainability topics from multiple perspectives, and in increasing their course experience in this multi-disciplinary topic.

Steps to apply for a Sustainability Focus Award

  1. Review requirements and application details
  2. Fill out this application

See previous student awardees!

Initiatives

2030 Objectives

Increase sustainability throughout academic curricular and co-curricular programming at PCC.

2016 Academic Curricular and Co-curricular Programming Action Items:

  • Implement SPARC’s “Seven Sustainability-Focused Learning Outcomes [pdf]” into current and newly developed courses at PCC.
  • In collaboration with the PCC Curriculum Office, design and implement a search capability through Courseleaf to easily identify courses with sustainability-focused content. To be developed through the curriculum office.
  • In collaboration with the PCC Curriculum Office, continue development of distinguishing “focused” courses and “related” courses parallel with AASHE’s STARS reporting.
  • Provide continued support in curriculum development to insure creation of new or revised sustainability courses at PCC.
  • Award the Sustainability Focus Award to students who have a sustainability focus in their studies.
  • Support professional development and capacity building related to sustainability curriculum for faculty.
  • Build sustainability into student, faculty and staff orientations to support curriculum initiatives at the college.
  • Design a sustainability curriculum packet to include in materials for various faculty orientations.
  • Collaborate with the Learning Assessment Council in assessment strategies and examples through the adding of the “Seven sustainability-focused Outcomes” to CCOGs, with measurable outcomes.
  • Through PCC’s Core Outcome #2 of “Community and Environmental Responsibility,” create collaborations with the Internationalization Committee, the Diversity Council, the Service-Learning program, and community partners to address global environmental awareness, environmental justice, social equity, and food security in sustainability curriculum.

Increase focused educational programs and options to meet sustainability-focused workforce needs.

2016 Focused Educational Programs and Options Action Items:

  • Explore the development of an academic Sustainable Agriculture Program
  • Explore offering LEED certification education and establish partners with businesses working in this field.
  • Explore new opportunities to create focused educational programs in coordination with the State of Oregon 40-40-20 Initiative and the U.S. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) movement.
2021 Climate Action Plan

PCC’s 2021 Climate Action Plan: Resiliency, Equity and Education for a Just Transition is the college’s five-year roadmap towards climate justice.

Unified under a shared vision, PCC’s 2021 Climate Action Plan establishes a new carbon neutrality goal of 2040 and builds off an impressive amount of work done to-date to outline clear pathways for equity-focused climate action to be woven throughout operations, academics, student engagement and future planning.

PCC’s 2021 CAP has four focus areas, two of which address PCC’s GHG emissions from its operations, a section focused on education and outreach to ensure the PCC community has the tools, resources and knowledge to lead in climate action, and resiliency to help PCC equitably adapt to global climate change. Each focus area has five year goals and associated strategies, vetted through a Climate Action Equity Guide, to set PCC on the path to 2040 carbon neutrality and climate justice.

View PCC’s 2021 Climate Action Plan [pdf]

How to get Involved

Participants receive a stipend (part-time faculty) for the sustainability in curriculum training and are provided support, through SPARC, in the development of a new course, or the revision of a current course. Additionally, faculty can receive funding for conferences, trainings, and other professional development through the Teaching Learning Centers, Professional & Organizational Development, and SPARC to sustainability-related trainings. We are also working with our Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs to prioritize professional development funding for faculty developing new courses or adding green outcomes to existing courses. In addition, PCC provides release time to a faculty member to coordinate the SPARC council.

For more information or to join the council, contact the SPARC Co-Chairs: Roberta Richards and Peter Ritson [opens in new window]