Alpha Goes Green and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Partnership
Purpose of the Partnership
Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation, Alpha Phi Alpha, and EDF (www.edf.org) developed a partnership to raise awareness and action around energy and environmental issues that impact communities of color. The purpose of the Partnership is to help educate brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., on energy and sustainability issues, providing both education and awareness using general and context-specific training that is utilized and implemented by EDF nationally and internationally.
EDFcollaborates withpolicymakers and business leaders to define win-win solutions for environmental problems. This leading green group, founded in 1967, has tripled in size over the past decade by focusing on strong science, uncommon partnerships and market-based approaches. With programs from North Carolina to Beijing, EDF is the only environmental group to receive an A rating from Wired magazine. First, Alpha Phi Alpha and EDF partnership will develop and implement a web-based training at the national level. After educating the Alpha Phi Alpha membership on green issues, the next phase will be for the college and alumni chapters to develop individual college campus energy, environmental and sustainability outreach initiatives to lead peers in creative and relevant sustainability demonstration projects. The partnership will also collaborate with college campuses to examine their energy consumption, environmental behaviors and look for ways to implement green concepts in existing curriculum. This is important as college campuses are huge energy consumers and often don’t have the resources to look at energy efficiency implementation. We believe that if campus administrations are examining their behavior and becoming more environmentally conscious, it will encourage students to do the same.
The Partnership will develop educational and training materials for the Alpha Phi Alpha organization and provide technical assistance and other resources that can be used by college and alumni chapters for their sustainability programs. EDF provides internationally recognized expertise in the energy and sustainability arena and Alpha Phi Alpha provides access to a new population of college students paired with local graduate and alumni chapters to create a new cadre of environmental advocates and leaders. Because communities of color have been traditionally left out of the mainstream environmental efforts, we have chosen to focus on two primary areas. First, there must be general education on sustainability and environmental issues, including environmental justice and public health concerns. This introductory information will be important as members learn environmental concepts, history surrounding the environmental and environmental justice movements, and environmentalism through different disciplines/sectors. Second, the partnership will focus on the issues related to climate change and how it often impacts individuals, which include: the need to decrease greenhouse gases emissions in our communities from our homes, buildings, and the movement of goods; campus energy use and the implementation of energy efficiency measures; and the green jobs movement.
Why is this Collaboration Important?
The current green student and mainstream environmental movements lack diversity, and it is imperative that we take an "all hands on deck” approach to solving the world’s toughest environmental issues. Members of communities of color are not as actively involved in the mainstream environmental movement as other populations. The movement has not been able to adequately engage or frame issues that appeal to different audiences, such as communities of color or those that are part of the environmental justice movement. For example, when discussing the impacts of climate change, the threat to polar bears may not resonate with and encourage action by some audiences. When talking about these issues, it is important to "meet people where they are” and frame messages that will speak to them.
Many efforts from traditional environmental organizations to educate college students focus only on the campuses of primarily white institutions (PWIs). On PWIs, there may be environmental movements, but students of color are not actively involved or particularly engaged in these groups, which may be due to the disconnect between the environment and social justice, economic justice, and public health justice on these campuses. With regard to students on the campuses of HBCUs, there has been very little outreach or exchange regarding environmental concepts. The issues of justice, political inclusion, economic opportunities, empowerment, and health disparities are more salient to many students of color.
In order to increase awareness for African -American communities of the environmental movement, this project helps contribute to what will be a vested, student-led movement that frames environmental issues in ways that are relevant to this population. EDF wants to eliminate the perception of exclusion and demonstrate that if we are going to meet the goals required to preserve our most important resources (the health of people and the sustainability of the planet), we need everyone to participate and contribute to the solution. This is important because many of today’s African-American leaders in politics, science, engineering, and entertainment are alumni of HBCUs, and it is very important that these students be equipped with the same material as other colleges and universities to prepare for the new green economy.
How: The Alpha Goes Green-EDF education project will focus on educating college and alumni brothers The Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation will work with EDF to create an environmental education training program in which Brothers will participate. Alpha Phi Alpha has college chapters at PWIs, HBCUs, and other institutions of higher education as well as alumni chapters in cities across the country. Alpha Phi Alpha is divided into five regions (Southern, Eastern, Midwestern, Southwestern, and Western). College and alumni brothers will be trained on various energy and environmental issues at Alpha’s regional events and conferences. These newly trained participants will then have the capacity to return to their college or alumni chapter and train their members. This will help us be successful in achieving our goals of environmental education, increasing the membership’s knowledge of human health issues associated with environmental pollution, and increasing their environmental stewardship.
The environmental training designed by the Alpha Phi Alpha and EDF partnership will primarily be done through a series of internet based modules that will focus on overall sustainability (energy efficiency, water efficiency, and carbon footprint reduction), alternative energy and climate change to ensure a basic level of consistent education throughout the organization. The training modules will also relate these topics to environmental justice and public health issues. EDF will work with the Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation to develop a curriculum using information from fact sheets, presentations, reports, various climate change and global warming materials, and information provided through other mediums from governmental agencies (including EPA), other non-profits and academia. This comprehensive online environmental training will also be reviewed by an environmental education workgroup, which will be 5-7 environmental educators from various universities, assembled at the beginning of this grant to provide input on the curriculum.
Also, EDF will develop a plan to work with Alpha campuses where sustainability projects are occurring to: (1) understand their energy consumption and environmental behaviors and cite changes as they occur throughout campuses and (2) look at college curriculum to see where courses can implement green principles.
In 2009, EDF’s Southeast office introduced the "Climate Corps Program and Partnership” idea to North Carolina Central University and Johnson C. Smith University – two well respected Historically Black Colleges and Universities in North Carolina. EDF's Climate Corps program places MBA students from top U.S. business schools in Fortune 500 companies for a ten-week fellowship during the summer. EDF placed three fellows at North Carolina Central University and Johnson C. Smith University who identified numerous low-cost and no-cost energy savings opportunities that could achieve extensive annual monetary and energy savings exceeding $1 million.
In addition, the Climate Corps fellows and University personnel discovered that with a $3 million investment, North Carolina Central University could realize a $13 million savings over 5 years and a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; and with a $340,000 investment, Johnson C. Smith University could cut their annual energy costs by 25%.
In addition to the campus facility improvements, EDF also partnered with North Carolina A&T State University (NC A&T) to develop an MBA "green e-business and commerce” course. The course consists of a semester-long project that requires the students to create a 1) business plan that makes the "business case” for Green IT initiatives in campus computer labs and dormitories, 2) web-based "storefront” targeted to NC A&T students and other stakeholders that sells ideas about Green IT awareness and behavior changes that can lead to reducing NC A&T’s carbon footprint, and 3) virtual presentation to be hosted online that explains the initiatives outlined in the business plan. The students focused on three major areas: energy conservation; equipment disposal and recycling; and education for students, faculty, and staff on campus energy consumption. EDF will help Alpha college chapters repeat these efforts on their campuses particularly HBCU campuses.
If you are interesting in learning more about the Alpha Goes Green-EDF Partnership, please contact Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Acting Chair of the Alpha Goes Green Initiative at wilsons2@mailbox.sc.edu or Michael Regan, SE Climate and Air Policy Director at mregan@edf.org.