PSC Named as AASHE Award Finalist

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced Prairie State College (PSC) and its South Metropolitan Higher Education Consortium (SMHEC) partners, including University of St. Francis, Governors State University, Joliet Junior College, Lewis University, and Moraine Valley Community College, as a finalist for the 2019 AASHE Sustainability Awards for "Growing Sustainable Communities Together Through Leadership in Higher Education."

Winners will be announced mid-September and recognized during the opening ceremony at the AASHE Conference & Expo in Spokane, Washington on Oct. 27. Finalists’ entries will be judged on overall impact, innovation, stakeholder involvement, clarity and other criteria specific to each category.

“Prairie State College is proud to be recognized alongside these excellent institutions as a finalist for this award,” said PSC President Dr. Terri L. Winfree. “The SMHEC Sustainability Committee members deserve to be commended for all the work they have done to keep in the forefront the importance of supporting sustainable initiatives on our campuses and in our communities.”

The SMHEC Sustainability Committee was established in 2009 by SMHEC’s Presidents’ Council to strengthen its member institutions’ capacities to leverage resources and information particular to sustainability and the application of renewable practices. For 10 years, the group has focused attention on creating resilient campuses, minimizing costs and increasing resources to provide more services to member students and communities.

Since its inception, the Sustainability Committee has hosted a five institution-wide sustainability conferences, nine student sustainability summits, and more than 10 community-based sustainability events; realized institutional savings by purchasing electricity together as a consortium; released a join Solar RFP that resulted in five institutions preparing to install solar arrays on their campus; created three regional sustainability networks targeting more than 1,000 individuals; partnered with the Metropolitans Mayors Caucus on several initiatives, including most recently the Greenest Region Corps, which enabled SMHEC to receive full-time assistance from an Americorps volunteer for a period of one year to expand our community sustainability efforts; and received the Illinois Governors Sustainability Award in 2018 for their student engagement efforts in sustainability.

“The higher education sustainability community continues to stay focused on work that contributes toward a thriving, equitable and ecologically healthy world. This is most evident through the entries received for the AASHE Sustainability Awards,” said Executive Director Meghan Fay Zahniser. “I am happy that we can recognize the innovation and leadership demonstrated by this year’s finalists.”

To learn more about AASHE’s Sustainability Awards programs, please visit http://www.aashe.org/get-involved/awards/.

About Prairie State College

Prairie State College is a two-year community college offering associate degrees, technical and career certificates, and adult, corporate, and continuing education. The college also offers instruction and training on-site at area companies, schools and dozens of other locations throughout the Chicago south suburbs.

About AASHE

AASHE empowers higher education administrators, faculty, staff and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. AASHE enables members to translate information into action by offering essential resources and professional development to a diverse, engaged community of sustainability leaders. We work with and for higher education to ensure that our world's future leaders are motivated and equipped to solve sustainability challenges. For more information, visit www.aashe.org. Follow AASHE on Facebook and Twitter.