[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2444 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2444

To direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to establish and 
     evaluate sustainability programs, charged with developing and 
      implementing integrated environmental, economic, and social 
sustainability initiatives, and to direct the Secretary of Education to 
      convene a summit of higher education experts in the area of 
                            sustainability.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 11, 2007

Mrs. Murray (for herself, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. 
Dodd) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 
       to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to establish and 
     evaluate sustainability programs, charged with developing and 
      implementing integrated environmental, economic, and social 
sustainability initiatives, and to direct the Secretary of Education to 
      convene a summit of higher education experts in the area of 
                            sustainability.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Higher Education Sustainability Act 
of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The environmental life-support systems vital to the 
        Nation's economic and social prosperity are increasingly at 
        risk.
            (2) The Nation's institutions of higher education have a 
        unique role to play in fostering new knowledge, evaluating 
        policies, and discovering new technologies to address the 
        persistent and often linked environmental, social, and economic 
        problems that exist.
            (3) Achieving more sustainable environmental, economic, and 
        social systems will require new research, education, and 
        technology development, and innovative policy approaches that 
        are flexible and use market mechanisms while engaging relevant 
        stakeholders from the private and public sectors.
            (4) For the Nation to remain competitive in this global 
        world of increasingly limited natural resources, institutions 
        of higher education need to take immediate steps to create new 
        research, education, and technology development that reflect 
        the framework of sustainability.
            (5) The Nation's institutions of higher education also are 
        uniquely positioned to prepare the future labor force for 
        addressing threats to, and seeking opportunities for economic, 
        environmental, and social sustainability.
            (6) The Nation's institutions of higher education are 
        places where approaches that integrate the environmental, 
        social, and economic dimensions can be designed, tested, and 
        refined for application to real world settings in collaboration 
        with industry, government, and the nonprofit sector.
            (7) The Nation's institutions of higher education are 
        uniquely situated to be models of sustainable management and 
        operations that can provide examples to industry and government 
        of operational strategies that integrate the basic principles 
        of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
            (8) Numerous State governors, including those of Oregon, 
        Washington, New Jersey, and California have issued executive 
        orders for the development of State sustainability plans.
            (9) Hundreds of college campuses have already made 
        commitments to sustainable practices and lessening their carbon 
        footprint, but lack a cohesive plan.
            (10) Additionally, many campuses now offer courses on 
        sustainability, but no comprehensive system exists to evaluate 
        and compare colleges and universities in terms of overall 
        sustainability related academic programs and practices.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to provide support to faculty, staff, and students at 
        institutions of higher education to establish administrative 
        and academic sustainability programs on campus and a means to 
        measure their effectiveness;
            (2) to promote and enhance research by faculty and students 
        at institutions of higher education in sustainability practices 
        and innovations that assist and improve sustainability; and
            (3) to provide support to institutions of higher education 
        to work with community partners from the business, government, 
        and nonprofit sectors to design and implement sustainability 
        programs for application in the community and workplace.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.

    Title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1133 et 
seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

              ``PART F--UNIVERSITY SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMS

              ``Subpart 1--Sustainability Planning Grants

``SEC. 781. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall, from the funds appropriated 
under section 786, make grants to eligible entities to establish 
sustainability programs to design and implement sustainability 
practices including in the areas of energy management, green building, 
waste management, purchasing, transportation, and toxics management, 
and other aspects of sustainability that integrate campus operations 
with multidisciplinary academic programs and are applicable to the 
private and government sectors.
    ``(b) Period of Grant.--The provision of payments under a grant 
under subsection (a) may extend over a period of not more than 4 fiscal 
years.
    ``(c) Definition of Eligible Entities.--In this part, the term 
`eligible entity' means--
            ``(1) an institution of higher education that grants 2- or 
        4-year undergraduate degrees, or masters and doctoral degrees, 
        or both; or
            ``(2) a nonprofit consortia, association, alliance, or 
        collaboration operating in partnership with 1 or more 
        institutions of higher education that received funds for the 
        implementation of work associated with sustainability programs 
        under this part.
    ``(d) Administration of the Program.--
            ``(1) In general.--
                    ``(A) Eligible institution.--In this subsection, 
                the term `eligible institution' means--
                            ``(i) an institution of higher education;
                            ``(ii) a nonprofit institution; or
                            ``(iii) a consortium of institutions 
                        described in clause (i) or (ii), or both.
                    ``(B) Contract to administer.--The Secretary shall 
                enter into a multi-year contract with an eligible 
                institution to administer the grant program established 
                under this section.
            ``(2) Application.--An eligible institution desiring to 
        enter into a contract with the Secretary under paragraph (1) 
        shall submit to the Secretary an application at such time, in 
        such form, and containing such information as the Secretary may 
        require.
            ``(3) Awarding of contract.--The Secretary shall award the 
        contract under this subsection on the basis of--
                    ``(A) the capability to administer an effective and 
                fair grant-making process that solicits and identifies 
                the best possible projects for funding for the uses 
                described in section 783;
                    ``(B) the expertise of the applicant in higher 
                education sustainability;
                    ``(C) the relative economic effectiveness of the 
                program in terms of the ratio of overhead costs to 
                direct services; and
                    ``(D) such other factors as the Secretary 
                determines appropriate.
            ``(4) Evaluation.--The Secretary shall establish procedures 
        for a careful and detailed review and evaluation of the 
        administration of the higher education sustainability program 
        to determine the effectiveness of the contractor as an 
        administrator of the grant program established under this 
        section. The Secretary shall make the results of such a review 
        and evaluation publicly available.

``SEC. 782. APPLICATIONS.

    ``(a) In General.--To receive a grant under section 781(a), an 
eligible entity shall submit an application to the Secretary at such 
time, in such form, and containing such information as the Secretary 
may reasonably require.
    ``(b) Assurances.--Such application shall include assurances that 
the eligible entity--
            ``(1) has developed or shall develop a plan, including an 
        evaluation component, for the program component established 
        pursuant to section 783;
            ``(2) shall use Federal funds received from a grant under 
        section 781(a) to supplement, not supplant, non-Federal funds 
        that would otherwise be available for projects funded under 
        such section;
            ``(3) shall provide, with respect to any fiscal year in 
        which such entity receives funds from a grant under section 
        781(a), non-Federal funds or an in-kind contribution in an 
        amount equal to 20 percent of funds from such grant, for the 
        purpose of carrying out the program component established in 
        section 783; and
            ``(4) shall collaborate with business, government, local 
        workforce investment boards, and the nonprofit sectors in the 
        development and implementation of its sustainability plan.

``SEC. 783. USE OF FUNDS.

    ``(a) Individual Institutions.--Grants made under section 781 may 
be used by an eligible entity that is an institution of higher 
education, as described in section 781(c)(1), for the following 
purposes:
            ``(1) To develop and implement administrative and 
        operations practices at institutions of higher education that 
        test, model, and analyze principles of sustainability.
            ``(2) To establish multidisciplinary education, research, 
        and outreach programs at institutions of higher education that 
        address the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of 
        sustainability.
            ``(3) To support research and teaching initiatives that 
        focus on multidisciplinary and integrated environmental, 
        economic, and social elements.
            ``(4) To establish initiatives in the areas of energy 
        management, green building, waste management, purchasing, 
        toxics management, transportation, and other aspects of 
        sustainability.
            ``(5) To support student, faculty, and staff work at 
        institutions of higher education to implement, research, and 
        evaluate sustainable practices.
            ``(6) To establish sustainability literacy as a requirement 
        for undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
            ``(7) To integrate sustainability curriculum in all 
        programs of instruction, particularly in business, 
        architecture, technology, manufacturing, engineering, and 
        science programs.
    ``(b) Partnerships.--Grants made under section 781 may be used by 
an eligible entity that is a nonprofit consortia, association, 
alliance, or collaboration operating as a partnership with 1 or more 
institutions of higher education for the following purposes:
            ``(1) To conduct faculty, staff, or administrator training 
        on the subjects of sustainability and institutional change.
            ``(2) To compile, evaluate, and disseminate best practices, 
        case studies, guidelines, and standards.
            ``(3) To conduct efforts to engage external stakeholders 
        such as business, alumni, and accrediting agencies in the 
        process of building support for research, education, and 
        technology development for sustainability.
            ``(4) To conduct professional development programs for 
        faculty in all disciplines to enable faculty to incorporate 
        sustainability content in the faculties' courses.
            ``(5) To enable an appropriate nonprofit consortia, 
        association, alliance, or collaboration operating in 
        partnership with an institution of higher education to create 
        the analytical tools necessary for institutions of higher 
        education to assess and measure the institution's progress 
        toward fully sustainable campus operations and fully 
        integrating sustainability into the curriculum.
            ``(6) To develop educational benchmarks for institutions of 
        higher education to determine the necessary rigor and 
        effectiveness of academic sustainability programs.

``SEC. 784. REPORTS.

    ``An eligible entity that receives a grant under section 781(a) 
shall submit to the Secretary, for each fiscal year in which the entity 
receives amounts from such grant, a report that describes the work 
conducted pursuant to section 783, research findings and publications, 
administrative savings experienced, and an evaluation of the program.

``SEC. 785. ALLOCATION REQUIREMENT.

    ``The Secretary may not make grants under section 781(a) to any 
eligible entity in a total amount that is less than $250,000 or more 
than $2,000,000.

``SEC. 786. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    ``(a) In General.--There is authorized to be appropriated to carry 
out section 781(a), $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2008 and such sums as 
may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years.
    ``(b) Availability.--Amounts appropriated under subsection (a) are 
authorized to remain available until expended.

                 ``Subpart 2--Summit on Sustainability

``SEC. 791. SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABILITY.

    ``Not later than September 30, 2008, the Secretary shall convene a 
summit of higher education experts working in the area of sustainable 
operations and programs, representatives from agencies of the Federal 
Government, and business and industry leaders, to focus on efforts of 
national distinction that--
            ``(1) encourage faculty, staff, and students at 
        institutions of higher education to establish administrative 
        and academic sustainability programs on campus;
            ``(2) enhance research by faculty and students at 
        institutions of higher education in sustainability practices 
        and innovations that assist and improve sustainability;
            ``(3) encourage institutions of higher education to work 
        with community partners from the business, government, and 
        nonprofit sectors to design and implement sustainability 
        programs for application in the community and workplace;
            ``(4) identify opportunities for partnerships involving 
        institutions of higher education and the Federal Government to 
        expand sustainable operations and academic programs focused on 
        environmental and economic sustainability; and
            ``(5) charge the summit participants or steering committee 
        to submit a set of recommendations for addressing 
        sustainability through institutions of higher education.''.
                                 <all>