I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3284 

To direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to establish sustainability programs, charged with developing and implementing integrated 

environmental, economic, and social sustainability initiatives through administrative and operational practices as well as multidisciplinary research, education, and outreach at institutions of higher education. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 14, 2005 

Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. WU, and Mr. EHLERS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the 

Workforce 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Education to provide grants to 

establish sustainability programs, charged with developing and implementing integrated environmental, economic, and social sustainability initiatives through administrative and operational practices as well as multidisciplinary research, education, and outreach at institutions of higher education. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Higher Education Sus3 tainability Act of 2005’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

5 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) The environmental life-support systems vital 

7 to the Nation’s economic and social prosperity are 

8 increasingly at risk. 

9 (2) The Nation’s future progress requires the 

10 simultaneous achievement of a well functioning envi11 ronmental system, economic viability that creates 

12 new jobs and livable communities that provide access 

13 to all for participation in their governance. 

14 (3) Achieving more sustainable environmental, 

15 economic and social systems will require new re16 search, education and technology development, and 

17 innovative policy approaches that are flexible and 

18 use market mechanisms while engaging relevant 

19 stakeholders from the private and public sectors. 

20 (4) For the Nation to remain competitive in 

21 this global world of increasingly limited natural re22 sources, higher education institutions need to take 

23 immediate steps to create new research, education 

24 and technology development that reflect the frame25 work of sustainability. 
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1 (5) The Nation’s institutions of higher edu2 cation have a unique role to play in fostering new 

3 knowledge, evaluating policies, and discovering new 

4 technologies to address the persistent and often 

5 linked environmental, social and economic problems 

6 that exist. 

7 (6) The Nation’s higher education institutions 

8 also are uniquely positioned to prepare the future 

9 labor force for addressing threats to, and seeking 

10 opportunities for economic, environmental, and so11 cial sustainability. 

12 (7) The Nation’s higher education institutions 

13 are places where approaches that integrate the envi14 ronmental, social and economic dimensions can be 

15 designed, tested, and refined for application to real 

16 world settings in collaboration with industry, govern17 ment and the nonprofit sector. 

18 (8) The Nation’s higher education institutions 

19 are uniquely situated to be models of sustainable 

20 management and operations that can provide exam21 ples to industry and government of operational 

22 strategies that integrate the basic principles of envi23 ronmental, economic, and social sustainability. 

24 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
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1 (1) to provide support to faculty, staff, and stu2 dents at institutions of higher education to establish 

3 both administrative and educational sustainability 

4 programs on campus; 

5 (2) to promote and enhance research by faculty 

6 and students at institutions of higher education in 

7 sustainability practices and innovations that assist 

8 and improve sustainability; and 

9 (3) to provide support to institutions of higher 

10 education to work with community partners from the 

11 business, government, and nonprofit sectors to de12 sign and implement sustainability programs for ap13 plication in the community and workplace. 

14 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM. 

15 Title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 is 

16 amended by adding at the end the following new part: 

17 ‘‘PART E—UNIVERSITY SUSTAINABILITY 

18 PROGRAMS 

19 ‘‘SEC. 771. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED. 

20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make grants 

21 to eligible entities to establish sustainability programs to 

22 design and implement sustainability practices including in 

23 the areas of energy management, green building, waste 

24 management, purchasing, transportation, and toxics man25 agement, and other aspects of sustainability that integrate 
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1 campus operations with multidisciplinary educational pro2 grams and are applicable to the private and government 

3 sectors. 

4 ‘‘(b) PERIOD OF GRANT.—The provision of payments 

5 under a grant under subsection (a) may extend over a pe6 riod of not more than 4 fiscal years. 

7 ‘‘(c) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—For pur8 poses of this part, the term ‘eligible entity’ means— 

9 ‘‘(1) an institution of higher education that 

10 grants 2 or 4-year undergraduate degrees, or mas11 ters and doctoral degrees, or both; or 

12 ‘‘(2) a non-profit consortia, association, alli13 ance, or collaboration operating as a partnership of 

14 such an institution with other such institutions. 

15 ‘‘SEC. 772. APPLICATIONS. 

16 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—To receive a grant under section 

17 771(a), an eligible entity shall submit an application to 

18 the Secretary at such time, in such form, and containing 

19 such information as the Secretary may reasonably require. 

20 ‘‘(b) ASSURANCES.—Such application shall include 

21 assurances that the eligible entity— 

22 ‘‘(1) has developed or shall develop a plan, in23 cluding an evaluation component, for the program 

24 component established pursuant to section 773; 
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1 ‘‘(2) shall use Federal funds received from a 

2 grant under section 771(a) to supplement, not sup3 plant, non-Federal funds that would otherwise be 

4 available for projects funded under such section; 

5 ‘‘(3) shall provide, with respect to any fiscal 

6 year in which such entity receives funds from a 

7 grant under section 771(a), non-Federal funds or an 

8 in kind contribution in an amount equal to 20 per9 cent of funds from such grant, for the purpose of 

10 carrying out the program component established in 

11 section 773; and 

12 ‘‘(4) shall collaborate with business, govern13 ment, and the nonprofit sectors in the development 

14 and implementation of its sustainability plan. 

15 ‘‘SEC. 773. USE OF FUNDS. 

16 ‘‘Grants made under section 771 may be used by an 

17 eligible entity for the following purposes: 

18 ‘‘(1) To develop and implement administrative 

19 and operations practices at institutions of higher 

20 education that test, model, and analyze principles of 

21 sustainability. 

22 ‘‘(2) To establish multidisciplinary education, 

23 research, and outreach programs at institutions of 

24 higher education that address the environmental, so25 cial, and economic dimensions of sustainability. 
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1 ‘‘(3) To support research and teaching initia2 tives that focus on multidisciplinary and integrated 

3 environmental, economic, and social elements. 

4 ‘‘(4) To establish initiatives in the areas of en5 ergy management, green building, waste manage6 ment, purchasing, toxics management, transpor7 tation, and other aspects of sustainability. 

8 ‘‘(5) To support student, faculty, and staff 

9 work at institutions of higher education to imple10 ment, research, and evaluate sustainable practices. 

11 ‘‘(6) To conduct faculty, staff and/or adminis12 trator trainings on the subjects of sustainability and 

13 institutional change. 

14 ‘‘(7) To compile, evaluate and disseminate best 

15 practices, case studies, guidelines and standards. 

16 ‘‘(8) To conduct efforts to engage external 

17 stakeholders such as business, alumni, and accred18 iting agencies in the process of building support for 

19 research, education and technology development for 

20 sustainability. 

21 ‘‘SEC. 774. REPORTS. 

22 ‘‘An eligible entity that receives a grant under section 

23 section 771(a) shall submit to the Secretary, for each fis24 cal year in which the entity receives amounts from such 

25 grant, a report that describes the work conducted pursu-
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1 ant to section 773, research findings and publications, ad2 ministrative savings experienced, and an evaluation of the 

3 program. 

4 ‘‘SEC. 775. ALLOCATION REQUIREMENT. 

5 ‘‘The Secretary may not make grants under section 

6 771(a) to any eligible entity in a total amount that is less 

7 than $500,000 or more than $2,000,000. 

8 ‘‘SEC. 776. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro10 priated to carry out section 771(a), $50,000,000 for fiscal 

11 year 2006 and such sums as may be necessary for each 

12 of the 5 succeeding fiscal years. 

13 ‘‘(b) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated under 

14 subsection (a) are authorized to remain available until ex15 pended.’’. 

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