Supporting Sustainable Communities
Opportunities and Challenges for Community Colleges
With sustainability and green energy set to play a critical role in the growth of our national economy, community colleges represent a way to meet the needs of local businesses and residents. Experts and practitioners from the U.S. and Europe met in Asheville in April to highlight expanded roles for colleges in educating students, businesses, and communities about and for economic opportunities in renewable energy, conservation, ecotourism, and local sustainable agriculture and manufacturing. Topics discussed included:
- Skills for new green-oriented industries and for sustainable practices in other sectors
- Enhancing local and sustainable agriculture, natural resources, and crafts
- “Green thinking” in all programs
- Making campuses models of sustainability
Go to www.ta3online.org/2010meeting/ for more information including a final agenda and presentations from speakers.
Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) is located in the northwest corner of Montana and is surrounded by pristine alpine lakes and rivers and panoramic views of Glacier National Park and the spectacular Rocky Mountains. Established in 1967, FVCC is the largest of Montana’s three comprehensive two-year public community colleges. The main campus, located in Kalispell, and the extension campus, housed in Libby, serve a population of nearly 94,000 distributed over 5.6 million acres, an area larger than the state of Massachusetts.