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Ohio State wins second annual environmental March Madness tournament

<p>Big Ten school takes top honors for environmental curriculum and campus sustainability initiatives.</p>

Dr. Neil L. Drobny has been teaching at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business since 2004. Back then, the highest echelons of American business regarded sustainability as little more than a punch line, a catchphrase to be bandied about by marketing executives seeking a competitive edge.

Dedicated sustainability practitioners had virtually no voice in America's C-suites, and Dr. Drobny's interest in integrating sustainability into Ohio State's business school curriculum was avant-garde at best and idiosyncratic at worst.

"In the ten years I have been teaching at Ohio State," said Dr. Drobny, "I have seen sustainability go from a topic that only a niche crowd cared about and even fewer knew the meaning of, to becoming an area that every department and college wants to work into its courses."

Dr. Drobny is the director of Ohio State’s Environment, Economy, Development & Sustainability (EEDS) program, the flagship of the school's academic sustainability initiatives. With Dr. Drobny at the helm, Ohio State has achieved eminence among the country's sustainability programs. This week, the school became the "National Champion" of the second annual Environmental March Madness tournament.

While the Big Ten may have come up short in the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State's excellence in environmental academics and sustainability, as well as outstanding student and faculty engagement in the tournament, allowed the Columbus-based school to edge out Colorado State University, George Mason University and the University of Washington, the three other teams in the tournament's "Finest Four."

Next page:  More about the tournament

The tournament was organized by Enviance, Inc, a leading provider of cloud-based environmental software that lets organizations measure, manage and report environmental performance and compliance needs.

"Ohio State competed with power in every area of our competition," said Lawrence Goldenhersh, CEO and president of Enviance. "Their environmental and sustainability initiatives, including the Zero Waste initiative at Ohio Stadium, demonstrate important real-world applications of environmental and sustainability concepts."

The Zero Waste initiative to which Mr. Goldenhersh referred began making headlines in the summer of 2011, when Ohio State committed to diverting a significant portion of game-day trash from the landfills by recycling and composting. While "Zero Waste" is something of a misnomer -- Ohio Stadium actually aims to recycle or compost 90 percent or more of its trash -- the Zero Waste initiative is no meager ambition at a stadium where more than 105,000 fans, many of whom are young students of dubious sobriety, fill the stands on game day.

Ohio State keeps detailed statistics on the progress of its Zero Waste initiative. In 2011, the school recycled or composted a total of 75.3 percent of game-day trash on average. Last year, Ohio State improved its performance, diverting 87.2 percent of trash from landfills, and during its Nov. 3 rout of conference rival Illinois, the stadium diverted a whopping 98.2 percent of trash from the landfill.

"One of our bigger expenses is our energy bill, and the other big expense is getting rid of our trash," said Corey Hawkey, Ohio State's program coordinator for energy and sustainability. "We save a lot of money by recycling."

Part of the success of Ohio State’s environmental curriculum was based on the holistic design of its EEDS Program. The fastest growing major on campus, EEDS cuts across the complete portfolio of courses at Ohio State. Around 150 courses have been rolled together to create the EEDS major, which has four specialization options: Sustainability in Business, Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis, Community Development, and International Development.

Next step:  Majoring in EEDS

EEDS majors take two courses in each of the four specialization areas and then choose electives aligned with their specialization. Prospective employers have warmed to the integration of a business component in the major.

Dr. Drobny says that presiding over the sustainability sea change at his school "has been very gratifying." "We’re thankful for Enviance’s decision to put together this competition," he added.

Each entrant sent in an initial survey, which was the basis of judging for the “Sustainable 16." Those 16 schools then had the chance to submit essays, photos and videos about campus sustainability efforts to the judges, for further consideration to be included in the "Environmental Eight." The judges then evaluated those 8 teams' materials that had been submitted throughout the tournament to determine the “Finest Four," and finally crowned the "National Champion."

Goldenhersh said he was impressed by the intensity of Ohio State's efforts. "The essays, videos and pictures submitted document intense involvement by students, faculty and facility staff in environmental programs," he said, "and the strong slate of environment and sustainability courses demonstrate the university’s ability to prepare its students for leadership in the environmental arena after college."

Those interested in learning more about the tournament, or in get information for next year, can email or visit.  The tournament also has a twitter hash tag: #EnviroU.

Photo courtesy Ohio State

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