Sleepless Ponderings: College Course Offerings from Sustainability to New Media.

So as it is almost 2 am and I cannot sleep (although I have to be up in 5 hrs), I decided to do a bit of blogging.

Two things of interest that I read this week.

First from TreeHugger.

The Princeton Review now offers green ratings for colleges. Topping the list for the greenest school.. Arizona State University. ASU has a School of Sustainability. Crazy, I had no idea that existed anywhere. The school also stared a lecture requirement for freshman that contains a sustainability component.

I think that’s awesome. I mean, I wish i even had the option to take a course like that. Wonder if any school offers Green Communications or Green PR?

I went ahead and read some of the guidelines for the rankings and they include expected eco-friendly measures of use of organic food and fossil fuels alternatives and also more abstract ideas as professors ability to integrate eco-friendly concepts into instruction.

Interesting stuff… Check it out here.

Second article I read was on ReadWriteWeb and entitled Can New Media Be Taught In Schools?

This article really struck a chord with me being a PR student and having just taken a class in new media. While I feel that we might not be at the point to have New Media Departments, I do believe that this is valuable and useful information (especially in COM) but also in business development, marketing, etc…

The good thing is that this generation has grown up using computers and thus, we are aware of many of the new, social media tools but maybe not in terms of how to effectively utilize them within designed business goals.

One key challenge with this is just being able to keep up with change trends and the fast-paced nature that is the web, new ethical dilemmas, etc…

Any thoughts?

Nonetheless, two really interesting things to ponder….

Bloggers and Eco-Policy Change

Check out this NYTimes article about Al Gore’s appearance at the blogger conference about energy.

July 20, 2008

Appealing to Bloggers’ Influence, Gore Asks for Help in Promoting Energy Challenge

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

AUSTIN, Tex. — Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, was asked a question here at a bloggers conference about energy. She glanced at her BlackBerry, noting that she had an e-mail message from a friend on that very subject.

With that, the voice of former Vice President Al Gore boomed over the public address system, leaving a sea of quizzical looks and then gasps, cheers and a standing ovation as he strode onto the stage.

It produced the first electric moment at the conference, the Netroots Nation, an ever-widening group of progressive bloggers whose major interests — the war in Iraq, the environment and technology — mesh well with Mr. Gore’s current pursuits. Indeed, many in the crowd — who are supporting Senator Barack Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee — were overheard saying they wished he were running for president.

As waves of cheers washed over the cavernous convention center, Mr. Gore said to Ms. Pelosi, “We ought to take that act on the road.”

Click here to read the full article…

I think grassroots is a place to go on this issue as so many people are passionate about environmental issues, specifically climate change. However, I am doubtful of the call to action and how th words will fit the action…

Greenpeace says “Nintendo ‘least green tech firm’”

My alerts brought this BBC article to my attention so I thought I would share…

Nintendo ‘least green tech firm’

By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Games firm Nintendo has come bottom of a ranking of the world’s most eco-friendly electronics firms.

The quarterly Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics ranks 18 electronics firms by how green their production processes and products are.

In the latest guide most firms have seen their ranking plummet as the charity introduced new, stricter guidelines for evaluating companies.

Nintendo said its scored low because it had not provided data for the survey.

“Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey and produce a report, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information,” the firm said in a statement.

“Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore ‘ungraded’ in the resulting report..[more]

I think it’s great that they are crack down on companies to follow stricter environmental guidelines but let’s be honest… I love the Wii and I will continue to play it…. and I don’t think that hypocritical.

Thoughts?