Last night, over 20 Cornell students gathered around a dinner table to participate in a conversation that extended beyond typical dining hall chatter. Art Purcell Ph.D ’66, an environmental policy and sustainability expert, hosted the dialogue “What an Obama Administration Might Mean for Environmental Policy and Sustainability,” provoking many students to think about the importance of the integration of environmental and economic policy.

“We’re in an era where there’s hope again,” Purcell began. He continued to say that it is a matter of “timing and an efficient use of resources” to push the country towards a more sustainable and green future.

In an effort to increase the sustainability of the Cornell community and the world, the Johnson Graduate School of Management and the School of Hotel Administration have teamed up to create a course for all students, Sustainable Global Enterprise Practicum in the Hospitality Industry. This course gives both undergraduates and graduates the chance to learn about sustainability and, in conjunction with HEI Hotels & Resorts, perform fieldwork and research in the real world.

Former president Jeffrey S. Lehman issued a call to action during his tenure as University President, which spanned from 2003 to 2005. Increasing sustainability would be one of his three overarching goals.

For the 60 student leaders from various campus groups who attended Saturday’s “Deciding Neutrality: Generating Ideas” conference, the only thing cooler than being cool is being Carbon neutral. The discussion session — which was hosted by the Student Climate Action Plan Committee — was meant to spawn ideas and action to reduce Cornell’s carbon emissions.

This weekend the Cornell Law School hosted students, professionals and academics to discuss the role the law can play in achieving sustainable development. The event, “Defining Sustainable Development: Land Use, Climate Change and Water Resources,” was held at Myron Taylor Hall and was organized by the Environmental Law Society and the Development-Related Outreach Program for Sustainability.

Various environmental groups gathered on Ho Plaza and the Straight yesterday to get the spread the word about sustainable efforts and promote Campus Sustainability Day, an event sponsored by the Sustainability Hub.

In addition, “Getting to Zero” was sponsored by the President’s Climate Commitment Implementation Committee and was held at Weill Hall.

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The Campus Sustainability Day exhibit displayed a number of local and student organizations.

As part of its ongoing effort to engage in sustainable practices, Cornell Dining has begun a new initiative to eliminate the use of trays in dining halls — starting with Risley Dining Hall.

According to Doug Lockwood, office manager for Cornell Dining, students first brought forth the idea of removing dining hall trays last spring. After researching the results of tray-less dining at other schools and after a vote to approve the pilot program by Risley’s governing council, the decision was made to eliminate trays for the start of the fall semester.

As part of its ongoing effort to engage in sustainable practices, Cornell Dining has begun a new initiative to eliminate the use of trays in dining halls — starting with Risley Dining Hall.

After piloting the program at the beginning of the semester, Risley Dining has completely removed trays from its dining area.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute published its 2009 College Sustainability Report Card last Wednesday, an annual analysis of the environmental and economic policies of the 300 most affluent universities in the U.S. and Canada. Cornell received a B+, showing consistent improvement from the B it received in 2008.

The report card, according to the SEI, is the “only independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities.” The combined endowments of the universities surveyed total over $380 billion.

According to Bethany Rogerson, a spokesperson for the SEI, each university in the study received a campus survey, an endowment survey, and a dining survey. Over 97 percent of the schools responded to at least one survey. Cornell responded to all three surveys.

Sparked by recent debate over bottled water and its environmental implications, Prof. James Quest ’56, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the School of Hotel Administration has devised a competition to encourage students to look for alternatives to bottled water.

The objective of Quest’s H2O Competition is “to invent the best concept for finding a solution to the multi-faceted issue of U.S. consumption of bottled water and its resultant impact on the environment.”

Prior to the Educate the Vote panel at Bailey Hall last Friday, members of the KyotoNOW! were on the Bailey Plaza campaigning for “Green Jobs Now” and calling for young voters to pledge to make energy policies a top priority in the upcoming election.

The purpose of Green Jobs Now is to get voters to discuss the potential to revitalize our economy with clean, safe and just green jobs that lift people out of poverty.

“We are trying to make clean energy and green jobs a part of the debate and a part of what people think about when they search for [their] candidate’s policies,” Kimberly Schroder ’09, tabling chair for the Power Vote campaign said, standing next to a poster, which read in bold green letters “GREEN JOBS … helping the environment and our economy.”