Engagement
The Center for the Study of Environment and Society actively works to engage the Rice community with the Houston community in terms of the environment. CSES has a weekly reading group (open to all public), works with other centers and groups at Rice, and advertise environmentally related internships at Rice, nationally and internationally.
EREAD
Every week, CSES hosts a group that meets to discuss environmental articles selected by the same group. This environmental reading group, EREAD, is formed by Rice faculty, staff, students, and non-Rice affiliated environmentalist. EREAD meets at the Politic Science lounge, located on the first floor of Herzstein Hall.
For more information or to be added to the EREAD mailing list, send an email to: cses (at) rice (dot) edu
Do you want to know what we have read? Visit our EREAD ARCHIVES
Student organizations and clubs
Through promoting education and awareness, advocating sustainable development, and initiating environmental programming on campus, Rice Environmental Club seeks to establish Rice University as an environmentally positive example for the benefit of the University itself, the greater Texas community, and the world at large. Founded in 1992. For more info email jsk3 (at) rice (dot) edu
Watch the video on how to be green at Rice HERE
The Real Food Revolution was initially formed during Spring Semester of 2012 by a small group of students with the collective aim to engage the Rice community in progress towards a sustainable food policy and to foster an appreciation of local, sustainably produced, delicious food. The Real Food Revolution group meets weekly every Thursday at 5:45 PM in Baker College quad. You can also join their facebook group here or email slm3 (at) rice (dot) edu
Rice Endowment for Sustainable Energy Technology (RESET)
In 2010, the Rice University student body approved (by 71%) a nine dollar annual blanket tax to fund the Rice Endowment for Sustainable Energy Technology, or RESET. In an effort to combat rising energy costs and combat climate change, this new subsidiary organization of the Student Association will fund student-led initiatives to promote energy efficiency and sustainability on Rice campus.
Centers, Institutes and other offices at Rice
The Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management (ACSEM) is a collaborative organization dedicated to providing direction to Rice for short-term management and long-term planning of energy and other natural resources. Founded in the summer of 2011, the ACSEM (pronounced “axiom”) is the new office of Rice’s campus sustainability program, which was originally created in 2004 with the adoption of a campus sustainability policy and the hiring of a campus sustainability officer. Like them on Facebook!
Shell Center for Sustainability
The Shell Center creates an interdisciplinary program of research, outreach and education to address actions that can be taken to ensure the sustainable development of living standards, interpreted broadly, to encompass all factors affecting the quality of life including environmental resources. It supports the efforts of Rice University’s faculty, staff and students to better our planet’s economy, society and environment.
The mission of CES will to provide policymakers, corporate leaders, and the public with quality, data-driven analysis of issues that influence energy markets. Like all Baker Institute research, the energy and environmental issues studied by the CES will provide a nonpartisan voice in areas that can be politically divisive.
Energy and Environmental Systems Institute
ESSI’s mission is to advance understanding of energy and environmental issues, facilitate development of technological solutions, and provide unbiased information for policymaking in the public and private sectors. The Institute promotes interdisciplinary research, education and community outreach activities spanning all of Rice University.
CSES does not have internships at the Center but has compiled the following list of environmentally related organizations, resources and links outside Rice University.
Bayou Land Conservancy is looking for their next full-time Conservation Biologist.
This position is a 6-month long internship with option to hire at the end of the internship!
Eko Tracks offers several opportunities for volunteering, internships and more! Find more information HERE
WindAid. Volunteering opportunities building wind turbines in Peru! “WindAid is a social entrepreneurship focused on locally built wind energy solutions to address energy poverty in Peru. Volunteering for WindAid is an opportunity to explore Peru, to enforce the necessity of renewable energy, to learn in depth the design, construction, and installation of a wind turbine, and see its social impact on a community, a school, or a microenterprise.“
Find the full internship description HERE
Interested in food production? farmers? do you like to write? FoodTank is looking for interns! “Food Tank is a think tank focused on a feeding the world better. We research and highlight environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity and poverty and create networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change. “ See the three different internship opportunities HERE
Environment Texas is hiring a Field Fellow to tackle our campaigns to Save Texas Rivers and fight fracking while building Environment Texas political power across the state. This position is a full-time, paid position appropriated for college graduates and graduating seniors.
Find out more HERE or apply online HERE
Interested in design that focuses on sustainable architecture and planning? This summer, UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED) offers a new program for current college students: Design & Innovation for Sustainable Cities (DISC). This is a four week, intensive program that focuses on design-based solutions to the challenges of global urbanization. More info HERE
The interdisciplinary Master of Arts in Social Science Environment and Community Program at Humboldt State University is currently accepting applications for Fall 2014 admission. The deadline to submit the CSU graduate application form for Fall 2014 admission is February 1, 2014. (All other required materials, e.g., letters of recommendation, writing sample, are due March1.) More info HERE
Students with an interest in human-wildlife interactions are also encouraged to apply for HSU’s Trione Graduate Assistantship, the recipient of which will receive a $15,000 stipend, plus waived tuition. The application deadline for the assistantship is also February 1. More info HERE
Summer research opportunity: 2014 Nebraska Summer Research Program housed on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. More info HERE
Solidarity Immersion: Human Rights in the Global Garment Industry *Dominican Republic*
Connect via Facebook: July 23rd through August 5th, 2014 -or- August 7th through August 20th, 2014!
Email info@solidarityignite.org for more information
RSVP here for a live information session video chat! Apply Here!
The Greene Prize was established by Frances & Julian Greene, both Rice alumni from the 1960s, in support of the efforts of their son, David (Class of 1993), who organized the first Rice Environmental Conference in that year. In subsequent years, the Greenes continued to contribute funds so that the prize is now fully endowed, and can be offered in perpetuity. The Greene Prize competition is meant to encourage students to put their classroom learning in environmental studies to use by helping to reach and educate a wider audience regarding important environmental issues.
The 2014 Greene Prize winners are:
FIRST PLACE: Shayak Sengupta. “Alternative Fuel Vehicles in Urban Settings: A Case Study of the City of Houston Municipal Fleet”
SECOND PLACE: Tierra Moore, Brian Roberts and John Marton. “Greenhouse gas production in oiled and unoiled S. alterniflora and A. germinans soils in tidal salt marshes Barataria Bay, Louisiana”
THIRD PLACE: Zach Bielak. “Sustainable Suburbia: The Ultimate Contradiction”
RURS PRIZE (Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium)
The Center for the Study of Environment and Society Prize recognizes an outstanding project that seeks to promote a deeper and broader understanding of environmental issues through interdisciplinary approaches and/or improvement of the sustainability of the community.
2014 RURS-CSES winner
Nick Thorpe “Comparative Analysis of Local Environmental Policy in Santiago, Chile” (All rights reserved. Original research by Nick Thorpe)