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 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. The ACSEM serves as a “think-and-do-tank” and bridges the administrative and academic functions of Rice University. The ACSEM leads and provides support for a broad range of campus sustainability initiatives, such as planning for sustainability, green building, energy and water conservation, recycling, environmental education, public lectures and events, student environmental projects, research partnerships, and classroom engagement. The ACSEM is staffed by five full-time employees and includes participation from many other administrative and academic personnel.
Rice University is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Any member of the Rice community may access AASHE’s members-only resources by using an email address that ends in @rice.edu.
Rice University is also a member of the US Green Building Council. Any employee of the Rice community can receive USGBC member discounts and access USGBC resources by contacting Richard Johnson at sustainability@rice.edu and requesting Rice’s member ID.
If you have questions, comments, or would like to provide a gift in support of sustainability at Rice, please contact ACSEM's Executive Director, Richard Johnson, at sustainability@rice.edu or 713-348-5003.