Those efforts may not occur unless student groups empower themselves and pressure universities to adopt such polices, East Lansing Mayor Sam Singh told students.

“Go out there and grab that power,” Singh said. “Make sure your voice is heard — not only through activism and through the causes you’re working on, but make sure you put the fire under us so we make those changes.”

Singh said East Lansing had developed several of its environmental polices — powering city vehicles with bio-diesel and requiring city buildings to use electricity efficiently — partly in response to calls from student leaders.

Putting that fire under universities isn’t an easy task, said Brandon Knight, who founded the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition in 2006.

Bringing together students, MSU faculty and environmental advocates is a strategy Knight hopes will help student groups push for change.

“We’re really trying to create a democratic space for people to talk about these issues and to really build power so we can affect change,” Knight said. “We’re not a bunch of people demanding people to hug trees or to conserve everything, we’re looking at preserving our quality of life.”

This includes pressuring Michigan universities to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. The commitment requires 15 percent of a university’s electricity to be generated from renewable sources within a year of signing the document, Knight said. Wind energy and solar power are considered renewable energy sources.

“Campuses and colleges in particular are in the best place to address these issues because they have the leaders of today in the professors and researchers and they have the leaders of tomorrow in the students,” Knight said.

Sean Donovan, co-president of Eco, an MSU student environmental group, said he came away from the summit more knowledgeable about how to manage a environmental advocacy group.

“What’s missing for some people is that spark — that thing that you learn that you can’t accept, that makes you excited to go out there and make change,” the physiology senior said. “It’s important to make people interested and involved to the point where they want to be a continuous member.”