Barlett, Peggy F.

Chase, Geoffrey W.

Sustainability on campus.

Stories and strategies for change.

Cambridge /MA

2004

9780262025607

9780262524223

Summary

Stories both practical and inspirational about environmental leadership on campus.

These personal narratives of greening college campuses offer inspiration, motivation, and practical advice. Written by faculty, staff, administrators, and a student, from varying perspectives and reflecting divergent experiences, these stories also map the growing strength of a national movement toward environmental responsibility on campus.Environmental awareness on college and university campuses began with the celebratory consciousness-raising of Earth Day, 1970. Since then environmental action on campus has been both global (in research and policy formation) and local (in efforts to make specific environmental improvements on campuses). The stories in this book show that achieving environmental sustainability is not a matter of applying the formulas of risk management or engineering technology but part of what the editors call "the messy reality of participatory engagement in cultural transformation."

In Sustainability on Campus campus leaders recount inspiring stories of strategies that moved eighteen colleges and universities toward a more sustainable future. This book is for faculty, students, administrators, staff, and community partners, whether hesitant or committed, knowledgeable or newcomer. Scholars and activists have recognized the crucial role that higher education can play in the sustainability effort, and each chapter in the book is full of ideas about how to get started, revitalize efforts, and overcome roadblocks. Human and at times joyful, these stories illustrate many forms of leadership, in new courses and faculty development, green buildings and administrative policies, student programs, residential life, and collaborations with local communities.

Introduction / Peggy F. Bartlett and Geoffrey W. Chase

Part I: Laying the cornerstones
Process and practice: creating the sustainable university / Christopher Uhl

The green task force: facing the challenges to environmental stewardship at a small liberal arts college / Abigail R. Jahiel and R. Given Harper

No longer waiting for someone else to do it: a take of reluctant leadership / Peggy F. Barlett

Part II: Redesigning the curriculum / Geoffrey W. Chase and Paul Rowland
Transdisciplinary shared learning / Richard B. Norgaard

Place as the nexus of a sustainable future: a course for all of us / Laura B. DeLind and Terry Link

Building political acceptance for sustainability: degree requirements for all graduates / Debra Rowe

Part II: Building buildings, building learning communities
Can educational institutions learn? The creation of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College / David W. Orr

The development of Stanford University's guidelines for sustainable buildings: a student perspective / Audrey B. Chang

Part IV: Engaging communities, engaging students
Maintaining a college-community ecotourism project: faculty initiative, institutional vision, student participation, and community partnerships / Richard D. Bowden and Eric Pallant

Teaching for change: the leadership in environmental education partnership / Paul Faulstich

Restoring natural landscapes: from ideals to action / Allen Franz

Part V: Building system-wide commitment
South Carolina Sustainable Universities Initiative / Patricia L. Jerman [and others]

Challenges of greening a decentralized campus: making the connection to health / Polly Walker and Robert S. Lawrence

Sustaining sustainability: lessons from Ramapo College / Michael R. Edelstein

Cultivating a shared environmental vision at Middlebury College / Nans Jenks-Jay