Advanced Sustainability Techniques Institute-I: Moving from Rhetoric to Substance

1. Advanced Sustainability Techniques Institute-I: Moving from Rhetoric to Substance Members of the ACPA Sustainability Taskforce: Kathleen Gardner Susan Mendoza-Jones Dr. Jeanne S. Steffes Program 4 of 5- Sustainability Institute Tuesday, March 31, 2009

2. Program Overview This session will provide an advanced discussion of sustainability; offer and invite participants to share suggestions about how college student educators and their students can make perfunctory and intentional changes for a more sustainable world

3. Session Learning Outcomes: • Be able to define sustainability and discuss the emerging trends. • Be able to expand how sustainability can become visible across the university as a viable goal and benchmark for the campus and not just student affairs. • Be able educate others about sustainability and how sustainability relates to their lives and their values. • Discuss and be able to talk about and problem solve front edge issues and strategies to overcome barriers to our collective work on sustainability.

4. Agenda I. Introduction and Welcome • Brief Sustainability Overview • Moving from perfunctory change to and through intentional focus- Cutting Edge Challenges and Successes • Assessing Change on Campus • Q&A and Wrap-Up

5. Sustainable Development Defined: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” World Commission on Env. and Development. (1987). Our Common Future. England: Oxford University Press.

6. Strong Social Systems Strong Environments Strong Economy Sustainable Society Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability

7. Education for a Sustainable Society: “Enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions … that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.”

8. Economic Aspects of Sustainability • Local first • Co-ops • Living wage • Local currency • Examining consumption – The Lorax • Sustainable development/ sustainable distribution • Green jobs

9. Intentional ConversationsSustainability and Social Justice

10. Social Justice Aspects of Sustainable Development Environmental Racism Fair Trade Living Wage Domestic Partnerships Corporate Responsibility Rights of Indigenous Peoples Gender Equity Water Rights • Human Rights • Child Labor Issues • Affirmative Action • Multicultural Competence • Pollution & Farming Practices • Worker’s Rights • Sweatshop Labor • Slavery

11. From Fossil powered Take, make, waste Living off nature’s capital Market as master Loss of cultural & biological diversity Independence Materialism as goal Global Transition:It is all connected! To • Solar powered • Cyclical production • Living off nature’s income • Market as servant • Increased cultural & biological diversity • Interdependence • Human satisfaction goal

12. Challenges Already busy Don’t know this stuff Issues are complex and systematic Answers Use national resources Learn from other institutions Use students (like YOU) and staff nationally to help you learn, grow, and implement Challenges and Answers to Sustainability

13. Integrating Education for Sustainable Development: First year Book Orientation Curricula Research Mission and Planning Operations Purchasing Professional Development Community Outreach and Partnerships Student Life

14. Key Places: • Student Life • Residential Living • Infused throughout curricula • First Year Experience • Gen Ed Core • Curricula Review • Community Partnerships • Workforce Development • Mission • Strategic Plan • Budget • Orientation • Campus Map and Signage • Building Policies • Operations and Purchasing Policies

15. Convening the Conversation/Front Edge Issues Front edge Issues a. Creating Allies b. Making the Case for the next level of change c. Overcoming Barriers d. Examples e. Resources

16. Shared Successes and Challenges

17. Sustainability Assessment/Rating...The conversation is just beginning.(Next session)

18. Sustainability Learning Outcomes(ACPA’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006) 1.Each student will be able to define sustainability.(cognitive complexity, knowledge acquisition) 2. Each student will be able to explain how sustainability relates to their lives and their values, and how their actions impact issues of sustainability.(cognitive complexity; knowledge acquisition, integration and application; intra and interpersonal competence; practical competence)

19. Sustainability Learning Outcomes (ACPA’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006) 3. Each student will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.(knowledge integration and application, humanitarianism, civic engagement, practice competence) 4. Each student will be able to explain how environmental, social and economic systems are interrelated.(knowledge acquisition, integration, intra and inter personal competence, practical competence, persistence and academic achievement)

20. Sustainability Learning Outcomes(ACPA’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006) 5. Each student will learn change agent skills. (cognitive complexity; knowledge acquisition; integration and application; intra and inter personal competence; humanitarianism; civic engagement; practical competence; persistence and academic achievement) 6. Each student will learn how to apply concepts of sustainability to their campus and community. (knowledge acquisition, integration, intra and inter personal competence, humanitarianism, civic engagement, practical competence, persistence and academic achievement)

21. Sustainability Learning Outcomes (ACPA’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006) 7. Each student will demonstrate a commitment to sustainability by actively applying their knowledge of sustainability to their lives, professions, and societies. (cognitive complexity; knowledge acquisition, integration and application; intra and inter personal competence; humanitarianism; civic engagement; practical competence; persistence and academic achievement)

22. AASHE - Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) Designed to: 1 Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education. • Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education. • Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability. • Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance. • Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.

23. STARS Rating Program Overview Categories Education & Research Operations Administration & Finance

24. Elements of STARS • Checklist of indicators (similar to LEED) • Thresholds of achievement • Guidance and resources • Comprehensive – all campus sectors • Transparency (public reporting and access) • Outside certification optional • Rating good for 3 years • Pilot phase begins in 2008; version 1.0 in 2009

25. Other Assessment Tools 2. ACPA Sustainability Taskforce and Student Voice Instrument – higher education tool (pilot to start this fall) 3. College Sustainability Report Card -(limitations- 100 top endowments) www.greenreportcard.org/

26. Question & Answers and Wrap-Up

27. If we accompany them well, they may grace us all by becoming citizen leaders …who can both belong and distinguish themselves. Sharon D. Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, p. 36

28. Acknowledgements Dr. Debra Rowe dgrowe@oaklandcc.edu President U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development; Co-chair Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium; Dr. Anthony Cortese, President Second Nature; ACPA Presidential Taskforce on Sustainability; Keith Edwards and Kathleen Kerr USA Today Collegiate Readership Program

29. Questions, Comments and Thoughts? Kathleen Gardner kagardn@suie.edu Susan Mendoza-Jones mendozsu@gvsu.edu Dr. Jeanne S. Steffes jssteffes@gmail.com http://www.myacpa.org/task-force/sustainability/