The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus: Introduction

When I visit college campuses or educational conferences, I often give a talk on "The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus."
I recently finished an essay on that topic. Over the next few weeks I will post the essay as blog entries. The first section explains how my original inspiration for this came from The Whole Earth Catalog.




From the Whole Earth Catalog to a Sustainable Campus

Forty years ago, in the late 1960’s, I was a college student in New York City. Every Friday afternoon I would hop on the subway, get off at Bleecker Street, and wander through the record stores and bookshops. It was an exciting time to be a student given the profound social, cultural, and political changes. Every week there would be new books, magazines or records in the shops and I wanted to read and listen to all of them.

One day I spotted an unusual, oversized paperback book with a stunning picture of the earth on the cover. Laced across the top in a familiar 60’s San Francisco style font was the title: The Whole Earth Catalog. I flipped through the pages and glanced at the sections—whole systems, natural history, land use, community, learning, tools—and each page was organized like the “things to do” books I used to play with as a kid. The catalog recommended books to read, maps to peruse, ideas to consider, and tools of all kinds. Implicit throughout the text was a message of sustainability posed as a challenge for an impending era of ecological limits. For many years and through many editions I did the best I could to track down the various resources in the Whole Earth Catalog. It became my most treasured reading list and guide.

In retrospect The Whole Earth Catalog served as a visionary inspiration for living a sustainable life. It provided an enduring, resilient, community-based, do-it-yourself, hands-on guide for living and learning. Forty years later, I realize that my entire career path is a response to that challenge. Now as a college president this is the educational philosophy that continues to guide me. Sustainability is not just a LEED certified building or providing more local foods in the cafeteria. It is a powerful philosophy of life, derived from ecological principles, common sense, and a respect for the complex magnificence of our remarkable planet.

Sustainability as a “way of life” has a long tradition in American higher education. Whether its Thoreau’s musings and experiments, Helen and Scott Nearing’s homesteading, Lewis Mumford’s vision of ecological cities and technology, or the countless attempts to link character, community, and ecological living (see David Shi’s pertinent history The Simple Life), the Whole Earth catalog served to coalesce and revitalize a perennial philosophy.

Forty year later, the ecological stakes are much, much higher. It’s crucial to understand that sustainability is a response to a planetary emergency. We are in the early stages of the sixth megaextinction (a catastrophic loss of species), plunging declines in biodiversity, and a rapidly destabilizing climatic/oceanic circulation.

This response poses an immediate challenge for all educators. How do we teach sustainability as a way of life? Make no mistake—this is the single biggest challenge for higher education—ultimately connected to turbulent economic times, the accessibility and affordability of schooling, and how we think about the future of the planet. Our goal should be nothing less than to train a new generation of sustainability leadership, graduates who understand the intricate connections between economics and ecology, place and planet, how we live and the consequences of our actions.

As a means for meeting this challenge, and as a guide for both curricular and institutional transformation, I propose nine elements of a sustainable campus, designed to evoke a whole new twenty-first century catalog of transformational sustainable practices. These entail three broad categories—Infrastructure (Energy, Materials, and Food), Community (Governance, Investment, and Wellness), and Learning (Curriculum, Interpretation, and Aesthetics). Imagine these categories as dynamic, unfolding, emergent, and intrinsically interconnected. Any sustainable practice may involve multiple categories. For example, a sparkly and ecologically efficient Platinum-LEED building may reduce the carbon footprint of a campus, but if it doesn’t also serve an inspirational curricular or interpretive function, it may not achieve its full educational potential. These nine elements aren’t a checklist, nor are they criteria for measuring success. They are meant to evoke the necessity of envisioning and applying sustainable practices to all aspects of campus life.

A sustainable campus requires a balance between protocols, behaviors, habits and routines, along with creativity, deliberation, and reflection. We need peer-reviewed protocols such as those developed by the ACUPCC (American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment) so we have a common agreement as to appropriate standards. Such protocols serve as the basis for supporting sustainable daily life practices, from energy conservation to growing local foods. The subsequent behaviors must also be the subject of deliberation. Why exactly are we doing this and what do we hope to accomplish?

At Unity College in Maine, we aspire that our campus becomes an exemplary learning and living laboratory for a sustainable culture. We hope that people who visit our campus (students, parents, community members, donors) will get dozens of ideas that will in turn inspire their own practices. We feel that if we can do this in rural Maine where the winters are very long, at a college that is undeniably “resource strapped” we can set an example for any campus anywhere. Like many other excellent colleges that share similar aspirations, we are learning how to do this, and many hours of effort and intention separate our aspirations from our accomplishments. We are collaborators and learners. Just because Unity College has an environmental mission, it doesn’t mean that we lack controversies, contradictions, and countervailing influences. Sometimes we slip into self-righteousness in our efforts to be virtuous. That’s why a healthy dose of humor is always required. As the poet Jim Dodge writes, purity is the end of potential!

As a college president, these nine elements are the source of my motivation and ambition. They reflect how I attempt to apply what I learned from the Whole Earth Catalog. This is way more than a career challenge. It’s deeply rooted in a search for meaning and purpose, a values-based orientation, and a commitment to fulfilling my responsibility as a planetary citizen.

Ice Bridge Holding Antarctic Shelf in Place Shatters

Like countless others I've developed the habit of reading the newspaper (the New York Times) online. I enjoy the instantaneity of the news, the ability to send relevant stories to peers and colleagues, and as a sports fan I like having morning access to the west coast scores. Yet when I hold the print edition of The Times in my hands I have a more thorough and enjoyable reading experience. I find that I tend to study the visceral newspaper and scan the virtual newspaper.

Every few weeks I'll indulge myself and pick up the Sunday Times, especially when I know that I'll have the time and patience to actually read it. Yesterday it was cool and cloudy, I had a rare free day, so I bought the paper. I slowly flipped through the front section and read with interest two quarter column stories on page 9, one about Obama's plan to loosen travel restrictions to Cuba, and a second on how violence is silencing the voices of Sri Lankan journalists. I was about to turn the page when I noticed an almost imperceptible "two inch" story sandwiched between two quarter page ads, "Nordstrom Fits America" and CIRCA Jewelry's "We're Here to Help."

I'll reproduce the story in full:

Ice Bridge Holding Antarctic Shelf in Place Shatters

An ice bridge holding a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place has shattered and may herald a wider collapse caused by global warming, a scientist said Saturday.
"It's amazing how the ice has ruptured," said David Vaughan, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey. "Two days ago it was intact," he said, referring to a satellite image of the Wilkins ice shelf.
The satellite picture, by the European Space Agency, showed that a strip of ice about 25 miles long that is believed to pin the ice shelf in place had snapped.
The loss if the ice bridge could mean a wider breakup of the ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut.

Tucked into the smallest conceivable space in arguably one of the world's great newspapers is a story to dwarf them all, a news item of extraordinary planetary significance. It's buried on the bottom of the page in the southern corner, like the Antipodes themselves, thousands of miles away, at the "bottom" of the earth, observed by a few scientists monitoring satellite photos.

Why, I wonder, isn't this a front page banner headline? Why is there instead (in the same edition) a front page story about the efforts of Scarsdale, New York middle schools to help adolescents learn how to empathize more and gossip less (yes, yes, I know that's important!)? Why has our coverage of extraordinary biospheric events been relegated to the smallest corner of the newspaper? It feels like this story (perhaps inadvertently) has been swept under the rug.

I will save you from what would only be a trite analysis of why this is so, and spare you, too, my fatalistic musings. Nor do I wish to minimize the awakening public awareness around climate change, or the emerging student-activism energy regarding sustainability and climate action.

However, this story is a daily reminder (buried in a daily newspaper) that our climate actions are still not close to being urgent enough, and we must do all that we can to encourage living and learning habits and practices that keep climate action at the forefront of our concerns.

As a college president, I try to keep an active voice with the ACUPCC (American College and University President's Climate Commitment). and any other organization that I belong to or work with. Indeed, I serve as a college president for one primary reason—to exercise as much influence as I can to promote sustainable solutions to deal with climate destabilization and the loss of biodiversity.

The ACUPCC is of particular note. Why? Because it represents over one third of all the nation's college presidents who are making a campus-wide commitment to reduce their carbon footprint. Multiply this by all of the students who attend those colleges and you can have a major impact. At the forthcoming ACUPCC summit (this August in Chicago) working groups will coordinate efforts on a range of campus initiatives. Among the most crucial will be curricular efforts. In partnership with AASHE (The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) and CGIU (Clinton Global Initiative University), we'll be figuring out ways to have maximum impact on the nation's curriculum.

How do we insure that climate awareness and sustainable solutions are infused in multiple educational settings—intrinsic to freshman learning experiences, deeply incorporated into any and all majors, and the basis for innovative new majors that will prepare a new generation of sustainability leadership and a green work force?

Stories such as the ice bridge shattering may not be front page news in the Sunday Times, but it's our responsibility to move them to the frontpage of a comprehensive higher education curriculum effort.

For more on the organizations cited in this post (ACUPCC, AASHE, CGIU), see the links column on the right.

Environmental Studies for the Whole World

I had the great honor to attend the second annual meeting of CGIU (Clinton Global Initiative University). This is a gathering of over a thousand college students from more than sixty countries, approximately one hundred college and university presidents, and panelists from academia, business, activism, and the entertainment industry.

It was my first trip to Austin, Texas. After a harried evening of delayed flights, airline mechanical failures, and assorted mishaps, the Unity College contingent (myself and three students) arrived in Texas, pleased to be there safely, and delighted to experience some warm weather in the middle of a very cold and snowy winter.

This was a magnificent event, filled with great ideas, commitments, and energy. Essentially, the message of the conference is to promote a global spirit of community service, linked to climate change, health care, social justice, economic equity, and poverty alleviation. Each student who attends the conference is accepted by virtue of a commitment to initiate a service project. Hence this is a conference about action. The commitments range from developing prosthetics for victims of mines leftover from the Vietnam war to promoting awareness of human trafficking, and include countless (and wonderful) programs to promote international health, campus greening, community education, and so on. It's an impressive catalog of ambitious and inspiring projects.

As interesting as many of the panelists were, what I enjoyed most about the weekend was watching the extraordinary energy of the students. Although it's always instructive to spend time with other college presidents, I spent way more of my time floating among the students, asking them questions about their work, getting to know about their concerns and interests. This culminated on the final day as I joined hundreds of students on a community service project in East Austin. I spoke to people from the University of North Dakota to New York University, and they all had a well-articulated sense of dedication and commitment. I was utterly delighted with the passion and intelligence I observed. This was a terrific learning experience for me and these students (including our Unity College reps) were my teachers.

I was also very inspired by President Clinton. He was ubiquitous at the conference and he served to empower the voices of the panelists and, of course, the students. He always spoke directly to the students and his combination of eloquence, substance, and experience reflected an evocative integration of heart and mind. What a terrific way for a former President to be spending his time!

An overriding theme for President Clinton and a challenge he continually posed to the students was "how do you take your passion and turn it into a lifetime of service?" "How do you apply the skills you have to social change?" He discussed "the routinization of service," how "service makes you happy," and how gratitude reciprocates."

"Always save some space for being a citizen," he advised. And "to be pessimistic is to bet against yourself."

Clinton's mantra was leadership through action, the importance of how, the importance of deeds rather than words, and the limitless potential of everyone in the room.

Have we heard all of this before? Well, perhaps, but that doesn't lessen its significance. It was the authenticity with which Clinton approached these themes that illuminated his message. Further, with each aphorism of service he would provide a substantive anecdote reflecting a riveting public policy success. Clinton is impressively learned, and that leant an authority to his eloquence.

I look forward to keeping pace with all aspects of the Clinton Global Initiative and I was absolutely thrilled to bear witness to such a constructive and inspirational gathering.

Birding and Ecological Learning

On returning from a short jaunt on snowshoes in the Unity woodlot, I spotted some Snow Buntings. It took me some field guide work (and consultation with Professor Dave Potter) to confirm what I saw. Ever since I got out the field guides, they've stayed out. I've tried to find a little bit of time every day to study a small section of a different field guide. I realize that I do this annually, usually in the dead of winter. I get an uplifting feeling as I flip through these magnificently illustrated books. It's a reminder that Spring will be here.

As a young boy, I would practice a similar ritual with my baseball cards. In the late 1950's the new series of Topps cards usually wouldn't be in the stores until March. So I would retrieve the previous year's cards and sort them out on the floor of my room. By late January, the sun is higher in the sky and you know that Spring lies out there somewhere. Probably if I had spent as much time then studying birds as I did baseball cards I would be a much more skilled birder than I am. But instead I remember that Duke Snider hit 42 home runs in 1955 and I can call up other such useless trivia.

No matter. I didn't really take notice of birds (the way birders do) until I was in my late twenties. And I remain a casual birder. During spring migration, or when I travel to distant places, or when I have spring fever, I get out the bird guides, carry my binoculars with me, and do the best I can to observe and pay attention, hoping that with each new excursion, my atrophied skills will somehow be resurrected.

Truth be told, I'm not a very skilled birder. I find it difficult to move from a pure viewing field to the binoculars and back again.
I don't attend to or notice detail particularly well as I have always been more of an observer of patterns and systems. And I'm impatient in the field. I'm easily distracted and ready to move on to the next new thing. These are all reasons why the patient perseverance of birding is so crucial for my ecological awareness.

Here are some reasons why I enjoy birding when I have an opportunity to do it.

(1) Birding slows down my hyper-reflective always thinking/moving mind, and helps me achieve a more refined state of pure observational awareness. Birding forces me to focus on the observational moment.

(2) It teaches me about the remarkable variety, mystery, and wonder of life on earth. Each species has a unique life story, an adaptive radiation, an ecological strategy, a biogeographical space, a behavioral response, and a perceptual accommodation. I respond to this diversity with unbridled enthusiasm.

(3) While observing birds in their habitats I am inevitably drawn to other aspects of the landscape which I now see through the movement of the birds.

(4) I enjoy looking up birds in field guides. I find these guides reassuring in that they can pack so much information and diversity into a book that you can carry in your pocket. Yet they tell only a sliver of the story. Indeed, the drawing, the text, the photo, and the map are all approximations. There is a compelling narrative that lies within, between, and beyond the page. I take pleasure in perusing multiple field guides, each reflecting a different descriptive strategy, all somehow comprehensive yet incomplete. Perhaps these field guides reassure me that despite anthropogenic planetary changes, these birds (for now) are still here!

(5) I enjoy the gaming and sporting aspect of birding. I take pleasure in seeing a "new" bird and adding it to my list, not in an obsessive way, but more in the sense of finding a jewel or uncovering treasure. How appealing it is when a bird I've never seen before reveals itself to me!

(6) I revel in the hide and seek element. Sure there is a stalking, prey/predator Pleistiocene origin to this. But I think of it more as a subtle game of search and discover. Still, the bird plays by its own rules.

(7) I adore the improvisational aspect—how you take a walk, or sit in a spot, and sometimes without warning, a mixed flock of birds appears, often at various layers of the landscape, and you have to figure out where they are, where they are moving, and how you can blend into the landscape well enough to observe them.

(8) Birding teaches me to come out of myself and into the natural world.

(9) Birding teaches patience.

(10) Birding teaches me to listen to the sounds of nature, paying attention to the basic elements of musical sound—call and response, mating and attraction, notification and warning, or as David Rothenberg points out in his lovely book Why Birds Sing, singing for the sheer heck of it.

(11) I enjoy the collecting aspect of making a list, with the impermanence attached to collecting something that you can't own or put on a shelf.

There's much more to reflect on here. If you're interested in the deeper meaning of birding, I strongly encourage you to read Jonathan Rosen's absolutely brilliant and evocative book, The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. Rosen's learned and passionate account moves from spirituality to the history of human/nature relationships, through Louisiana, Israel, and Central Park. His work embodies so much of how we think about our relationship to nature. And he's a terrific storyteller.

But for now, and for the purposes of this blog (Environmental Studies for the Real World) and in service of ecological learning, I wish to say that through the crises of climate change and biodiversity and our urgent rush to promote sustainable alternatives, birding ought to be at the heart of environmental studies. I can think of no better way to learn to observe nature and I can think of no more virtuous and vital learning opportunity than observing birds.

Inaugural Inspiration and Emotion

I watched the inauguration at the Unity College Student Center. The room was absolutely packed. Students, staff, and faculty were riveted to the screen. When Chief Justice Roberts asked everyone to rise, we all rose too. We all sang the Star Spangled Banner. We wanted to share this extraordinary moment.

I was in Washington on Monday (the day before the inauguration) to attend an event featuring the Maine Senatorial and House Delegation. I went down just for the day. I rode the train from BWI to Union Station. It was utterly stuffed as the aisles were filled with standing passengers. Of course, it was a train to the Inauguration. I flashed back to 1968 when I took a bus to Washington for an anti-war demonstration. Forty years later I was witnessing a similar gathering. Yet it was much different this time. There was much less anger and much more love. There was less frivolity and more determination. There was much more diversity. It was as if forty years of activism had come of age. I felt an incredible sense of admiration for all the people on that train.

Watching the inauguration on television wasn't the same as being there, but watching it with the Unity Community was intensely intimate and we were all building community and solidarity, too. Obama's message is so clear—we all have a role to play in America's transformation. Everyone has something important to do.

Like millions of others, I was profoundly moved emotionally. I'd like to describe what it was that brought me to tears. I think that finding the core of an emotional moment is an opportunity for insight and wisdom. Aretha Franklin just about undid me. As she came to the stage, wrapped in her scarf and hat, I noticed a vague and palpable resemblance to my grandmother. Bessie Thomashow was a Russian/Jewish immigrant who believed passionately in worker's rights and bequeathed a progressive legacy to her grandchildren. I grew up in a home that believed deeply in civil rights, peace, and social justice. My parents met in 1948 working for Henry Wallace, the progressive third party candidate for president. My mother passed away a year and a half ago and my father died on election day this year. Neither had any awareness of Obama and they would have been so thrilled to witness these events. Aretha's face connected me to my roots, as different as they might be from hers.

And then she began to sing. She sang with extraordinary passion and power, unbridled but in control, as if her entire history as a musician prepared her for this moment. She sang for my family and for yours. She sang for the past and the future. Her voice reflected struggle and hope, suffering and elation. She filled us with faith and courage.

I am so grateful that I am living at a time in American history when Barack Obama is president. I am so grateful that we all have an opportunity to share in this collective vision and contribute with our voices to this exceptional opportunity. As an educator, my role is to help empower a new generation of leaders who can find their voices in this time of great hope. After all of these years, there is a context for the work we do, and we are nourished by the feeling that there is a meaning and purpose for our work. In my view, the election of Barack Obama is a gift, and we are living in a singular, defining moment of American history. It's our task to respond to that gift by honoring the challenge of learning and service, to make the most of our opportunity, to build enduring and resilient communities, and to empower clear and effective voices.

The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Culture

It's both rewarding and inspiring to observe all of the renewed interest in sustainability, especially in higher education. However, it's crucial that in uncertain economic times, we reiterate our commitment to sustainable approaches to all aspects of our lives.

Let's remember that sustainability is a response to three extraordinary and interconnected challenges—biodiversity loss, species extinction, and climate change. This response entails more than LEED buildings, innovative technologies, and cool new courses. It involves all aspects of organizational life, including values, governance, learning, and infrastructure.

For higher education, I propose nine integrated elements of what it means to have a sustainable culture. I don't imply that Unity College has achieved mastery in any of these areas. But we do use these as guidelines for our Master Plan, our mission, and all aspects of our future as a learning organization.

In this post, I'll briefly lay out these nine elements. In future installments, I'll deal with each of them in more detail, and describe some of the ways that Unity College is thinking about them. See Mick Womersley's blog for more details too. http://ucsustainability.blogspot.com/

Broadly conceived, a sustainable culture for a college or university involves infrastructure, community, and learning.

The infrastructure challenge involves (1) energy, (2) food, and (3) materials.

Energy encompasses the carbon budget, energy sources, conservation efforts—all aspects of the energy system for a campus. This awareness is crucial for achieving a zero-carbon initiative and meeting the goals of the President's Climate Commitment.

Food involves all aspects of the food production and consumption system, including the use of local and/or organic foods, whether food is grown on campus, and the extent to which the campus supports a sustainable food system.

Materials considers the raw matter of various construction processes, including the supply chain, recycling, reuse, and toxicity.

The community challenge involves (4) governance, (5) investment, and (6) wellness

Governance reflects decision-making processes, including budget preparation and approval, staff and faculty participation, the board of trustees, and all stakeholders. Are they involved in all aspects of moving a campus towards sustainability? Is there a clarity of purpose regarding accountability, responsibility, and agency?

Investment includes all aspects of a college's impact on the finances of the regional community. Does the college serve as a multiplier for regional sustainability efforts? Does it support sustainable business practices? Is its endowment invested in ecologically responsible businesses?

Wellness involves the stress level, general health, and attitude of the organization. Does the college promote healthy living? Does the community emphasize its own physical and mental well-being?

The learning challenge embodies (7) curriculum, (8) aesthetics, and (9) interpretation

Curriculum is the ground floor of any college's sustainability efforts. Are sustainability principles (from economics to ecology) thoroughly infused in all aspects of the curriculum, from freshman experiences through professional schools? Are there specific programs to train sustainability practitioners, tailored to the special strengths and qualities of the institution?

Aesthetics suggests that sustainability initiatives should be implemented with the arts in mind. Are there vivid, imaginative, and interesting exhibits/arts projects/installations that develop a metaphoric resonance with various sustainability initiatives?

Interpretation means that the campus should serve the broadest possible educational function in calling attention to its sustainability efforts. Here is the perfect place for the educators to use a campus as an opportunity for challenging instructional opportunities—the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability. How do we learn from each other, evoke thoughtful and interesting comments from our constituents, and galvanize all visitors to our campus?

The purpose of these guidelines is to open a discussion regarding the whole system of a sustainable culture. It's not enough just to build a few LEED certified buildings (as admirable as that is!). It's not enough just to have a great sustainability course for freshman. We need to empower and inspire entirely new ways of thinking. These nine elements imply the depth of our challenge. The college campus is the best place to exemplify these possibilities and to inspire a whole new culture of sustainable practice, living, and thinking.

Biodiversity (Again)

Eleven years ago (1997) I attended a conference on biodiversity at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. I was reminded of what I had already known—the earth is the early stages of the sixth megaextinction, the catastrophic breakdown of biodiversity. Indeed, this prompted me to write a book, Bringing the Biosphere Home—Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change (MIT Press, 2001) which essentially is about how to educate for biodiversity and climate change.

Several weeks ago the National Council for Science and the Environment held its annual conference in Washington. This year's topic was biodiversity. Attending the conference allowed me to reflect on the last decade. You already know the news! World economic development, the continued emphasis on petroleum products, and the extraordinary growth in the Chinese and Indian economies have accelerated biodiversity loss at an unimagined pace.

As discouraging and depressing as this is, for the first time in recent memory, there is actually a great deal of hope in Washington. Why? The Obama team has assembled a science team that is knowledgeable, committed, and completely understands the severity of the biodiversity crisis.

Jane Lubchenco a Professor at Oregon State University (who holds an Honorary doctorate from Unity College!), the new NASA director, is a marine biologist who has long been an advocate of biodiversity initiatives.

Check out her website http://lucile.science.oregonstate.edu/lubchenco/

Johm Holdren, A Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and the President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center, will lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He delivered a riveting lecture at the Eighth NCSE conference called "Meeting the Climate-Change Challenge."

Check out his website http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/john-holdren

Steven Chu, the new Secretary of Energy, directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a long-time advocate of alternative energy development, and a Nobel Prize winning physics Professor.

Learn more about him here: http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Director/

This is an absolutely extraordinary team and we have high hopes for what they might accomplish. Additionally, the Obama transition team has met repeatedly with some of the nation's foremost ecologists, environmental scientists, climate change experts, and biodiversity advocates. There is a great deal of hope and confidence that the forthcoming administration actually understands and cares about these challenges.

What does this mean for higher education generally and Unity College specifically? It lends greater meaning to our own efforts to revitalize our curriculum. We must prepare our students to (1) understand the dimensions of the climate change and biodiversity crises (2) develop the expertise to pursue meaningful and pertinent careers (3) take active roles as proponents of environmental awareness. Our students can now pursue their studies knowing that there will be hope, initiative, and support for their efforts. What a difference that makes as they embark on their careers. They must also understand that they face a daunting challenge. But it will be much easier for them to do so knowing that there will be support for their efforts.

I cannot think of anything more urgent for our nation's college students then to get mobilized and educated on behalf of preserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change. All of the recent emphasis on sustainability and a green economy is magnificent. Yet we must remember that these are responses to a bigger challenge. If a green economy lacks an ecological ethic then it will merely be a passing trend, a superficial way to get people back to work rebuilding a failing infrastructure. That's important! But it won't be enduring or resilient if it lacks the requisite environmental awareness.

At Unity College the best way we can support the new administration is to train a new generation of environmental leaders who will not only help create the foundation of a green economy, but will do so with preserving biodiversity in mind. That is at the heart of our curricular challenge.