Higher Education: Emerging Laboratories for Inventing a Sustainable Future

• Author: Wynn Calder and Julian Dautremont-Smith
• Pages: 93-107

Chapter 7

Higher Education: Emerging

Laboratories for Inventing a Sustainable

Future

Wynn Calder and Julian Dautremont-Smith

Sustainability is a growing imperative in higher education in Amer-

ica. Practitioners define sustainability both narrowly as the long-term

protection and health of the natural environment, and broadly as the

triple bottom line of environmental health, economic viability,and so-

cial well-being. A university fully committed to sustainability empha-

sizes an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to fostering the knowl-

edge, skills, and attitudes needed to build a more sustainable world for

present and future generations. Colleges and universities across the

United States are increasingly practicing sustainability in campus op-

erations, with climate change serving as a catalyst for energy conser-

vation projects, renewable energy purchasing, recycling, and sustain-

able food initiatives. Departments of environmental studies and sci-

ence remain strong or are increasing in popularity as general aware-

ness of our environmental predicament grows. Specific courses and

programs focused on sustainability are also increasingly evident,

while sustainability as an academic discipline in its own right is at an

early stage of development.

Fostering a more sustainable world is arguably the most logical out-

come of the higher education endeavor. Nearly every college and uni-

versity mission statement holds the institution to a purpose higher

than simply the creation and dissemination of knowledge. Higher edu-

cation consistently aspires to instill in graduates such qualities as good

citizenship, moral integrity, leadership, critical thinking, and care for

the environment. The work of building a sustainable world requires

precisely these qualities and more. Because colleges and universities

are uniquely equipped to help achieve sustainability through innova-

tion in teaching, research, and institutional practice, it would seem in-

cumbent upon them to rise to this challenge.

When deeply embraced by a college or university, sustainability is

reflected in each of its core areas: curriculum; research; operations;

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