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
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
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.
Agenda
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II.
III.
IV.
V.
Introduction and Welcome
Brief Sustainability Overview
Moving from perfunctory change to
and through intentional focusCutting Edge Challenges and
Successes
Assessing Change on Campus
Q&A and Wrap-Up
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.
Strong
Environments
Strong Social
Systems
Sustainable
Society
Strong
Economy
Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability
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.”
Economic Aspects of Sustainability
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Local first
Co-ops
Living wage
Local currency
Examining consumption – The Lorax
Sustainable development/
sustainable distribution
Green jobs
Intentional Conversations
Sustainability
and
Social Justice
Social Justice Aspects of
Sustainable Development
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Environmental Racism
Fair Trade
Living Wage
Domestic Partnerships
Corporate
Responsibility
Rights of Indigenous
Peoples
Gender Equity
Water Rights
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Human Rights
Child Labor Issues
Affirmative Action
Multicultural
Competence
Pollution & Farming
Practices
Worker’s Rights
Sweatshop Labor
Slavery
Global Transition:
From
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It is all connected!
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Fossil powered
Take, make, waste 
Living off nature’s 
capital
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Market as master
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Loss of cultural &
biological diversity
Independence
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Materialism as
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goal
To
Solar powered
Cyclical production
Living off nature’s
income
Market as servant
Increased cultural
& biological
diversity
Interdependence
Human satisfaction
goal
Challenges and Answers to
Sustainability
Challenges
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Already busy
Don’t know this
stuff
Issues are complex
and systematic
Answers
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Use national
resources
Learn from other
institutions
Use students (like
YOU) and staff
nationally to help
you learn, grow,
and implement
Integrating Education for Sustainable
Development:
Orientation
First year Book
Curricula
Research
Mission and
Planning
Community
Outreach and
Partnerships
Purchasing
Student Life
Operations
Professional
Development
Key Places:
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Mission
Strategic Plan
Budget
Orientation
Campus Map and
Signage
Building Policies
Operations and
Purchasing
Policies
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Student Life
Residential Living
Infused throughout
curricula
First Year Experience
Gen Ed Core
Curricula Review
Community
Partnerships
Workforce
Development
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
Shared Successes and Challenges
Sustainability
Assessment/Rating...
The conversation is just
beginning.
(Next session)
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)
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)
Sustainability Learning Outcomes
(ACPA’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006)
5. Each student will learn change agent skills.
6.
(cognitive complexity; knowledge acquisition;
integration and application; intra and inter personal
competence; humanitarianism; civic engagement;
practical competence; persistence and academic
achievement)
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)
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)
AASHE - Sustainability Tracking, Assessment
and Rating System (STARS)
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5.
Designed to:
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.
STARS Rating
Program Overview
Categories
Education & Research
Operations
Administration & Finance
Elements of STARS
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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
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/
Question & Answers
and
Wrap-Up
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
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
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/