Sustainability & the Liberal Arts:
Creating a Sustainability Diffusion Plan
Linking Curriculum, College Infrastructure,
and Community
Project Leader
Contact Information:
Juniata College
1700 Moore St.
Huntingdon, PA 16652
814.641.XXXX (Office)
jXXXXXX@juniata.edu
January 2006
to
August 2007
ABSTRACT
The basis of quality of life for future generations is sustainable living today.
Creating a sustainable society is a complex problem that requires an interdisciplinary
approach. By virtue of their interdisciplinary focus, liberal arts institutions are uniquely
poised to instill the urgency and practices required to ensure sustainability. This
project is based on a model developed by Juniata College using concept mapping. An
essential component of the model will be the inclusion of the college community in the
development of the shared goals and objectives that will increase sustainability through
curriculum and infrastructure changes. This model is designed to expand awareness,
encourage creative problem solving, stimulate ownership, create critical thinkers, and
encourage life-long changes in attitudes and behaviors—all hallmarks of a quality liberal
arts education. The model can then be diffused to other liberal arts institutions, with each
institution able to modify its goals and objectives to fit its unique character.
A variety of outcomes will result from this project. Lectures, conferences and
forums will reach faculty, staff, students and community members of Juniata College as
well as other learning institutions and industry. Several white papers addressing research,
theory, and practice will also be developed. Curriculum changes will be documented and
multiple “course modules” that emphasize student experiential learning on sustainability
will be developed. A web site detailing the project’s events, progress, and findings will
be available to the public. All resources created as a result of this project will be made
available through the website, presentations at conferences or as requested. Support from
the Teagle Foundation will provide funds for the research process and development of
project deliverables.
Keywords: liberal arts, sustainability, sustainable society, assessments, diffusion model,
inclusive
THE TOPIC - Sustainability
Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of the present generation without
compromising the ability of future generations to exist in a healthy quality of life while
having sufficient resources (The Bruntland Commission, 1987). The concept of
sustainability, introduced in the late 1970’s (Brown, 1980), has increasingly become a
critical issue facing society. David Orr’s Ecological Literacy (1992) provided a solid
overview of sustainability and described the potential for liberal arts institutions to lead in
this complex issue and yet the Princeton Survey Research Associates (McIntosh , 2001)
noted that the urgency for sustainable action still exists, especially for “extending formal
environmental education to more students, especially engineering and education majors;
and orienting students, faculty, and staff to campus environmental programs and goals.”
Thus, while there may indeed be early adopters of sustainable practices, there is still
considerable opportunity to address this critical issue in a comprehensive, diffusible
manner.
While much has been documented on a variety of specific topics pertaining to
sustainability and the consumption of natural resources, an all-encompassing approach to
achieving sustainability is neither intuitive nor obvious, yet the time for action is now.
We must begin to understand sustainability, foster education, and work towards changing
attitudes and behaviors to create a sustainable environment. In order to reach a point of
sustainability, we must also understand what people know, think, and are willing to learn
about the subject, as well as how people learn about sustainability. In particular, our
project proposes that the interpersonal dynamics within liberal arts institutions may
diffuse attitudes and behaviors regarding future sustainability practices.
RELEVANCE – To Juniata College & Liberal Education
In a manner which often mirrors society’s recognition of sustainability, many
liberal arts institutions have not placed a high priority on the topic and have not adopted a
comprehensive approach to this critical issue. However, liberal arts institutions are
uniquely positioned to address these critical issues, given their interdisciplinary approach
to creating informed and productive citizens.
Sustainability at Juniata College will be included in the next strategic plan, which
is currently under development. Our comprehensive approach will integrate initiatives in
many areas of campus life including curriculum development and infrastructure
considerations such as renewable energy, purchasing, dining services, and campus
transportation. Already Juniata has taken the following steps towards a more sustainable
future:
 Purchasing 10% of total electric use through wind power
 One of only 36 schools engaged in the EPA Green Power Initiative
 Completion of a LEED certified green building
 Implementation of a campus wide recycling program,
 Retrofit of many lighting systems on campus to more efficient lighting
fixtures
 Complete overhaul of central plant and campus steam distribution system to
increase efficiency
These initial steps, coupled with an environment that provides interdisciplinary
opportunities for experiential learning and application of sustainable practices makes
Juniata College well suited to undertake this ambitious task.
OUR APPROACH
No conceptualization of sustainability can be adopted for a particular community
without making fundamental ethical and political choices. We will create a sustainability
diffusion model for our campus that will involve the entire campus community and will
be accessible for adoption by other liberal arts institutions, having a much greater
potential impact on the broader goal of creating a sustainable society. The model will be
designed to increase understanding of sustainability on campus as well as the importance
of sustainability in society at large, relying on the concept of life-long learning, inherent
to a liberal education.
We found concept mapping (Canas et al 2004) to be quite powerful in
conceptualizing our approach to sustainability and, therefore, will use it as part of the
overall sustainability implementation process. Figure 1 reflects the conceptualization of
our sustainability diffusion model.
Support from the Teagle Foundation will enable Juniata to lay the groundwork
and provide many of the enrichment activities necessary to bring about sustainability on
campus while changing attitudes and behaviors. Creating a framework that maintains
commitment and momentum, while integrating change into the college community will
be no small feat.
Central to our plan is the creation of a sustainability leadership core that will
consist of the authors of this proposal, as well as representatives from the faculty, staff,
students, alumni, and administration, as appointed by the president of Juniata College.
The sustainability leadership core will organize working groups consisting of campus
leaders and members of campus stakeholders from all segments of the campus
community, increasing the likelihood of its success. Research reflects that the needs and
concerns of the individuals responsible for change must be considered if change is to be
effective (Rogers, 1995). Through these groups, we will define campus sustainability
goals, the objectives through which these goals will be met, and create assessments to
measure knowledge and changes in attitudes and behaviors. Concurrently, we will
develop assessment tools to measure the sustainability diffusion model and make
necessary adjustments.
Our plan is not confined to the Juniata community. We have identified several
initial partners that include other academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and
international corporations. Together with our partners, we will host a series of
conferences and workshops to address sustainability and the role of liberal arts
institutions. These conferences will include speakers, presenters, student and faculty
poster sessions, and breakout working groups covering all aspects of sustainability.
These events will be attended by the campus community, peer institutions, industry
representatives, and other community members.
OUTCOMES & ASSESSMENTS
In general, we expect to increase understanding of sustainability in a way that
changes both attitudes and behaviors. As an inclusive project, the specific goals and
objectives will be established by the Sustainability Leadership Core based on the
considered opinion of the campus community. Significant progress towards achieving
these goals will be the measure of success for our overall sustainability plan.
Our model will lead to numerous outcomes promoting sustainability. For
example, by including sustainability into the college’s strategic plan, we are signaling the
importance of maintaining a sustainable infrastructure. By including sustainability across
the curriculum we are identifying the importance of making sustainability a priority for
all members of the campus community. Simply implementing these changes in the
curriculum and the infrastructure will go a long way towards meeting our goals.
Implementation, however, is not enough. We need to assess whether the changes are
being carried out as intended, and we need to evaluate whether they are having the
desired effects.
The first step in assessing our model is determining whether our community has a
greater understanding of sustainability. By creating a sustainability knowledge index
from questionnaires, we will be able to measure and quantify changes in the knowledge
base of our community. Becoming better informed will lead to changes in attitudes about
the importance of sustainability. Therefore, we will also measure the extent to which
attitudes about sustainability change after implementation of our sustainability diffusion
model. These assessments will include all members of the campus community, including
faculty, staff, and students.
Changing knowledge and attitudes are essential steps towards achieving our
ultimate goal of changing behavior. We will create a measure of quantifiable changes
one would expect in a more sustainable community. This measure will include outcomes
such as the consumption of electricity, how many pounds materials are recycled, and
whether there has been a decrease in number of miles driven in unsustainable fossil fuel
vehicles.
Our belief is that a focused, inclusive effort to address curriculum and
infrastructure will result in a sustainable community. The sustainability diffusion model
will promote changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. It is important to
communicate our model and findings to other liberal arts institutions in order to have the
greatest impact on society at large.
PROPOSAL SUMMARY & DELIVARABLES
Following is a summary of the action steps that will be taken as part of this proposal:
 A Sustainability Leadership Core will be appointed by the President of Juniata
College. This committee will consist of faculty, staff, and students and will be
charged with implementing a sustainability plan and process.
 Baseline knowledge and attitudes will be collected and assessed.
 Baseline data will be used by the Sustainability Leadership Core to create an
initial set of goals that will be implemented by a series of working groups.
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Goals will be accomplished through a series of objectives which are based on
education and infrastructure changes.
A series of workshops, forums, conferences, and lectures series by noted experts
will be conducted. Partnerships with other institutions, agencies, alumni, and
industry have been developed for these activities.
Assessment procedures will be developed and implemented and goals will be readjusted based on input from working groups and assessment outcomes.
A Sustainable Juniata website will be created as part of this project and
maintained as part of long term planning at Juniata College.
Figure 1 – Concept map depicting sustainability diffusion model. This tool will be used
as a starting point for working group and discussions.
REFERENCES
Brown, L. (1980). Building a sustainability society. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
McIntosh, Mary, PhD; cacciola, Kathleen; Clermont, Stephen; Keniryu, Lulian; State of
the Campus Environment: A National Report Card on Environmental Performance and
Sustainability in Higher Education; Princeton Survey research Associates, Fall, 2001.
Orr, D. (1992). Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world.
Albany, NY: State University of NY Press.
Rogers, E. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
World Commission of Environment and Development. (1987). Our Common Future.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.