Overcoming Barriers to Sustainability on College and University Campuses

1. Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Overcoming Barriers to Sustainability on College and University Campuses Tom Kimmerer Executive Director AASHE

2. A Short Story About Sustainability

11. Growing Coffee • Technified Coffee (monoculture)

12. Growing Coffee • Shade Grown Coffee

13. Buying Coffee • Shade Grown, Organic, Fair Trade vs. Commodity Coffee

17. What is sustainability?

18. What is sustainability?

19. What is sustainability?

20. A Sustainable Society is: Environmentally viable Economically Robust Socially Just & Equitable

21. The decision process for individuals and institutions affects: • The global economy • The global environment • The social structure of communities

22. The decision process for individuals and institutions affects: • The global economy • The global environment • The social structure of communities • Coffee is the world’s second largest commodity

23. Why Colleges are Important The campus must be the laboratory in which we invent a sustainable future.

24. Barriers to Sustainability The organization of colleges & universities is a significant barrier to sustainability

25. Barriers to Sustainability The Landlord-Tenant Relationship

26. Barriers to Sustainability The Landlord-Tenant relationship needs to be replaced with a collaborative learning relationship.

27. Campus Collaboration When implementing sustainability programs, operators and academics need to be allies.

28. Overcoming the Barriers - NAU

29. Teaching the Campus Prof. Stephen Mead

30. Teaching the Campus – Informal Education

31. Teaching the Campus – The Sustainability Interpreter Interpreters create Banners, Signs, Posters Tours Videos

32. Overcoming Barriers – People to People Gary Deason, Center for Sustainable Environments Mark Flynn, Executive Director, Capital Assets & Services

33. Engaging Students

34. Engaging Students • Teach Sustainability across the curriculum • Provide specialized courses and curricula • Model sustainable behavior in the classroom and on campus

35. Engaging StudentsOberlin College

36. Engaging Students • Focus the Nation • Teaching Event on climate • Jan. 31 2008 • Focusthenation.org • Campus Climate Challenge • Supports student activities in clean energy • Climatechallenge.org

37. Engaging Students • Make students, staff, faculty aware participants, not passive recipients. • Give them information • Let them make choices

38. Barriers to Sustainability Universities and their suppliers need new relationships

39. Procurement by Collaboration • Buying stuff in new ways • Shift from command purchasing to collaboration • Shift from bid packages to RFPs • Viewing providers as collaborators • ASU and Aramark

40. Overcoming barriers • The major barriers to sustainability are in human behavior and relationships, not in science and technology. • Segments of the campus need to learn new relationships

41. Over 400 College and University Presidents have committed their campuses to reversing climate change. • The ACUPCC will be the great accelerator of campus sustainability “More than ever, universities must take leadership roles to address the grand challenges of the twenty-first century, and climate change is paramount among these” - Michael Crow, President, Arizona State University

42. Last Thoughts • In any economic revolution, there is bifurcation • Those who change and thrive • Those who resist and fail • Sustainability requires both small, incremental steps and large leaps • Don’t assume that change is linear

43. Opportunities Abound Colleges and Universities are the laboratories in which we invent a sustainable future.

44. www.aashe.org www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org Thanks to Jim Buizer, Tony Cortese, Lee DeBaillie, Gary Deason, Mark Flynn, Hunter Lovins, Dave Newport and others for inspiration and help with content. Special thanks to the great AASHE staff: Julian Dautremont-Smith, Judy Walton, Sam Hummel, John Johnson.