The Occupy Student Debt Campaign, an offshoot of the Occupy movement focusing on student debt and urging students to pledge not to repay their loans if other borrowers join them, planned several events Wednesday to commemorate the total amount of student debt passing $1 trillion reports Inside Higher Ed.

My colleague Ashwini and I happened to be in New York during one of the planned demonstrations at Union Square (all photos from that event). New York serves as the headquarters and regional offices of the student lender Sallie Mae. Unless the U.S. Congress intervenes, interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans are set to double from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1. Additional rallies occurred at colleges across the country, including the University of Chicago, Brooklyn College, Cooper Union, Hampshire College, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Student also continue to rally in Quebec, Canada (going for 11 weeks strong) to protest a proposed 75% tuition increase at public colleges there.

Democracy Now! provided coverage of the US events along with an interview with Pamela Brown, a Ph.D. student who helped launch the Occupy Student Debt Campaign "Pledge of Refusal." See the interview below.

Finally, President Obama weighed in on the issue on a visit to UNC-Chapel Hill and recorded a comedic take on the issue with Jimmy Fallon.

Related Resources:

• The AASHE Bulletin has an "Affordability & Access" section. Check out past stories in the Bulletin database, and subscribe to the Bulletin to keep informed about such matters and campus sustainability in general.

• AASHE's Higher Education Occupy Project - AASHE put together a photo essay based on submissions from various individuals from all over North America to better understand the connection between higher education and the Occupy movement.

This installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series features recent University of Michigan graduate Michelle Wai-Hon Lam's award-winning essay, "Seeing like a Planet: From Global Consciousness to Global Conscience." Lam won first place in online news source Earthzine's third annual College and University Student Essay and Blogging Contest, which asked students to consider ways that Earth observation can help build a more sustainable world. The below essay first appeared at Earthzine.org on Feb. 6, 2012. We hope to see questions and feedback in the comments area! Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Seeing like a Planet: From Global Consciousness to Global Conscience

On December 7, 1972 – at 5:39 a.m. EST to be exact – astronauts on the Apollo 17 mission took a photograph that transformed how we saw our home, Earth. This was the first time we saw a planet, our planet. Fast-forward 50 years and technology has once again provided us with a transformative vision. With current and projected capabilities in Earth observation, the possibility of knowing our planet, in real time even, is not an impossible dream, but a rather straightforward one. The real challenge lies in what we do with this knowledge, how we apply it and to what end. Knowledge is transformative. The so-called Blue Marble image of 1972 was pivotal in driving awareness during early years of environmental activism. Looking ahead, the most exciting, not to mention crucial, transformation Earth observation can give us is to not only develop our knowledge of the Earth, but to help us cultivate an identity and conscience that encompasses the entire globe. Only then will we be truly moving toward a more sustainable world.

Knowledge is not neutral

For the title of this essay I have borrowed from James C. Scott’s seminal critique on high modernism, “Seeing Like a State.” One of his theses is that 19th century technological advances, including those in the production of statistical knowledge, allowed the “discovery of society as a reified object,”1 by the state, which made society “an object that the state might manage and transform with a view toward perfecting it.”2 Such a view on society and ambition of molding it may seem naïve with today’s post- modern hindsight. But Scott is right to caution the enthusiasm for technology that fuelled modernism’s hubris is very much present today, and I would like to draw a parallel caution toward how we develop and use Earth observation technologies going forward. Knowledge is inherently value-laden; what values do we want to frame our knowledge of Earth?

Can we have sustainability without equity?

Earth observation technologies have already allowed us to gather, analyze and share information about the Earth with unprecedented accuracy, breadth and timeliness. With the maturing of the consumer Internet and the advent of the Industrial Internet, the promise of what technology entrepreneur Larry Smarr calls “the sensor-aware planetary computer,” is not far off.3 The imperative driving recent investments thus far has been the quest for efficiency, especially energy efficiency. While this is central to tackling our environmental challenges – and in a way that could meet economic ones also – it risks eclipsing the distributional question of whose efficiency? Scott Campbell captured this succinctly with his “Planner’s Triangle”: in striving for sustainable development, we encounter the three conflicting priorities of environmental protection (resource efficiency), economic growth, and social justice.4 Such conflicts are ever present; from Occupy Wall Street to COP17, questions of equity and distribution are both invigorating and stymieing negotiations, discourse and the political process. We cannot move toward a more sustainable world without addressing them.

We have but one Earth

And this is why I am hopeful for what continued development of Earth observation technologies can bring. It will bring knowledge that is global; we can know our entire planet better. But in order to monitor and understand the full effects of human activity we will be forced to cross borders and see the Earth and mankind, holistically, as one. Global warming is a crisis we all face. Pollutants, be they in the air or water, recognize no boundaries. Choices we make in our everyday lives have an impact on others that we must be made aware of, and have factored into our decision-making. And we must find ways to work together.

In our bid to live sustainably, knowing is not enough. We cannot simply place our faith in science and technology to find our way out of our environmental challenges. To succeed, we need to develop a collective respect for the planet and all who inhabit it. Fortunately, the potential is here with Earth observation technologies to do just that, to develop both global consciousness and a global conscience.

1. Scott, James C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. p. 91

2. Ibid. p. 92

3. Lohr, Steve. (2011, December 17). The Internet gets Physical. The New York Times.

4. Campbell, Scott. “Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities? Urban Planning and the Contradictions of Sustainable Development,” Journal of the American Planning Association, 62 (3) (Summer 1996), p. 296- 312

Today, AASHE is proud to announce the release of a new STARS publication: the STARS Quarterly Review: Framing Campus Sustainability (SQR). Based primarily on data from submitted STARS reports, the Spring 2012 issue of the SQR features comprehensive stories to frame sustainability in higher education, with the idea that these stories can be further developed in future issues. In the Spring issue, readers will learn about the diversity among STARS institutions, get an in-depth overview of credits and subcategories within OP, and gain insights on how institutions define and interpret the evolving concept of sustainability. Readers will also read about four institutions being highlighted for sustainability best practices:

• The University of Minnesota, Morris (STARS Gold) – Building operations, p. 12
• Cornell University (STARS Gold) – Renewable energy, p. 13
• Chapman University (STARS Reporter) – Three pillars in student orientation, p. 16
• The University of British Columbia (STARS Gold) – SEEDS program, p. 17

In particular, two areas to highlight in the SQR include the STARS dashboard visualization and the results of the three-pillar analysis.

The STARS Interactive Dashboard Visualization
Focus on Operations (p. 9) introduces a newly-released, interactive, STARS Dashboard Visualization now found on the STARS dashboard website. Visitors to the site can click within the graphic to view increasingly detailed levels of overall point distribution for STARS categories, subcategories, and credits. A variation of a standard pie-chart, this visualization captures two levels of information: 1) Total points possible, represented by the width of each slice; and 2) Percentage of total points earned, depicted as a straight-line radius from the center to the outer edge.

Three-Pillar Analysis
The final story of the SQR highlights results from a three-pillar analysis for certain STARS credits (p. 14). The analysis brought to light some interesting facts about the interplay of social, economic, and environmental issues among STARS institutions.

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Environmentally- and Socially-Sustainable Investment Options
The Investment subcategory in STARS is perhaps the best-suited to encourage institutions to consider the three pillars of sustainability in decision-making. The chart below is a supplemental analysis, not included in the SQR, on PAE 18: Positive Sustainability Investments. This credit recognizes institutions that promote sustainability by seeking positive investments in one of five areas, as outlined in the chart below.

Through March 1, 2012, Rated Institutions combined reported a total investment pool value of $71.6 billion. Of this amount, a combined total of $3.4 billion was reported for the five positive sustainability investment options available for the credit. This represents an overall rate of sustainable investment at 5%. This low rate can partly be explained by the fact that many institutions are unable to track sustainable investment, and thus earn zero points for PAE 18. Participation in STARS may help to develop tracking mechanisms so that more points for this credit can be earned in the future.

As depicted above, the area of sustainable investment that is being pursued most is investment in sustainable industries such as renewable energy or sustainable forestry (84%). Occurring less frequently are investments that tie more closely with social sustainability, including 5% of the total for community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and 1% of the total for socially responsible mutual funds. As more institutions develop better tracking mechanisms for sustainable investment, it will be interesting to see how the rates among these categories change.

A balanced investment portfolio for any institution would include environmental and social investments. PAE 18 is a credit that we hope to see strong improvement in overtime, as institutions develop tracking mechanisms for positive sustainability investments.

An advantage of publishing quarterly reviews instead of an annual review is that we are able to bring relevant issues to the forefront more frequently, while encouraging dialogue on these issues among members of the campus community. We hope that readers will help shape future SQR releases by providing ideas on future topics or follow-up stories. Please send your feedback to stars@aashe.org or provide your comments below.

Robert “Bo” Newsome, the Director of Outreach and State Relations at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), talks to AASHE about sustainability initiatives at NAICU and its members (nonprofit, private universities and colleges in the US), and how NAICU is working to advance public knowledge of affordability at higher education institutions. Bo completed a B.A. in Political Science at Columbia University, and an M.A. in Higher Education Administration at George Washington University. For more information on NAICU, visit www.naicu.edu.

What are the goals of NAICU’s "Going Green in the Ivy Halls" special initiative? What were the primary reasons for starting the initiative?

We wanted to highlight examples of how our member colleges and universities are working to improve the quality of life of their students and community through their support of sustainability efforts on and around campus. An added benefit is the resulting cut back on sky-rocketing utility costs.

As part of the Going Green in the Ivy Halls initiative, NAICU has created a categorized table of sustainable campus initiatives. How is this data being used by NAICU and/or partner organizations to advance campus sustainability?

NAICU first and foremost is an advocacy organization. However, we firmly believe in the principle of encouraging a thousand flowers to bloom. We have asked our members to share specific campus sustainability initiatives in the hope of creating an opportunity for dialogue with other NAICU members who may be interested in launching their own initiatives.

How does NAICU’s Campus Affordability special initiative help individuals stay informed and up-to-date about affordability, transparency, and cost-cutting initiatives at their and other institutions?

The examples of new affordability initiatives we provide via this special web portal demonstrate the creative ways in which private, nonprofit colleges are working to keep students' and families' out-of-pocket costs as low as possible. They are part of a growing campus affordability trend that has accelerated since the economic downturn.

Measures such as these are making a difference. Average inflation-adjusted net tuition and fees at private, nonprofit colleges has actually dropped by 4.1 percent from 2006-07 to 2011-12. Despite the predictions of many experts at the onset of the economic downturn, most private, nonprofit colleges continue to meet, if not exceed, their enrollment targets, largely because of their efforts to enhance affordability and value. Nevertheless, more must - and will - continue to be done by colleges to stay affordable and within reach of families from all backgrounds.

We will update the list regularly as we learn of new campus initiatives. In addition, in June 2012, NAICU will report the results of our 2012-13 survey of private college tuition and student aid increases.

What are some ways that campus sustainability initiatives have helped private colleges be more affordable?

By implementing or expanding environmentally-friendly systems such as geothermal heating, recycling, burying cool water lines, and using biodiesel fuel, our members have reduced energy consumption resulting in significant cost savings. Some of our members have even gone trayless in their dining halls!

What are some ways that NAICU promotes sustainability within the organization (e.g. energy reduction initiatives, carpool incentives) among its employees?

NAICU offices are housed in a LEED certified building in Washington D.C. We participate fully in the building's recycling program. Staff who choose to commute by Metro receive a farecard subsidy. In addition, some staff take advantage of the city’s Bike Share program.

NAICU is a member of the Higher Education Association Sustainability Consortium (HEASC). What are some HEASC projects that NAICU is or plans to become engaged in, and how is HEASC influencing NAICU's work?

HEASC has committed to hosting a series of webinars that will be beneficial. NAICU is engaging in sustainability initiatives, inspired by HEASC membership, such as scaling back on providing print copies of publications and instead now providing web-only versions. For example, our U-CAN Toolkit and our National Campus Voter Registration Organizing Handbook are now totally web based.

Is there a particular insight (learning experience or “ah-ha” moment) you have had working on higher education and sustainability?

Through working with my HEASC colleagues, and through the lessons learned from our “Going Green in the Ivy Halls,” initiative, my experience has been less of an “ah-ha” moment and more of a deepening appreciation of the heartfelt dedication and commitment of the higher education community to sustainability.

How do you spend your free time?

Playing Old Boys rugby and going to the beach as often as possible.

This installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series features Northern Arizona University sophomore Alex Gaynor, a student ambassador of sustainability who spearheaded a Free Compliments initiative on his campus. Originally posted on the university's Green blog, Gaynor shares how a simple compliment can spark a better day and a healthier campus. We hope to see questions and feedback in the comments area! Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

February 3, 2012

As a student ambassador of sustainability at the notoriously green Northern Arizona University, I am regularly exposed to the ideas of sustainability. This exposure and the large sustainability community involved has moved me to think in depth about the next level of campus sustainability. There is only so much that can be achieved by a core group of green students that are dedicated to sustainability. I imagine a healthy campus where there is no division between the green students and student athletes, Greek life, ROTC students, etc. Our mission is thus to creatively include the uninvolved. Based loosely on the ideas expressed by Volkswagen’s Fun Theory, we strive to find ways to “preach to the non-choir.” The first initiative currently in play is known as Free Compliments.

While it is, in our eyes, largely an experiment, the idea is sound. The idea, on its most basic level, is that a compliment while walking to class early in the morning might spark a better day and a healthier campus in the long run. A healthier campus, ideally might lead to a more sustainable campus. Secondarily, we have developed a space in which open conversation is encouraged and people can find out about other campus sustainability news and information.

"...a compliment while walking to class early in the morning might spark a better day and a healthier campus in the long run. A healthier campus, ideally might lead to a more sustainable campus."

As the project has moved on, other personal benefits have developed. For example, I’ve been told some very moving things and been involved in some very moving conversations with people I would never have otherwise conversed with. This last Wednesday, one fellow (whose name I wish I knew) waltzed up and started with, “Hey man, I have dealt with anxiety and depression my entire life and…” We were thinking "oh no, we are making people depressed." To our surprise, he then finished with, “it's stuff like what you guys are doing that helps me deal with it.” Things like this, which are not uncommon, are what make it so easy to meet the sunrise every Wednesday and battle the chill of Flagstaff’s winter.

This week, the project entered Phase II. Phase II means we have free hot beverages for students on their way to class who have their own reusable container. While the free beverages were not emptied this week, the word is spreading! We are hoping that there is greater public participation as weeks progress.

Alex and his fellow student ambassadors of sustainability battle the cold to spread goodwill.

The result: Lots of smiling faces.

AASHE is very excited to announce the debut of its redesigned AASHE Bulletin! We are celebrating the e-newsletter’s sixth year anniversary with a new look and restructured content. The redesign was implemented with the following goals in mind:

1. Thought leadership

While 90 percent of subscribers who participated in the 2011 Bulletin reader survey said the newsletter does a good job in general, many suggested a more curated approach to the content, meaning highlighting some stories over others.

Traditionally a clearinghouse of higher education sustainability news, the weekly e-newsletter is now taking a more curated approach with a new Connecting the Dots column. Appearing above the table of contents (TOC), this feature will examine several stories in each Bulletin issue, contextualizing and linking the themes to foster an integrated perspective on higher education sustainability.

To aid the Bulletin’s transformation toward a vehicle for thought leadership, this column will feature a rotating list of higher education sustainability specialists. This inaugural AASHE Bulletin Editorial board is made up of 17 sustainability leaders with diverse areas of expertise including sustainability education, climate action planning, student engagement, biomimicry, risk analysis, change management, measuring sustainability, diversity, social justice and much more. Visit the AASHE Bulletin web page for a complete list of board members.

2. Advancing sustainability (and providing an invaluable resource)

In an effort to better advance higher education sustainability, the redesigned Bulletin also features expanded coverage designed to push the boundaries of traditional ways of thinking about sustainability. Recently, a new “Access & Affordability” category was added to capture key national conversations including the Occupy protests and Pell Grant debates. Expect other new categories as the concept evolves over time.

3. Engaging a diverse and inspired community

The Bulletin will also work to deepen the inclusion of global perspectives on what higher education sustainability means with a new monthly Global Edition. Expanding on the current biennial coverage, the Global Edition will be issued monthly starting with the March 27 issue. Instead of only containing global news, the monthly edition will integrate international stories with the stories from the U.S. and Canada scheduled to run that week.

Redesign Features

Designed by Aten Design Group and implemented by the AASHE IT team, the Bulletin has a fresh new look with colors and fonts that match the AASHE website (also designed by Aten).

The Bulletin reader survey showed that 67 percent of respondents like the Bulletin format with the TOC on top, organized by primary topic, and the story summaries below. The chief complaint was that the length of the Bulletin was too long each week. We also heard that there was too much emphasis on green building in the Bulletin, a result of the alphabetical TOC with the “Buildings” category at the top of most issues. With this feedack in mind, we made these minor tweaks to the organization of the content:

Presentation of Bulletin Categories
The Bulletin TOC is now organized by three major headers that mirror AASHE’s Sustainabilty Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) credit categories:

• Education & Research
• Operations
• Planning, Administration & Engagement

Content Introduced by “Connecting the Dots” Feature
This new AASHE editorial feature headlines the newsletter to give it more of a magazine feel with a picture and the author’s byline. This is a change aimed at being both aesthetically pleasing and better curating the content for our readers.

Shorter Bulletin Blurbs
We have worked to shorten the length of Bulletin story and job posting summaries, while still providing a summary of the stand-out information.

Sponsorships

Bulletin sponsorships were moved from underneath the table of contents to “above the fold” at the top right of the newsletter. This change is to give businesses a better opportunity to connect with Bulletin readers, and the space provided is better designed for readers to understand how that sponsor’s products may relate to their higher education sustainability efforts.

AASHE is offering a limited-time discount on Bulletin sponsorships through September 18.

We hope you enjoy the new Bulletin and share it with others! Contact AASHE Bulletin Editor Margo Wagner at margo@aashe.org with any questions or feedback.

This installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series features Rutgers University student Jamie Lewis, who profiles GREEN, the Global Renewable Energy Education Network. Read on to learn how three students turned an idea conjured up in their dorm into a successful study abroad experience. We hope to see questions and feedback in the comments area! Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

This is the story of three Rutgers University students with a simple idea born in the hopes of educating and showing their peers the ever-expanding world of renewable energy. Three years, 155 students, 12 professors, 50 Universities and 15 programs later, this idea is now known as GREEN, the Global Renewable Energy Education Network.

Melissa Lee, Mikhail Naumov, and Benjamin Lapidus created GREEN in the comfort of their dorms as a program that provides its students with a 12-day educational adventure of a lifetime; exploring rain forests, swimming in waterfalls and soaking up the sun. Sound appealing? This is college student's short term study abroad dream! More importantly, these 12 days - while packed with fun and adventure - are spent learning about the ever-advancing world of sustainability. Costa Rica is the epicenter of renewable energy, where five different forms of renewable energy (hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, wind and solar power) are within driving distance of one another. Not only does this make for an incredible experience for students from universities all over the country, but it also allows Costa Rica to power 80 percent of the country with clean renewable energy!

Students also get the satisfaction of knowing they have made a difference in the lives of the Costa Rican people or, ticos, as they refer to themselves. GREEN students give back to the community and install rainwater collection systems in low-income government homes, providing families with water. The students also help teach English to the local children, plant trees for carbon sequestering and work on innovative research in the field of renewable energy. The GREEN program has accelerated students’ careers by providing them with a global experience, educational resources and the network they need to stand out in a pool of normalcy.

If you watch the videos of students immersed in the GREEN life, you will hear their exclamations that GREEN is the experience of a lifetime. It is one thing to learn about renewable energy in the classroom, and another to see it first-hand in a country that "got sustainability right." GREEN is the only program that can provide students with the opportunity to take prior knowledge about sustainability and renewable energy and put it into action; thus bridging the gap between traditional textbook learning and hands-on experience. A few key words can sum it up: "12-day adventure," "jam-packed," "short study abroad," "experiential service learning" "career accelerator."

The GREEN experience does not end when students leave paradise. GREEN students are required to collaborate on a capstone project in which they come up with an initiative or energy innovation to implement back home at their own university or hometown. Many of these capstone projects have been successfully taken from the "draft" stage to implementation. GREEN program alumni Robert Shintani and Anthony Hornbeck from the University of Illinois came up with the idea of taking leftover oil from restaurants in the area and turning it into biofuel as their capstone project. Taking the experience and knowledge they had gained in Costa Rica, and the proposal they developed in the GREEN program, they went back home to Illinois and successfully started a real company implementing their project ideas, as well as a Clean City Coalition in Urbana Champaign.

GREEN alumni are also taking their experience and knowledge into the workforce. What could be more appealing to an energy or engineering company than a student who not only has a degree in a related field, but also has the hands-on experience, cultural awareness and experiential experience to back it up? GREEN alumni success stories validate the motivation for students to make a conscious decision to be "GREEN."

Roy Anderson from Rutgers University is now working for Bechtel, which has been named the top U.S. contractor in 2011 by Engineering News-Record. Zach Hamber from San Diego State University is currently in Costa Rica for a pilot GREEN certification program; a follow-up experience available only to GREEN alumni. Zach works at GrupoEcoEnergia, a privately owned company that develops, operates and maintains clean energy projects, represents other environmentally friendly companies and provides consulting services. Zach is now certified as a wind turbine technician at the AeroEnergia Plant.

Dan Conner from Penn State University wrote in his testimonial: "GREEN gave me the confidence to send my resume to as many companies as I could find that I was interested in." Dan’s confidence landed him interviews with four different organizations and he received three job offers. He accepted a co-op with General Electric Energy. He is now working on an advanced combustion team working to make gas turbines more efficient. Dan wrote that "GREEN gave me an edge in the interview process because when I said I was very interested in a career in alternative energy and sustainability, I was not just talking. I had something to show for it." This is just another example of the incomparable experience students gain from the GREEN program, as well as the countless ways it can help to advance your career. In fact, two of our own GREEN alumni, Joelle Zerillo and Thomas Brady Halligan, felt so strongly about the GREEN program, that they now work full-time for GREEN!

Another student from Rutgers University, David Byrnes, landed a summer internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture which sent him to Brazil to study new crops for biofuels. David commented on his internship, stating: "The selection panel was impressed with my trip to Costa Rica with the GREEN program. I got to tell them that I studied renewable resources in Costa Rica and presented to industry professionals how duckweed would be a feasible crop for biofuels. Another great reason for students to take the ride with GREEN."

More feedback from students and the parents of those who have attended the GREEN program can be found on the website.

GREEN maintains its own Alumni Network for students who have successfully completed the GREEN program, where they can share their experiences through photos and videos; as well as blog and stay in touch with the life-long friends they have made on their educational adventure. The GREEN Alumni Network also provides alumni with news from the field of sustainability, as well as information about related jobs and internships. Alumni use the network to continue working on their capstone projects with like-minded students. Some even refer to the Alumni Network as the “GREEN Facebook.”

As a student myself, it is refreshing to see and partake in the entrepreneurial spirit the owners of this company embody and instill in all who have taken a step into the GREEN life. GREEN provides students with a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about renewable energy and sustainability first-hand, while gaining credit through their university, all while having a great time exploring the world around them! GREEN continues to grow and expand to share this amazing experience with more students and universities. The initiative was started by students, for students, in order to provide a GREENer, more sustainable future for generations to come.

For more information about the GREEN program, email info@greenworknow.com. Also connect with GREEN on Facebook and Twitter.

AASHE will have a booth at the 8th annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on April 21-23.
The expo is the final phase of the EPA's P3 program (People, Prosperity, and the Planet). This unique competition is for college and universities working to design innovative solutions for a sustainable future.
For the first phase of the competition, teams are awarded a $15,000 grant to develop their idea. They then bring the design in April to the National Sustainable Design Expo to compete for the P3 Award and a grant of $90,000 to take their design to real world application.

Is your campus attending? If so, please stop by our booth and say hello. Hope to see you there!

More information is available below:

• 2011 P3 Award Winners
• Photo gallery from past P3 expos
• Main P3 website

Applications are now available for AASHE's 2012 Sustainability Awards. AASHE will honor faculty, campuses and students in advancing sustainability research and leadership during the AASHE 2012 Conference in Los Angeles. The deadline to apply is July 2nd, 2012. Questions? Email awards@aashe.org

2012 award categories:

• Campus Sustainability Case Study Awards (4 awards)
• Faculty Sustainability Leadership Award (1 award)
• Student Sustainability Leadership Award (1 award)
• Student Research on Campus Sustainability Awards (2 awards)

In addition, AASHE and the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council have partnered to offer the Innovation in Green Building Award for the second year in a row. The deadline to apply for this award is July 27th. A slideshow from last year's awards ceremony is below.

Frances Moore Lappé, Founder of the Small Planet Institute, talks to AASHE about her newest book, EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want. Lappé discusses the importance of thinking critically about the ways different messages and metaphors impact our choices, shares stories of her encounters with campus sustainability, and more.

If you are interested in participating in the AASHE Interview Series, email Niles Barnes at niles@aashe.org. To read past interviews, click here.

Your recent book EcoMind describes how individuals can change their thinking and behavior patterns. What compelled you to write EcoMind, which to me read as a call for action, at this time in the global environmental movement?

This was my unplanned pregnancy. It kind of grew in me in as a response to a sense, that after speaking at a conference in D.C., I felt so down, so paralyzed afterward. I started worrying that the way we are framing the environmental message may not be the motivating message that it has to be now more than ever. EcoMind grew from reading the current and popular literature, and thinking about some of the metaphors that the environmental movement was using to trigger fear.

What suggestions do you have for individuals who may experience that same sense of dismay you describe when trying to actively engage themselves in sustainability issues?

Other than read my book? (laughter)

A major theme of this book is courage, in the sense that environmental messages should make us feel courageous and more able to walk with fear. And for me, in order to keep the life force flowing, keep the sense of possibility alive, I think we have to actively choose what I call a “courage news diet.”
We have to consciously bring into our lives information and stories, even if it’s a small, incremental change, that keep us moving in the right direction.

I think there’s more that we know now in neuroscience, that our thoughts actually change the pathways in our brain, and if we dwell in fear or dwell in depressive thoughts or thoughts of impossibilities, we create gullies in our neural system, such that the next thought will go into that negative gully, too. So, it’s up to us to take charge. It’s really empowering to think that our thoughts have the power to change ourselves. This is not to ignore the negative problems that are there, but rather to not dwell on them.

Tell me about the seven “thought traps” you selected to frame the chapters of the book. Are these meant to be applicable for residents of emerging, developing, and developed economies? How do they or do they not cross age demographics?

This is just really an invitation to think very, very carefully and critically, and use our whole body to feel how we respond to terms and phrases. It’s about going more deeply, and not just self-critically putting out these phrases like “we’ve hit the limit to a finite planet,” for example, and then just repeat that because it seems like a no-brainer since there are so many crises in out natural system so of course why would anyone even think about that. So, I guess, the process is what I’m really calling for. It’s really to think about these messages, how our bodies respond to them, how they make us feel, and what images they suggest – and do they really lead us to solutions.

It’s about really looking for metaphors that bring us to root causes and relationships that we have with each other that get away from quantitative, up and down, more and less, empty-full metaphors that keep us stuck in measurements of things rather than relationships of people.

A significant purpose of the book is to encourage “thinking like an ecosystem.” Can you explain for our readers how thinking like an ecosystem primarily differs and/or overlaps with our current way of thinking? Are there examples of communities currently practicing this type of thinking?

The dominant culture which affects us all is the mechanical worldview, with the premise of lack, the “lack of goodness.” This worldview is very fear-inducing because it pits us against each other in a world in which there’s not enough.

That is the dominant view, and unfortunately I think that some pieces of our environmental message feed into that scarcity mindset. For instance, when we hit 7 billion, we saw a revival of interest in population explosion and scarcity news. These are deeply ingrained ideas, that there’s just not enough. So, all of the examples in the book and everything that I’m writing about are coming from a different set of assumptions and are proving that, in fact, we can align, which is also one of the keywords in this book.

As an example, I was reading this morning an article in Andhra Pradesh in India, these really poor Indian farmers, with one hectare (2.5 acres) on average, they doubled their income simply by stopping using chemicals and relying on their own personally created “pesticide potions,” I call them. There are 108 plants that they’ve identified in this community which they use to control pests and learn how to restore their earth’s fertility so they are holding their yields but drastically reducing their costs.

So that’s what I mean by alignment. That is one very powerful example, and of course, they are helping to address the climate crisis as well as their own financial crisis. I guess that is the profound shift of worldview. That idea of “not enoughness” fortunately has not completely infected the rest of the world. There are still cultures in which there is still a presumption that if we live in a way that understands and works with the laws of nature, that there is enough for all of us, which is also the essence of the “thinking like an ecosystem” worldview.

When writing EcoMind, did you consciously decide to use the terms and concepts of “ecology” or “environment” more prominently than “sustainability?” What benefits do you see in framing the book as well as the larger ideas captured by the book from an “eco” or “environmental” perspective?

To me, “thinking like an ecosystem,” the “ecomind,” is what I want to bring out in the book; sustainability itself as a word does not communicate that. The essence of ecology is relationships, while the core idea of sustainability is “that which continues.”

I think sustainbility is a set of applications, a set of actions, and a set of techniques. An ecological worldview or eco-mind or thinking like an ecosystem, is a kind of consciousness - at least that’s how it settles in me, and at least part of sustainability would flow from the eco-mind worldview.

So, sustainable is certainly a very serviceable word, but it just doesn’t fire my engine (to use a very mechanical metaphor!)

How do you see universities and colleges effecting some of the ideas you’ve put forth in this book? (Or in your other works on building more sustainable communities.)

We are developing a workshop that’s very much more personal around the concepts in the book. We’re going to put it online so people can create their own workshop. I can imagine students adapting that on their campuses. We did our first one at UC Santa Cruz and it was mainly students involved -- they gave us a lot of great feedback.

What are the most important tools that students in higher ed institutions around the world have to discuss their own lives, and effect larger, meaningful change in their communities?

I was just at UMass Amherst, for a dedication of a garden that was growing food for the dining hall. So we were looking out of the dining hall down at this beautiful garden. It was a totally positive experience. There were hundreds of people at this dedication, they had created the shape of the garden to look like a leaf;, and they had gotten the food service provider into the whole spirit of provisioning locally as much as possible, getting organic, just making it fun.

At Stanford, I heard students presenting about how they were helping people think about the relationship with food by encouraging people to eat reasonable portions and not be wasteful. As you walked into the dining hall, you could see what was being put out for dinner, and it was being put out on dinner plates in portions that looked reasonable. So you’ve planted that idea in your mind as you’re going to the line instead of mindlessly throwing food on your plate. It looks so much more appetizing, but it also did reduce the waste.

To me, the question for a college campus action is, how do you create situations in which you can talk to people you don’t know at all, and are outside of your social grouping? That’s the essence of organizing – talking to strangers – and yet we tend to stay within our own subgroups.

One of the popular sessions at last year’s AASHE Student Summit was an Open Space discussion titled “Addressing the Apathetic.” What advice do you have to students and other stakeholders on campus who are attempting to more effectively engage those who are not moved by popular environmental messages or feel fundamentally opposed due to ideological beliefs?

Well, that’s the unfortunate thing that’s happened in our country: the environment has become left wing. But not entirely. As I say in EcoMind, there are a lot of conservative religious groups that are very committed to the stewardship idea. So, I think for any individuals in another political, non-progressive political framework who have a traditional religious orientation, there is a lot of great language about creation (“creation care” is a catch phrase that I think is really beautiful). Using that frame for anyone you know who is coming from a traditional religious orientation could be really helpful.

Also, anything that better elicits that feeling of “this gives meaning in my life,” “this makes me part of the solution,” “this makes me feel better about myself, too,” is helpful. Appealing to people’s desire to feel connected to something and have a greater meaning in their lives is really good.

At least in my life, it feels so good - even with small things - to think that my choices are more aligned with what I know; and I think we can assume other people will feel that too, if you’re not making them feel guilty and like a criminal for not having already acted. Make it interesting and lighthearted, and appealing, about being part of the solution.

One of my favorite examples of the impact I hope this book would have has emerged in the book tour. One student said before she read the book that she found herself (though these may not have been her exact words) arm-twisting, trying to convince and brow-beat her fellow students to get on the environmental bandwagon. After she read the book, her view completely shifted -- she just wanted to share her excitement about all that she’s learning and doing.

I guess that’s the inner shift I’m hoping this book will make: from a sense of burden to a sense of excitement and meaning that being part of this movement gives us.