A college or university is more than a place of higher learning,
more than an engine for economic development and more than a major employer.
Through its educational mission and the collective expertise of its faculty,
such institutions can be community leaders that promote ideas and ideals
that serve as beacons for others to follow. In the United States, many
universities are using their tools and resources to educate the population
about environmental risks and find solutions to combat climate change.
In a world where the United States is losing its competitive advantage
in computer science, engineering and research science, the nascent fields
of environmental architecture, sustainable engineering and ecological
science provide a new universe for innovation and training for the jobs
of the future. American colleges and universities now have the opportunity
to take the lead in modeling sustainable behavior and educating the next
generation of engineers, scientists and architects. Environmental consciousness
has long been found on college campuses, but there is a new difference.
Colleges and universities have entered a new era of greener campuses.
They have joined a race to “sustainability.”
The fight against global warming isn’t new, but addressing environmental
problems at the collegiate level isn’t yet widely implemented, despite
the fact that a focus on environmentalism has been finding its way into
MBA programs across Europe.
The British government-commissioned Stern Review on the Economics of Climate
Change put the dangers in stark economic terms last year and warned that
unchecked, global warming could cause global gross domestic product (GDP)
to drop by 20 percent. Canadian and European universities were the first
to embrace sustainable building practices, and now U.S. institutions have
caught up.
Society will need new technologies, economic instruments and a host of
innovative strategies for fighting climate change—and the research
capability of higher education is crucial to achieving those goals. Higher
education is a $317 billion economic engine that employs millions of people
and spends billions of dollars on fuel, energy, products, services and
infrastructure. Colleges and universities are an ideal setting to develop
workable new strategies, systems, behaviors and technologies that can
be scaled up to the community and state levels.
Reversing global warming is the defining challenge of the 21st century,
and eliminating this threat successfully will mean transforming our economy,
institutions and daily lives within a generation—a challenge of
massive proportion. Higher education, with its tax-free status, the ability
to receive public and private funds, and academic freedom in exchange
for educating students, has a unique role in America. No other institution
in society has the influence, the critical mass and the diversity of skills
needed to successfully reverse global warming. Tomorrow’s architects,
engineers, attorneys, business leaders, scientists, urban planners, policy
analysts, cultural and spiritual leaders, journalists, advocates, activists
and politicians—more than 17 million of them—are currently
attending the more than 4,000 institutions of higher learning in the United
States. These students will need new knowledge and skills that only higher
education can provide on a broad scale.
The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment is
doing its part by engaging in a high-visibility effort to address global
warming. The commitment is focused on garnering institutional support
to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the research and
educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize
the earth’s climate.
Dr. Anthony Cortese, president of the nonprofit Second Nature, which is
among several groups working on the climate commitment, said that global
warming is a stark indication of the fact that humanity is not in synch
with its life support system.
“Global warming is now destabilizing the earth’s climate in
ways that threaten to reverse human progress to date and undermine the
health, security and survival of millions of people now and in the future,”
he said. “The resulting climate disruption is real and is already
affecting us; it is worse and happening faster than predicted by the most
conservative scientists. Reversing global warming is the defining challenge
of this century because it presents a fundamental barrier to creating
a healthy, just and sustainable society.”
Presidents who sign the climate commitment are pledging to eliminate their
campus’ greenhouse gas emissions over time and serve as role models
for their communities. They also promise to educate those who will develop
the social, economic and technological solutions to reverse global warming.
Like other great societal challenges, the effort to re-stabilize the earth’s
climate will take great vision, research and leadership of society by
higher education. Presidents and chancellors are leading this effort because
they can best establish the moral leadership and strategic direction that
is needed to address this grave concern.
Each institution will set its own date for reaching campus-wide “carbon
neutrality”—the point at which carbon-dioxide emissions are
offset by the use of renewable sources of energy—and each will determine
for itself how that goal will be achieved. Institutions that sign the
commitment will have two years, starting in June, to catalog their sources
of carbon emissions and lay out a timetable for achieving carbon neutrality.
The Power of Student Environmentalism
Today, it’s not just about doing a few good, green things, such
as recycling, buying green energy or building green buildings—it’s
about being seen as a sustainability leader as a way to attract students,
funding and media attention. Student groups and sessions dedicated to
sustainability are flourishing. Colleges have long marketed their campus
amenities, their rosters of scholars, their selectivity and study-abroad
programs, but now they’re also marketing their commitment to the
environment.
“Students have been the major drivers,” said Julian Dautremont-Smith,
associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability
in Higher Education. “They can make things happen in a way that
staff or faculty haven’t. That said, there is increasingly leadership
from school presidents that are committed to these issues. It’s
developed into a more high-level activity. Schools are trying to compete—be
the leader in environmental studies or sustainability.”
The students, professors and designers behind this movement say they are
part of a broad push for sustainability, which has become a buzzword for
new schools of thought in architecture, interior design, urban planning,
culinary arts and other fields. In Europe and the United States alike,
colleges and universities are responding to the desires of their students
and developing programs for those who want to study environmentalism.
It seems logical, based on the huge need for experts to reduce global
warming and the desire of students to become those future environmental
authorities.
At more than 400 colleges, universities and high schools, Campus Climate
Challenge chapters push campuses to become models for the kind of clean
energy revolution needed to stop global warming. The Challenge, a campaign
of the Energy Action Coalition, has engaged thousands of students across
the United States and Canada and fueled a dramatic increase in concern
about global warming among the media, elected officials and the general
public. Challenge chapters unite students to pass comprehensive climate
policies on their campuses. In its first year, more than 1 million students
were exposed to the Campus Climate Challenge through educational campaigns,
rallies, forums and grassroots outreach.
Michael Cox, a lead organizer of the Campus Climate Challenge, said the
University of California college system has committed to becoming zero-carbon,
zero waste.
“This is unprecedented and provides a policy model for colleges
and universities everywhere to build on and go beyond,” he said.
“Here in California, we are empowered to deepen this commitment
in the UC to include sustainable food systems and wise investment practices,
as well as leverage this success statewide and nationally to create a
secure present and a thriving future for the human family and the greater
Earth community.”
To broaden the base of student leadership on climate issues, Challenge
partners also organized 35 regional and state summits throughout the country,
bringing together more than 3,800 students, to participate in skills-building
sessions, strategy discussions and community service projects. At the
Cultivating Our Resistance Now conference, students came together to learn
about climate issues affecting the Southwest. At the Midwest Clean Energy
Conference, hundreds of students organized a march to the Wisconsin state
capitol. And at the Youth Energy Summit in Williamsburg, Va., more than
160 students met to strategize ways to make their schools leaders in the
fight against global warming.
“As with past progressive social movements, young people are now
leading the charge to transform the way we produce and consume energy,
providing real solutions to global warming,” said Jared Duval, the
national director of the Sierra Student Coalition, a national student
chapter of the Sierra Club that is focused on combating climate change.
“Our future depends on bold, comprehensive action to end our addiction
to fossil fuels and we will continue to provide the leadership necessary
to make that happen.” |
