When we began down the road to making this edition of JSE, we had mapped out a route, but knew not where the journey would take us.  With proofs in galley, we face V.S. Naipaul’s “Enigma of Arrival,” knowing that the larger journey has only just begun.  However, if a lesson has emerged from these pages (screens?), it is the power of geographic metaphor for guiding our thoughts and actions regarding sustainability, most of them paradigmatic binaries in a dichotomy mindscape constructed in our Western thought.  .  Geography, as the environmental science “par excellence” assimilates every aspect of who we are, and the spaces that we inhabit, providing a powerfully rooted blueprint for teaching and learning about sustainability.  The connection between geography and sustainability is strong.

The Map:  Now and then

What is the primal attraction of a map?  Is it not perhaps the original communication—the way that people came to explain themselves, and where they found themselves in their space?  On the one hand, the map strives to represent an exact portrayal of a given reality that perfectly represents the space we confront.  And yet, inherent in its construction is the fact that it will change, as it is made, as it is used, as it is revised, and as the spaces are influenced by our own inhabitation.  Isn’t this at the essence of sustainability education—portraying where we are at now, and mapping a future that brings greater fulfillment, in a cartography that is ever changing?  Some of our authors, such as Martina Neuburger and Ernst Steinicke bring us traditional landscape maps, looking for the factors in their environments of interest that might bring better livelihood to the multiple peoples of the earth.  Others, such as Deirdre Wilcoc and Gary J. Brierley, give us a conceptual guide to sustainability.  We have blueprints from Karen Kensek (link) for better built designs and many case studies of local landscapes that look to improve our human spaces.  Jenny Finn even maps the inner geography of the mindscape that comes to us with each breath.

Scale:  Big and Small

Scale is not about size, but about perspective, and again geography provides sound metaphors at either level in the seascape or in terrestrial ecosystems.  Of course sustainability is global, and we see this in the “grand questions” about climate change from Ken Young or food provisioning in Pramod Parajuli’s creative poetic essay.  But we also see the wonderfully useful application of sustainability concepts in the classroom from Anouchka Rachelson or Yukiko Inoue.   Whereas scale can be a purely mathematical concept, as the geographer’s map scale tool shows us, scale also takes us into a myriad of worldviews where, as in Hayao Miyazaki’s “Secret World of Arrietty” (look for the review soon here in JSE), the ‘—scape’ in front of us depends on the size of our own thinking.

Boundaries:  Open and Closed

Geography, with its emphasis on spaces and ‘—scapes’, stands out at the threshold of every discipline—neither science nor humanity, neither art nor engineering, geography embraces all.  We are delighted that this edition includes engineers and architects, like Erik Pappas and Terri Norton and Matija Raovic, environmental scientists, like Maceo Cerillo Martinet, social justice proponents, like Randall Amster and many cross-disciplinary workers of all kinds, not to mention the geographers themselves.  The trope of the different geographies, to incorporate hybrid approaches of the physical and the cultural under one comfortable canopy where people in their dendritic spaces perform the rhyzomic function of planetary wellbeing, is what counts, as shown by Axel Borsdorf, Rodrigo Hidalgo and Hugo Zunino in their comparative study of amenity migration.  From an educational viewpoint, geography brings all these perspectives together in a way that makes sense for sustainability.

South and North

Vercoe and Brinkmann bring us a “Tale of Two Sustain abilities” where they contrast the dramatic difference between a Northern “developed” notion of sustainability as it relates to minimizing human impact on the environment, with a Southern “underdeveloped” desire for sustaining the fundamental necessities of life.  This lesson, above all others, emerges as one reads through this issue of JSE, and we come to grips with the multiple perspectives, the many maps, the different scales, that form the topography of current societies and create the fabric of each of our lives.  In this regard, the emerging great lesson from the South, especially in the Americas, of the “El Buen Vivir”—the notion of finding life fulfillment in every aspect of what we do and how interact (contrast with “The Good Life” based on material wealth) is so nicely brought to us by Eduardo Gudynas and Alberto Acosta.

Permanence and Change

It is easy to see sustainability as the legacy of the environmental conservation movement.  However, decades of struggle suggest that conversationism and environmentalism have not easily incorporated the fundamental fact of change that an evolutionary world imposes.  Geography, on the other hand, recognizes that people want stability—a mapable environment— but that stability rests on a rich history of interaction, modification and improvement of that environment.  We hope you’ll share the way our authors bring a positive spin to sustainability by focusing on the interaction between people and their spaces— multiple ‘—scapes’ that we inhabit.  This, we believe, is where true education about sustainability—education that maps out an ever-more-fulfilling future—will happen.

The process of finding and enhancing sustainability then becomes one of organizing and moving through the spaces in a way that contributes to their richness—not such a bad way to live a life on any level, from the interior intellectual mindscape to the homefront and our local landscapes to the political-ecological lifescapes of our neighborhoods and countries to greatest expanses of our continental worldscapes.  The many maps we build will change as we navigate through them, adapting to change in a positive way, or, as Carol Harden puts it “dancing” with the lightest of footprints.

Enjoy this special edition of JSE.  Send us your comments.  Geographically yours,

Fausto Sarmiento, Ph.D., Guest Editor                    Larry M Frolich, Ph.D., Editor
University of Georgia                                                     Miami Dade College

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Carol Harden elegantly lays out, in broadest terms, from an environmental, cultural, social, political, economic and historical perspective, the essential confluence between geography as a discipline and sustainability as a concept.  And then, in the face of the inevitability of change, she provides such a succinct metaphor for pursuing sustainability—just dance!

Like the American icon of apple pie, sustainability is easy to champion. To not embrace sustainability, to ignore the future, or, even worse, to intentionally support unsustainable practices connotes unenlightenment, greed, poor management, and bad manners. How could a thinking person or caring society choose to intentionally reduce the resources and opportunities available for future generations? The choice between sustainability and unsustainable practices appears as clear as that between good and evil. Right?

The concept of sustainability typically refers to the conservative use of natural resources and minimal interference with environmental services, but it also applies to cultures, languages, institutions, communities, and ways of life. Compared to its primary predecessor, conservation, sustainability conjures up a broader view of the interacting sets of factors and processes that affect our landscapes and resources. To promote sustainability implies making efforts to prolong the status quo, to hold onto what we already have for as long as we can.

Conservation is still a valuable term, but it may have been associated with land management practices at specific places for too long to generate excitement in today’s predominantly urban, media-influenced populations. Another public relations problem with conservation is that it too often demands exclusion (don’t plow, don’t build, don’t cut the trees), not to mention that the notion of using less has not played well in a more-is better culture. Nonetheless, we are becoming familiar with the conservation of energy and water as practiced by walking, turning lights off, adjusting thermostats, fixing leaky faucets, and installing lower-flow showers and toilets. Motivated by economic stress (as at our financially strapped institutions of higher education), by idealism, or by the necessity imposed by diminishing supplies, we appear to be slowly creeping toward greater awareness of our relationships with these resources.

The term “sustainability” has become deeply embedded in national and international institutions. As we collectively undertake programs to sustain the status quo, we should wonder how stable it is. In geomorphology, I encounter the tension between the dynamic nature of natural systems and the human assumption of, and deep desire for, an unchanging landscape—a stable stage on which we can act out our comedies and tragedies. People are dismayed when a river changes course, a shoreline erodes, a forest burns, or a floodplain floods. but, except for over very short time periods, the land surface is not a stationary stage; it’s a dynamic surface, changing more rapidly and more predictably in some places than in others. Now, we are recognizing that other aspects of our environment that we previously considered stationary (that is, fluctuating within the same envelope of values), including mean sea level, Arctic ice cover, groundwater levels, frost-free days, and dominant tree species, are changing, too.

The new slogan, “stationarity is dead” (see Milly et al., 2008, Science 318:573-4), conveys the seriousness of global environmental change to planners, natural hazards researchers, engineers, and geographers, and other scientists and practitioners, who now face new levels of uncertainty and major challenges of developing new ways of interpreting and predicting environmental conditions. Previously, we relied on historical data to estimate future water supplies, and to predict the frequency and intensity of storms, droughts, and floods; but now, the present has become different from the past and the future promises to be even more different. How should we respond when the ground is shifting under our feet? What does “sustainability” mean when applied to dynamic systems?

Here’s where the dancing begins. Think of dancing in the sense of descending a talus slope, walking across a ship’s deck in rough seas, skiing through bumpy terrain, or maybe navigating a crowded dance floor with a polka partner. Such movements require adaptability to changing conditions. The dancer continues to move forward along an intended path, but the steps require some give-and-take. What does it take to be a good dancer? A light foot and good ability to predict the next obstacle or shift are key parts of the equation.

The dancing analogy fits well with the ‘footprint” metaphors we use. We have carbon footprints, water footprints, energy footprints, food carbon footprints, environmental footprints, urban footprints, megacity footprints, security footprints, and military force footprints, among others. Some of the footprints refer to locations with actual geographies, while others are abstract. Reducing one’s footprint means reducing one’s impact, sometimes reducing the actual land area affected. To be human is to have a footprint; to be almost 7 billion humans is to not be able to ignore the footprint. To be sustainable, we humans need to shrink our footprints and increase our capacity to adapt to change. Sustainability and its extended family of concepts and practices (e.g., sustainable development, sustainable cities, sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy) fit directly into the domains of geographers. We might argue the limitations of the concept of sustainability, but, better, would be to embrace the widespread attention given to this theme, so central to geography, and seize opportunities to apply geographical expertise to real issues facing the future of resources, valued customs, and institutions. Put on your little-footprint dancing shoes and dance. Better yet, choreograph.

Reprinted with permission from AAG Newsletter (Volume 44, Number 9, October 2009), President’s Column (http://communicate.aag.org/eseries/nl/2009_Oct.pdf)

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In a very cohesive and convincing argument, Randall Amster asks us to look at the other side of the well-worn coin that links environmental degradation and resource despoliation to conflict and war.  Instead, argues Amster, conflict zones have been shown to be appropriate sites for the creation of peace parks and other similar initiatives, where they can be turned into regions of enhanced sustainability—in every sense of the word, including environmental, social, and economic.

Abstract: This article explores the relationship between sustainability and peace, principally through examination of a range of cross-border conflict resolution efforts, international peace parks, and examples of resource cooperation across national borders – including in places where nations are or have been at war. A central notion developed through these examples is that warfare and militarization not only exacerbate rifts between peoples and cultures, but also severely degrade the environment and undermine movements toward sustainability. In contrast, collaborative, transnational, and cross-border peace initiatives often include an environmental component in which people can work to resolve conflicts, build trust, and sustain the ecological bases of their lives at the same time. In considering these issues, pervasive binaries long evident in global discourse – including North/South, Nature/Culture, and Traditional/Modern – illuminate the analysis by providing an implicit basis for exploring the efficacy of peacebuilding projects. Among other “hotspots” around the world, the U.S.-Mexico border in particular contains a number of potential transborder sustainability issues and conflict resolution processes that are emblematic of an emerging “sustainable peace” paradigm. The article concludes with an assessment of these synergies.

Sustaining Peace

In an effort to address the myriad and interlinked crises in our midst, some have begun to seek synergistic solutions that weave together strands of social and ecological justice. One such attempt considers the relationship between peace and the environment, oftentimes looking at the inverse by analyzing the devastating ecological impacts of warfare and militarism, and likewise by unpacking the drivers of violence and conflict that arise from patterns of environmental degradation. These relationships have been well explored in the literature, and it is by now widely accepted that ecological factors such as resource acquisition, droughts and other forms of scarcity, and the ravages of climate change are intimately connected with the impetus toward conflict if not outright war. Indeed, it is generally presumed by many scholars and policymakers alike that the world will be wracked by competition and conflict over scarce and dwindling resources, increasingly exacerbated by the environmental challenges in our midst. The resultant “resource wars,” as Michael Klare (2002) surmises, will be fought over the possession and control of vital economic goods, especially those resources most needed for the functioning of modern industrial societies. By most accounts, environmentally induced wars will continue to be a dominant feature of the global landscape

On the other hand, a competing narrative has begun to emerge that looks more deeply at the positive potentials embedded in the peace-environment nexus. With the connectivity having been established through the conflict-resources lens, we can surmise that an equally potent set of outcomes might be fostered by highlighting the peace potential of environmentalism, and likewise the environmental benefits of peaceful relations among peoples and nations. In fact, a significant body of literature has coalesced in the past decade around the broad theme of Peace Ecology (see Amster, 2009), analyzing concepts including environmental peacemaking (Conca and Dabelko, 2002), peace parks (Ali, 2007), peace co-operatives (Emmanuel and MacPherson, 2007), and “just sustainabilities” (Agyeman et al., 2003a; 2003b). In the end, it is apparent that “the issue of environmental quality is inextricably linked to that of human equality” (Agyeman et al., 2003a, 1), and furthermore that “a sustainable society must also be an equitable society, locally, nationally and internationally [since] social justice and environmental sustainability are inextricably linked” (Agyeman et al., 2003b, 323-325).

As we come to understand the interrelated nature of social and environmental issues, we thus also come to recognize that “no country can achieve sustainability alone” (Rees and Westra, 2003, 119), since environmental issues are inherently transnational in nature. In a rapidly globalizing system, “the increased interconnection of the biophysical world” is becoming increasingly evident, and thus “requires that adaptation to challenges occur at multiple levels” (Dolšak, et al., 2003, 338). As Kent Shifferd (2011, 111) adds, creating peace requires the development of a “social system that at all levels produces abundant life and justice, a system in which … basic human needs are met, including the right to life, to food and clean water.” As with a healthy ecosystem, such a social system must be “layered, redundant, resilient, robust, and proactive. Its various parts must feed back to each other so the system is strengthened and the failure of one part does not lead to systems failure” (Shifferd, 2011, 173). These insights help to frame the ecological dimensions of peace, the peaceful potentials of ecology, and, in the end, the overarching impetus toward a sustainable peace.

From Militarized Borders to Resource Collaborations

In the current geopolitical landscape, where resource wars and processes of economic colonization continue to dominate, it behooves us to consider in particular the transnational scale as we seek a sustainable peace. Physical borders between nations are increasingly militarized in the post-9/11 era, even as the barriers to so-called “free trade” and footloose capital are simultaneously relaxed. This has the effect of diminishing the potential for genuine exchange among peoples and communities on opposite sides of national borders, and interrupting the natural processes of ecosystems that do not abide lines on a map. It also serves to exacerbate tensions among nations, leading to the creation of permanent war economies whose explicit “national security” focus is the procurement and control of dwindling resources – down to even the essentials of food, water, and energy. The zero-sum logic of scarcity and competition is palpable, and has become a central norm of international relations, even as its workings are becoming little more than a self-fulfilling downward spiral in which vast resources are expended in the attempt to secure more resources.

In addition to reflecting an inherently unsustainable logic, such processes further reify a number of dualisms that lay at the core of the Western paradigm that has held sway throughout the industrial age. Resource wars and patterns of economic colonization are largely initiated by the nations of Global North vis-à-vis those of the Global South, yielding a two-tiered world of privileged consumers at the top and vulnerable producers on the bottom. The false scarcity created by such a system is reinforced by a mindset in which human culture is seen as separate from nature, and where traditional societies that exist closer to nature are viewed in Darwinian terms as inferior to modern societies in their political, economic, and moral development. In each instance, these dichotomies (North/South, Nature/Culture, Traditional/Modern) are inherently fallacious, to such an extent that they are self-refuting even when taken at face value. But even more insidiously, they provide the ideological software that serves to perpetuate an unsustainable world in which people are alienated from one another and are dislocated from the essential workings of the habitat.

In this light, any exploration of processes that confront these eventualities is potentially revolutionary in its full dimensions. The set of interrelated themes brought together under the rubric of Peace Ecology remain grounded in the notion that the crises of scarcity and conflict are also opportunities for mutually beneficial engagement born of necessity yet aimed at longer-term sustainability. The cultivation of a sense of shared destiny and mutual necessity can bring even ardent adversaries to the negotiating table, and as Alexander Carius (2006, 11) cogently observes, in this manner there is great potential for environmental conflicts to create opportunities for peace:

“As a mechanism for peace, the environment has some useful, perhaps even unique qualities that are well suited for peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Environmental problems ignore political borders. They require a long-term perspective, encourage participation by local and non-governmental organizations, help build administrative, economic and social capacities for action and facilitate the creation of commonalities that transcend the polarization caused by economic relations…. As environmental cooperation develops and societal and political stakeholders are systematically integrated in negotiation processes to protect natural goods, a simultaneous thrust is given to building trust, initiating cooperative action and encouraging the creation of a common regional identity emerging from sharing resources. It also helps establish mutually recognized rights and expectations.”

This emerging perspective suggests that peoples and nations have the potential to find ways of managing ecological concerns that not only work to avoid conflicts but that can also serve to promote peaceful relations among human communities and with the environment itself.

A foundational work in this vein is Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko’s landmark book Environmental Peacemaking, in which the overarching aim is to ascertain “the cooperative triggers of peace that shared environmental problems might make available” (2002, 5). In this lexicon, there are two necessary elements for an environmental peacemaking effort to be successful: (1) it must create minimum levels of trust, transparency, and cooperative gain, and (2) it must strive to transform the nation-state itself, which is often marked by dysfunctional institutions and practices that become further obstacles to peaceful coexistence and cooperation. The operative principle is that an environmental crisis or conflict can be transformed into an opportunity for peace when it can be demonstrated that there is more to be gained by cooperating than by competing, and further when the essence of peaceful cooperation transcends the interests and aims of nation-states that are generally focused on security as a function of control. These outcomes are intimately connected with the capacity of people to attain healthy, productive, and equitable livelihoods, since “the advance of sustainable human development is a significant element in successful conflict resolution between neighboring countries” (Paz, 2007, 329), and with due regard for the basic premise that “ecological sustainability and economic development go hand in hand, that each is prerequisite for the other” (Rees and Westra, 2003, 100).

These trends toward resource collaboration, conflict transformation, and sustainable relations have been on the rise in recent years at various “hotspot” locations around the world, including disputed territories between Peru and Ecuador and along the China-Vietnam border (Clayton, 2004). Conca and Dabelko’s edited volume includes exemplars of environmental peacemaking in the Baltic region, South Asia, the Aral Sea Basin, Southern Africa, the Caspian Sea area, and the U.S.-Mexico border (which is discussed in more detail below). Among these powerful illustrations is the case of India and Pakistan, which have been sharing the Indus River for decades even in the midst of warlike tensions. The basic recognition of the irreplaceable need for water has yielded a situation in which environmental scarcity “offers the potential to bring about regional cooperation – even on very inhospitable terrain” (Swain, 2002, 62). A recent assessment of the dire situation in Darfur similarly reflected on the underlying environmental issues at play there, including persistent drought and ensuing land-based changes in the relationships between farmers and pastoralists, concluding that conflict transformation and the cessation of hostilities in the region will not be possible “without addressing the issues of livelihoods, long-term development needs and the use and management of natural resources” (Castro, 2010, 350).

The Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) offers another compelling example. The MST utilizes a model of cooperative agriculture to address issues of food production and environmental conservation, as well as to incubate “political and social activities designed to foster more equitable social relations” (Wittman, 2007, 121). While the MST itself is not expressly transnational in scope, it is a key component of larger efforts such as Peoples’ Global Action that work to link similar efforts around the world. These synergistic efforts yield a framework in which “grassroots agrarian reform and associated visions of alternative co-operativism seek land not only as a productive resource, but as space for the installation of new democratic social relations” (Wittman, 2007, 142). Likewise, an exploration of cooperative agricultural initiatives on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border highlights the work of transnational organizations that facilitate the sharing of knowledge, employment opportunities, and food production techniques, ultimately serving to foster the development of “mutually reinforcing relationships that are the basis of a sustainable peace process” (Goldman, 2007, 338-339).

In his work on “peace parks,” Saleem Ali (2007) further emphasizes the positive sense of how environmental issues can play a role in cooperation, regardless of whether they are in fact part of the original conflict. Peace parks generally exist along contentious borders in nations that have endured conflict in the past but are working to create protected areas together. Examining international conservation efforts around the world, Ali observes that positive exchanges and trust-building gestures are a consequence of managing shared environmental threats, and that a focus on common environmental harms can be very successful in leading to cooperative outcomes. The centuries-old conflict between Iraq and Iran provides a poignant illustration. The al Ahwar marshes that straddle the border between these nations are part of the Mesopotamian region that marks what is often taken as the birthplace of modern civilization. The impact of warfare has compromised the vitality of these critical marshlands, leading some in the region to advocate for the creation of a peace park on the premise that such a project “could potentially result in coordination and co-management of this globally significant area, and future establishment of a demilitarized zone between the countries” (Stevens, 2007, 324). Despite the seemingly intractable nature of the political conflict, “restoration projects in the marshlands have continued” and there is “a visceral respect for conservation” among the diverse communities in the region, which ultimately “could provide a means of building trust and a cooperative nexus” between Iran and Iraq (Stevens, 2007, 328).

Perhaps the quintessential example of the potential to turn the degradation-conflict cycle into one of collaboration and sustainability is the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, which has become a massive wildlife and bird sanctuary since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Having remained relatively untrammeled by human activities, the DMZ is a rich habitat made up of marshes and grasslands, inhabited by rare and endangered species including the Asiatic black bear, leopards, lynx, and a significant portion of the world’s population of red-crowned cranes. This case illustrates concretely that demilitarization can lead to species diversification and a thriving ecosystem, and that formerly warring nations can develop an equivalent interest in cooperating to maintain the integrity of unique regions and simultaneously to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships in the process. “The preservation of the DMZ ecosystems promises to provide an unusual opportunity for the two Koreas to work together toward common goals and economic and environmental securities. Such strategy therefore could become an attractive vehicle for conflict resolution concerning North Korea’s nuclear threat and for changing the political environment over the Korean issues toward a more flexible and optimistic future” (Kim, 2007, 256-257).

There are a plethora of similar examples across the planet, such as the work of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Project in East Africa, which links women’s rights, economic self-sufficiency, resource conflict resolution, and environmental restoration. This project highlights the connections between the ways that we manage our habitats and how we govern ourselves, between environmental sustainability and our sociopolitical systems (Democracy Now!, 2007). Focusing on a particularly “hot” conflict zone further illuminates these complex issues.

The U.S.-Mexico Interface

The U.S.-Mexico border presents many obvious points of conflict, ranging from the interpersonal and societal to the ideological and environmental. While “the border” is widely known as a contentious political issue as well as a place of violence and danger (see Romero 2007), there are also a number of efforts being undertaken to help transform these conflicts into opportunities for peacebuilding and cross-cultural comity. Individuals and organizations on both sides of this conflictual border are working in myriad ways and from multiple perspectives to ameliorate conflict and violence in the region, opening up opportunities for more positive concourse among peoples and nations alike. In particular, these actors strive to promote peaceful alternatives to border fractiousness in spheres including human rights, economics, healthcare, education, and the environment. Conservation efforts and resource management programs in particular possess great potential to improve the ecology of the region as well as the tenuous political climate.

Transnational boundaries in general are known as areas of danger and opportunity alike. “The borderlands have a peculiar appeal to proponents of peace parks because the demarcation of state borders have often led to disputes, most of which erupted into bloody wars. It is therefore logical to assume that borders as sites of conflict can be brought under new cross-border regimes, with ecoregions acting as a catalyst for peace” (Ramutsindela, 2007, 70). By focusing collaboration and conservation efforts on transnational borders, the aim is to achieve a “change of scale from the national to the supranational” (Ramutsindela, 2007, 70) – a move of particular importance with regard to the global scope of environmental issues and the pervasive nature of global conflict. Since issues of degradation and injustice cross borders, so too must the workable solutions being created.

In the case of the 2000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, the significance of demonstrating peacebuilding and sustainability opportunities in a region rife with ostensible conflict and despoliation can have wide-ranging impacts on people worldwide confronting similar border issues of violence, mass migration, refugeeism, drugs, and a militarized version of “security” that includes steel walls and unmanned aerial drones. By viewing these matters through the prism of peacemaking and conflict transformation, it becomes possible to envision relative stability and positive exchange in even the most troubled regions. In undertaking this task, it is apparent that the project of building peace in a conflict zone is intertwined with the process of highlighting the subtleties of the production of violence, both by the nation-state and civil society, as well as how that violence is deconstructed and transformed. In other words, there are many levels of conflict and violence, ranging from overt forms that are often physically deployed to the more subtle forms that work at the level of psyche, ideology, and identity construction (see Slocum-Bradley 2008), yielding a sociocultural landscape of fear, divisiveness, and environmental sacrifice in the name of security that impacts the potential for peace in the minds of the people who reside in border communities.

Despite concerns over the ecological impacts of a border wall and similar militarization efforts, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security exempts itself from environmental laws and regulations. Data such as that collected by conservation groups in the region may not be able to halt such projects, but they paint a compelling and unequivocal picture in which “barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border are disturbing ecosystems and endangering animal species,” including the Coues’ Rice Rat, the Jaguarundi (a small feline), and the California red-legged toad (Cruz, 2011). A 2006 symposium that brought together park managers, biologists, and conservation groups concluded that the border wall “will fragment the Sonoran Desert ecosystem, damage the desert’s plant and animal communities, and prevent the free movement of wildlife between the United States and Mexico” (Cohn, 2007, 96). As one of the symposium participants observed: “It’s a war zone here. We’re into triage in deciding what to sacrifice in the environment to achieve border security” (Cohn, 2007, 96). Confirming these sentiments, it has been observed that in general the U.S.-Mexico border “is an area characterized by environmental degradation, economic and political inequality, and conflicting norms and priorities” (Doughman 2002, 190).

Efforts to transform border conflict are informed by environmental peacemaking tenets indicating that crises such as violence, militarism, and competition over resources can be utilized as moments to draw people together rather than accentuating rifts (see Conca and Dabelko, 2002). For instance, it has been argued that “water cooperation efforts in the U.S.-Mexico border region have the potential to improve U.S.-Mexico relations in many respects [and] could help to move the border from a zone of uneasy transition and human insecurity to a zone of peace” (Doughman 2002, 191). The problems plaguing the region are numerous, and include grave ecological concerns over not only water but as to pollution and toxification from maquiladora factories, soil contamination, loss of habitat and biodiversity, and the environmental toll of mass migration. Still, it is also perceived that efforts to turn this zone of sacrifice into one of sustainability could provide “an opportunity to strengthen trust, reciprocity, long-term planning, interdependence, shared norms, and trans-societal linkages” (Doughman 2002, 199) – and in fact, “shared natural resource initiatives continue even in a time of increased attention to border security” (Sifford and Chester, 2007, 212). In the end, despite the failure to date in establishing a transborder peace park or equivalent on the U.S.-Mexico border, it remains the case that “the establishment of cross-border protected areas could actually help diminish current, seemingly irreconcilable, tensions while benefiting long-term cooperation in other arenas besides that of conservation” (Sifford and Chester, 2007, 218).

Conclusion: Spillover Effects?

In the final analysis, this is the critical element toward creating a sustainable peace, namely that conservation efforts can serve to promote mutuality and social justice, and that cooperative and collaborative initiatives can work to restore and maintain the environment. Such moments of social-ecological synergy are sometimes referred to as “spillover effects” in which work in one sphere benefits others at the same time. Environmental peacemaking, peace parks, and other forms of transnational collaboration indicate that “environmental cooperation can be an effective general catalyst for reducing tensions, broadening cooperation, fostering demilitarization, and promoting peace,” and furthermore that there can be “positive side effects from such cooperation that can create positive synergies for peace, in the form of trust building [and] the identification of mutual gains” (Conca and Dabelko, 2002, 9-11). While it would be an overstatement to say that environmental cooperation causes peace, it is clear that such efforts can “support peace by enabling communities in fragile states to increase their resilience [and] establish collaborative and cooperative relationships” in the recognition that “shared resource systems and ecological interdependence are part of a durable peace” (Leroy, 2010, 339-340). Even as much work yet remains to achieve this, the theories and examples cited here help point the way toward a sustainable and equitable world.

References

Agyeman, Julian, Robert D. Bullard, and Bob Evans. 2003a. Joined-up thinking: Bringing together sustainability, environmental justice and equity. In Just sustainabilities: Development in an unequal world, ed. Julian Agyeman, Robert D. Bullard, and Bob Evans, 1-16, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Agyeman, Julian, Robert D. Bullard, and Bob Evans. 2003b. Towards just sustainabilities: Perspectives and possibilities. In Just sustainabilities: Development in an unequal world, ed. Julian

Agyeman, Robert D. Bullard, and Bob Evans, 323-335, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ali, Saleem H., ed. 2007. Peace parks: Conservation and conflict resolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Amster, Randall. 2009. Pax Gaia: The ecology of war, peace, and how to get from here to there. In Building cultures of peace: Transdisciplinary voices of hope and action, ed. Elavie Ndura and Randall

Amster, 242-257, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Carius, Alexander. 2006. Environmental cooperation as an instrument of crisis prevention and peacebuilding: Conditions for success and constraints. Report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, January.

Castro, A. Peter. 2010. Communities and natural resource conflicts in Africa: Reflections on conflict managements options for peace-building in Darfur. In Environment and conflict in Africa: Reflections on Darfur, ed. Marcel Leroy, 341-354, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: University for Peace.

Clayton, Mark. 2004. Environmental peacemaking. The Christian Science Monitor. March 4.

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Two intellectual powerhouses from South America, Gudynas and Acosta make the case for a new way of understanding human fulfillment, authentically Latin American in origin with indigenous roots—the idea of el Buen Vivir.  We cannot translate their ideas “the good life” or “quality of life,” both thoroughly Western concepts, and we must hope that el Buen Vivir, with its entire notion of well living, fulfillment and plenitude in connection with other humans and the elements of the landscape becomes incorporated into a healthy and sustainable idea that replaces development.  Gudynas and Acosta make the case that these ideas are emerging from their indigenous roots and have been a big part of the political, social and economic success of the “new left,” as evidenced by their foundational role in the constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador.

ABSTRACT

After a period of retreat, critical approaches to development are back in Latinamerica. These include some old components, many of them originated in the region (like some elements of dependency theory), with new issues (like those related to the environmental crisis), and incorporating perspectives from indigenous knowledges. Under this process emerges the current idea of Buen Vivir, a good life that is not a new instrumental development alternative, but an alternative to the whole western idea of development. The different approaches to Buen Vivir are described, including its introduction in the new constitutions ofBoliviaandEcuador, and also the key current debates. Some perspectives are rooted in indigenous knowledges, while others are represented in marginal and critical perspectives within Modernity. Buen Vivir is plural and multidimensional concept, still under elaboration. Nevertheless, these different approaches shared a common political platform, based on features like the rejection of classical developmentalism, a distinct ethics (e.g. intrinsic values in Nature), a decolonial attitude, and the pursuit of alternatives to development. These components are described and analyzed.

Introducción

Las perspectivas recientes sobre educación ambiental y educación para la sostenibilidad de muy variadas maneras se enfocan en el “desarrollo sustentable”. Buena parte de la discusión queda centrada, por lo tanto, en cuestiones como determinar las condiciones ecológicas para el desarrollo, generar un desarrollo “verde” o alentar una sensibilidad ambiental. De alguna manera puede entenderse que esas posturas son reformas ambientales al desarrollo.

En cambio, otra manera de enfocar estas cuestiones es promover simultáneamente una crítica sustancial sobre la idea misma de “desarrollo”. En otras palabras, admitir que un tránsito a la sustentabilidad implica cambios radicales en las ideas que hoy son aceptadas sobre el desarrollo.

Un proceso de este tipo está en marcha en algunos países y movimientos en América Latina. Se está observando una renovación de la crítica al desarrollo, donde uno de sus componentes proviene de las preocupaciones ambientales. Pero esta nueva reflexión ofrece la particularidad de ir hasta las raíces culturales de las concepciones de desarrollo, y una vez allí, entiende que las alternativas se encuentran más allá de esas ideas. Son, por lo tanto, críticas al desarrollo donde se termina abandonando la idea convencional de “desarrollo”.

El presente artículo ofrece un resumen de algunas de estas discusiones, y en especial aquellas que están enfocadas en las alternativas que ahora se conocen como “Buen vivir” o “Vivir Bien”. Las secciones que siguen reproducen un artículo que hemos publicado recientemente (Gudynas y Acosta, 2011).

Nuestro objetivo es revisar algunos aspectos claves de la actual construcción de las ideas sobre Buen Vivir como crítica al desarrollo. Se repasan algunas posturas críticas al desarrollo, ubicando a las ideas sobre el Buen Vivir como una respuesta a varios de esos cuestionamientos. Se analizan los componentes que explican la construcción de las ideas de Buen Vivir, comentándose sobre sus formulaciones en las nuevas Constituciones de Bolivia y Ecuador. Paralelamente, indicamos que estas ideas recuperan posturas claves ancladas en los conocimientos saberes propios de pueblos indígenas. Sus expresiones más conocidas remiten a Ecuador y Bolivia; en el primer caso es el Buen Vivir o sumak kawsay (en kichwa), y en el segundo, en particular el Vivir Bien o suma qamaña (en aymara) y sumak kawsay (en quechua). Finalmente, se avanza en la idea del Buen Vivir como una plataforma política para la construcción de alternativas al desarrollo.

El Buen Vivir, en tanto concepto plural y en construcción, discurre en el campo de los debates teóricos, pero también avanza en las prácticas, sea en aquella de los pueblos indígenas y en los movimientos sociales, como en la construcción política, dando sus  primeros pasos en las recientes constituciones de Bolivia y Ecuador. Más allá de la diversidad de posturas al interior del Buen Vivir, aparecen elementos unificadores claves, tales como el cuestionamiento al desarrollo entendido como progreso o el reclamo de otra relación conla Naturaleza.ElBuen Vivir no es, entonces, un desarrollo alternativo más dentro de una larga lista de opciones, sino que se presenta como una alternativa a todas esas posturas.

La crítica y la permanencia del desarrollo convencional

Las ideas contemporáneas sobre el desarrollo comenzaron a formalizarse en la década de 1940. Es habitual presentar como referencia el discurso de 1949 del presidente de Estados Unidos, Harry Truman, donde se presenta la idea del desarrollo como sucesivos avances en la linealidad del progreso. El desarrollo es definido también en relación a su contracara, el subdesarrollo; la primera situación se observaría en los países industrializados, cuyos regímenes de gobierno y sus patrones culturales se deben convertir en el ejemplo a seguir por los países del sur  (véase, por ejemplo, a Sanchs, 1992, y Rist, 2002).

De esta manera, América Latina junto a otras regiones, debían aplicar un conjunto de políticas, instrumentos e indicadores para salir del “subdesarrollo” y llegar a aquella deseada condición del “desarrollo”. A lo largo de estas últimas décadas, casi todos los países han intentado seguir ese supuesto recorrido. ¿Cuántos lo han logrado? Muy pocos. En realidad, lo que se observa en el mundo es un “mal desarrollo” generalizado, existente inclusive en los países considerados como desarrollados. José María Tortosa va más allá, afirmando que “el funcionamiento del sistema mundial contemporáneo es «maldesarrollador»” en su propia lógica, ya que está basado en una idea de “eficiencia que trata de maximizar los resultados, reducir costes y conseguir la acumulación incesante de capital” (en el sentido de Tortosa, 2008).

Por cierto que existe cierta heterogeneidad dentro del amplio campo del desarrollo contemporáneo. De hecho, por lo menos desde la década de 1960 comenzaron a sumarse distintas visiones críticas inconformes con las posturas de un progreso lineal, con reclamos en el terreno social y ambiental (véase la revisión de Unceta, 2009). Los objetivos y medios para avanzar en el desarrollo difieren entre escuelas de pensamiento y diversos autores, las que quedan bien ejemplificadas por Tortosa (2008) al recordar que van desde las “versiones más economicistas que lo identifican con el crecimiento del PIB a las más complejas del desarrollo a escala humana, necesidades básicas, nuevo orden internacional, desarrollo humano, ecodesarrollo o codesarrollo”.

Entre esas corrientes se encuentran las críticas ambientales, y al menos desde 1980, el desarrollo sostenible como concepto. Si bien sus posturas originales, la sustentabilidad requería una reformulación sustancial del desarrollo, pero al pasar el tiempo, esta idea se diversificó en corrientes muy diversas, incluyendo aquellas que quedaron en un mero intento de reformas instrumentales del desarrollo para relanzarlo como crecimiento económico.

La diversidad de posiciones alrededor del desarrollo s muy clara en el caso latinoamericano, lo que explica la “azarosa biografía” de la idea de desarrollo en la región, cambiando “muchas veces de identidad y de apellido, tironeado entre un consistente reduccionismo economicista y los insistentes reclamos de todas las otras dimensiones de la existencia social. Es decir, entre muy diferentes intereses de poder”, al decir de Aníbal Quijano (2000). Inicialmente sus promesas fueron movilizadoras, agrega Quijano, “pero fueron eclipsándose en un horizonte cada vez más esquivo y sus abanderados y seguidores fueron enjaulados por el desencanto”.

A su vez, la región también jugó un papel importante en generar revisiones críticas sobre el desarrollo convencional, tales como el muy conocido estructuralismo inicial de Raúl Prebisch, los diferentes énfasis en la teoría de la dependencia, hasta posiciones más recientes, como el neo-estructuralismo de CEPAL. Estas posturas heterodoxas y críticas encierran una importancia considerable, pero también han adolecido de algunas limitaciones. Por un lado, sus cuestionamientos no lograron alcanzar los núcleos conceptuales de la idea de desarrollo convencional entendido como progreso lineal, y en particular expresado en términos del crecimiento económico. Por otro lado, cada una de ellas generó una ola de revisiones pero que no lograron sumarse y articularse entre sí; si bien generaban un pico en los cuestionamientos, poco después éstos comenzaban a languidecer y las ideas convencionales volvían a retomar el protagonismo. Este tipo de procesos explica que a pesar de las diversas posiciones críticas sobre el desarrollo que se acumularon sobre todo en la década de 1970, desde el dependentismo a los llamados a un “otro desarrollo”, de todas maneras el núcleo básico desarrollista persistió, y se acentuó bajo las reformas de mercado de inspiración neoliberales de las décadas de 1980 y 1990.

Crítica y cansancio

A partir de fines de la década de 1990, los cuestionamientos parecen potenciarse entre sí, en particular como reacción frente al reduccionismo de mercado. La confianza en el desarrollo se resquebraja en las décadas de 1980 y 1990. Por un lado, las posturas neoliberales consideran que éste no es un proceso a construir o planificar, sino que resulta de dejar actuar libremente al mercado. La temática del desarrollo parece reducirse en el ámbito académico y en la gestión gubernamental.

Por otro lado, las promesas de los planes, programas y proyectos de desarrollo, no se concretan. Los problemas de pobreza y desigualdad en el continente persistían, y los beneficios anunciados por el desarrollo no lograban cambios sustantivos en las economías nacionales o locales. Es más, en algunos casos, los emprendimientos que se anunciaban como disparadores del desarrollo, en realidad tenían efectos contrarios, especialmente diversos impactos sociales y ambientales.

No pretendemos decir que fracasaron todos los emprendimientos que han invocado metas del desarrollo. Pero sí deseamos puntualizar que ello sucedió en muchos casos, y que hay actores sociales claves que reaccionan negativamente o están defraudados por ese tipo de iniciativas (más allá de la validez o no de esas posiciones). De hecho, se han montado redes ciudadanas para denunciar y alertar sobre algunos de esos efectos negativos (y en muchas de ellas, las cuestiones ambientales tienen un papel central).

En este estado de cosas, apenas resumido en los párrafos precedentes, se formalizan los cuestionamientos del postdesarrollo, entendiéndolo como una reconstrucción y crítica de la base conceptual, las prácticas, las instituciones y los discursos del desarrollo (véase por ejemplo, Escobar, 2010). Estas críticas calan mucho más profundamente, en tanto conciben que los problemas no radican en las mediaciones o instrumentalizaciones de diferentes opciones de desarrollo, sino que es necesario ir a las bases conceptuales, incluso ideológicas o culturales, en las que se sustenta el desarrollismo convencional. Es así que muchos de aportes de las corrientes heterodoxas antes mencionadas, en realidad enfocan “desarrollos alternativos”, mientras que es necesario generar “alternativas al desarrollo”.

Las controversias sobre el desarrollo, sus pretendidos éxitos como sus reconocidos fracasos, por distintos medios, desembocaron en la retracción a esa temática, tal como se adelantó arriba. Es un escenario que hemos calificado en otras oportunidades como un “cansancio” con las ideas convencionales sobre el desarrollo.

El regreso de las alternativas al desarrollo

Apelando una vez más a un apretado resumen, es posible señalar que en los albores del siglo XXI, el estilo de desarrollo neoliberal comienza a agotarse, y se suceden recambios políticos en varios países, cuya expresión más nítida ha sido la llegada al poder de la nueva izquierda o progresismo sudamericano. Sin duda los procesos en juego son diversos, y los tonos de cada uno de los nuevos gobiernos también es distinto, pero en todo ellos se comparte un rechazo al reduccionismo neoliberal, buscar el rencuentro con los sectores populares, la defensa del protagonismo del Estado, y acciones más enérgicas en la lucha contra la pobreza.

Paralelamente, ganaron un nuevo protagonismo los aportes de los pueblos indígenas. Sus aportes incluyen diversos cuestionamientos al desarrollo, tanto en los planos prácticos como en los conceptuales. Bajo algunos saberes indígenas no existe una idea análoga a la de desarrollo, lo que lleva a que en muchos casos se rechaza esa idea. A su vez, el desarrollo convencional es visto como una imposición cultural heredera del saber occidental, por lo tanto las reacciones contra la colonialidad en los saberes implica un distanciamiento del desarrollismo. Cuestionamientos de ese tipo están más allá de cualquier corrección instrumental de una estrategia de desarrollo (con lo cual, por una vía independiente y distinta, de todos modos se observan analogías con la crítica post-desarrollista).

Finalmente, a inicios del siglo XXI también se refuerzan otras vertientes contestatarias del desarrollo. Destacamos entre ellas las alertas sobre el deterioro ambiental ocasionado por los patrones de consumo occidentales, y los crecientes signos de agotamiento ecológico del planeta.La Tierrano tiene la capacidad de absorción y resilencia para que todos repitan el consumismo propios de los países industrializados. El concepto de desarrollo convencional no brinda respuestas adecuadas a estas alertas.

Procesos de este tipo explican el regreso de la problemática del desarrollo, y en particular aquellas que buscan una alternativa al desarrollo. Esto es, alternativas en un sentido más profundo, que buscan romper con bases culturales e ideológicas del desarrollo contemporáneo, y apelar a otras imágenes, metas y prácticas. En este contexto, ciertas ideas originadas en los saberes tradicionales andinos, enfocadas en el bienestar de las personas y defensoras de otro tipo de relacionalidad con el ambiente, rápidamente lograron incidir en el debate sobre el desarrollo, y se constituyen en nuevas alternativas a éste. Este es el espacio ocupado por las ideas englobadas bajo el rótulo de “Buen Vivir” (un resumen en inglés en Gudynas, 2011b).

El Buen Vivir, tal como se entiende en el presente artículo, es un concepto en construcción, bajo distintas confluencias que van desde aquellas promovidas desde la reflexión académica a las prácticas de los movimientos sociales. Este resulta de una recuperación de saberes y sensibilidades propias de algunos pueblos indígenas, que eran tanto una reacción contra el desarrollismo convencional, como una apuesta a una alternativa sustancial. De esta manera se apartaba de las ideas occidentales convencionales del progreso, y apuntaba hacia otra concepción de la vida buena, incluyendo una especial atención ala Naturaleza. Sibien, el Buen Vivir no puede ser simplistamente asociado al “bienestar occidental”, tampoco rechaza algunos aportes contemporáneos que parten del saber occidental, en especial aquellas corrientes críticas y contestarias como las que ejemplifica el ambientalismo o feminismo.

Es también un concepto que está dando sus primeros pasos en los marcos normativos nacionales de algunos países, y en la planificación y gestión estatal. Seguidamente se analizan algunos de estos componentes.

El Buen Vivir en las nuevas Constituciones andinas

Las ideas del Buen Vivir lograron formalizarse en las nuevas constituciones de Bolivia  (aprobada en 2009) y Ecuador (2008). Como se adelantó arriba, el concepto está anclado en saberes y sensibilidades de algunos pueblos indígenas. En el caso ecuatoriano, se expresa bajo la idea del sumak kawsay en kichwa, que ha sido defendido e invocado a lo largo de los últimos años, hasta cristalizar políticamente en el proceso constituyente de 2007 y 2008 (más abajo se citan los números de los artículos de cada Constitución).

En Bolivia, la idea de la “vida buena” también tiene viejos antecedentes, aunque su formulación como suma qamaña en aymara, es posiblemente mucho más reciente (Uzeda, 2009). De la misma manera, la idea se formalizó en la nueva Constitución de Bolivia, y fue además asociada a otros conceptos análogos que son defendidos desde otras nacionalidades indígenas.

En el caso dela Constituciónde Ecuador, esta idea es presentada como un derecho. Integra los “derechos del Buen Vivir”, que también incluyen un amplia variedad de otros derechos (tales como a la alimentación, ambiente sano, agua, comunicación, educación, vivienda, salud, energía, etc.), donde existen correspondencias entre ellos y el sumak kawsay. En la formulación ecuatoriana estos derechos no están jerarquizados, y por lo tanto se complementan en un mismo plano. Por lo tanto los derechos del Buen Vivir ocupan la misma jerarquía que esos otros conjuntos de derechos, y a su vez, este conjunto tiene un correlato en una sección dedicada a las responsabilidades.

Seguidamente se indican dos campos principales de acción en un mismo nivel de jerarquía: por un lado el “régimen del Buen Vivir”, y por el otro, el “régimen de desarrollo”. Este último es definido como “el conjunto organizado, sostenible y dinámico de los sistemas económicos, políticos, socio-culturales y ambientales, que garantizan la realización del Buen Vivir, del sumak kawsay” (artículo 275). Se postula una directa vinculación entre las estrategias de desarrollo y los derechos; el “Buen Vivir requerirá que las personas, comunidades, pueblos y nacionalidades gocen efectivamente de sus derechos, y ejerzan responsabilidades en el marco de la interculturalidad, del respeto a sus diversidades, y de la convivencia armónica con la naturaleza” (art. 275). Este régimen de desarrollo debe atender una planificación participativa, y se expresa en las áreas del trabajo, y de las soberanías alimentaria, económica y energética. En paralelo, el régimen del Buen Vivir incluye las cuestiones de inclusión y equidad (por ejemplo, educación, salud, vivienda, cultura, etc.) y biodiversidad y recursos naturales.

Como la formalización ecuatoriana coloca al Buen Vivir en el plano de los derechos, su satisfacción requiere de cambios sustanciales en las estrategias de desarrollo. De esta manera, las estrategias de “desarrollo” en el uso clásico de la palabra, deben ser rediseñadas de nueva manera para asegurar el Buen Vivir.

En el caso de la nueva Constitución de Bolivia (2009), las referencias al Buen Vivir aparecen en la sección sobre las bases fundamentales del Estado. Allí, al abordarse los principios, valores y fines del Estado (art. 8), se “asume y promueve como principios ético-morales de la sociedad plural: ama qhilla, ama llulla, ama suwa (no seas flojo, no seas mentiroso ni seas ladrón), suma qamaña (vivir bien), ñandereko (vida armoniosa), teko kavi (vida buena), ivi maraei (tierra sin mal) y qhapaj ñan (camino o vida noble).” En este caso se observa una mayor amplitud cultural, en tanto se postulan concepciones del Buen Vivir de varias tradiciones indígenas además de la aymara, tales como quechua y guaraní.

Estos principios del Buen Vivir se presentan en paralelo, y con la misma jerarquía, que otros principios clásicos, tales como unidad, igualdad, inclusión, dignidad, libertad, solidaridad, reciprocidad, respeto, equidad social y de género en la participación, bienestar común, responsabilidad, justicia social, etc. (también incluidos en el artículo 8).

A su vez, estos principios son vinculados directamente con la forma de organización económica del Estado, donde también se apuntan algunos cambios en el camino del desarrollo. En efecto, se sostiene que el “modelo económico boliviano es plural y está orientado a mejorar la calidad de vida y el Vivir Bien” (art. 306). Por ejemplo, se postula un ordenamiento económico plural, vinculado a principios como la solidaridad y reciprocidad. Aquí también, el lograr “Vivir Bien en sus múltiples dimensiones”, requiere cambios económicos sustantivos, como atender a la generación de producto social, redistribución justa de la riqueza, industrializar los recursos naturales, etc. (art. 313).

De este breve repaso surgen varias similitudes en la presentación del Buen Vivir en estas constituciones. En los dos casos, la idea del Buen Vivir está directamente vinculada con saberes y tradiciones indígenas. Por lo tanto, hay un esfuerzo deliberado de volver a hacer visibles saberes y concepciones que han estado ocultadas y sojuzgadas por largo tiempo. También se busca otro desarrollo, apuntando a un cambio profundo en las economías y en otra postura frente al mercado. El mercado por sí solo no es la solución, tampoco lo es el Estado, de donde el Buen Vivir apunta a relaciones dinámicas y constructivas entre el mercado, la sociedad y el Estado. Se busca construir una sociedad con diversidad de distintos tipos de mercados, para no tener una sociedad mercantilizada. No se quiere una economía controlada por monopolistas y especuladores, pero tampoco se promueve una visión estatista a ultranza de la economía.

Pero también hay diferencias importantes entre las propuestas boliviana y ecuatoriana. En el caso de Bolivia, el suma qamaña y los demás conceptos asociados, son principios ético-morales y no aparecen como derechos, tal como sucede enla Constituciónecuatoriana. Están enfocados en delimitar los marcos para una sociedad que se define como plurinacional. Incluso se puede argumentar que estos principios ético-morales serían una de las fundamentaciones de esa plurinacionalidad, y el Buen Vivir es entonces una condición que puede expresarse de diferente manera en cada una de ellas.

La Constituciónde Ecuador, en cambio, el sumak kawsay es presentado a dos niveles: como el marco para un conjunto sustantivo de derechos, y como expresión de buena parte de la organización y ejecución de esos derechos, no sólo en el Estado, sino en toda la sociedad. Es una formalización de mayor amplitud y más precisa, ya que el sumak kawsay aparece dentro del conjunto de derechos y a la vez como contrapeso a un nuevo régimen de desarrollo. En cambio, en el texto constitucional boliviano ese vínculo entre suma qamaña y los derechos no es explícito; por ejemplo, no hay una referencia a este concepto en la sección de los derechos fundamentales. A su vez, en el texto boliviano, el suma qamaña es claramente presentado como una de las finalidades del Estado. En cambio, enla Constituciónecuatoriana el Buen Vivir aparece en un alto nivel de la jerarquía, y desde éste se derivan muchos derechos.

La dimensión plurinacional es más fuerte en el caso boliviano que en el ecuatoriano. A la inversa, los aspectos ambientales son mas sustantivos en la formulación ecuatoriana, donde se reconocen los Derechos dela Naturaleza(arts.71 a74), mientras que el texto boliviano es más ambiguo, ya que algunos artículos defienden el mandato del Estado de industrializar los recursos naturales (por ejemplo en el art. 9).

La relación conla Naturalezaes un aspecto clave en la construcción del Buen Vivir. Por esa razón, la propuesta ecuatoriana ofrece muchas más posibilidades al reconocerse quela Naturalezaes sujeto de derechos. Esta es una postura biocéntrica que se basa en una perspectiva ética alternativa, al aceptar valores intrínsecos en el entorno.La Constituciónboliviana no ofrece una postura biocéntrica, y sus mandatos de industrialización de los recursos naturales queda atrapado en las ideas clásicas del progreso basadas en la apropiación dela Naturaleza.

Expresiones y facetas del Buen Vivir

El examen de los textos constitucionales de Bolivia y Ecuador sirve para ilustrar varios de los aspectos actualmente en consideración en la construcción del Buen Vivir. Un punto clave que resulta de esa experiencia es que el Buen Vivir representa una alternativa al desarrollo, y por lo tanto expresa una de las respuestas posibles a las críticas sustanciales del postdesarrollo. Eso se refleja en aportes diversos, que van desde el cuestionamiento a las visiones cartesianas sobre el mundo por Dávalos (2008), o al rechazo al desarrollo convencional desde la mirada indígena por Huanacuni Mamani (2010). De esta manera, el Buen Vivir no sería un conjunto de “desarrollo alternativos”, sino que una exploración de alternativas a la idea misma del desarrollo, sus expresiones en la gestión y política, su institucionalidad y sus discursos de legitimación.

El Buen Vivir recupera la idea de una buena vida, del bienestar en un sentido más amplio, trascendiendo las limitaciones del consumo material, y recuperando los aspectos afectivos y espirituales. Esta dimensión se expresa en subrayar la “plenitud de la vida” (según la analista aymara Choque, 2006), y en la austeridad y el rechazo de vivir “mejor” a costa de otros (a juicio de Albó, 2009). También se incorporan algunas ideas clásicas, tales como asegurar que las “libertades, oportunidades, capacidades y potencialidades reales de los individuos se amplíen y florezcan” (Ramírez, 2010).

Además de estos y otros aspectos comunes, el Buen Vivir tiene especificidades culturales propias. Es así que encontramos el sumak kawsay que es propio de la cultura kichwa, de su historia y de su contexto ecológico; lo mismo sucede con el suma qamaña, que es una elaboración ajustada a la circunstancia de los aymara de Bolivia. Estas y otras formulaciones poseen sus particularidades propias, y si bien se comparten elementos comunes entre todas ellas, cada una de ellas refleja sus propias circunstancias históricas, sociales y ambientales.

Para ilustrar este punto es apropiado repasar algunos aspectos, en el sentido de Buen Vivir como una “plataforma” de encuentro de diferentes posturas (Gudynas, 2011a). En el caso del suma qamaña, uno de sus proponentes más visibles es el intelectual aymara Simón Yampara (por ejemplo, Yamapra, 2001). Sus aportes, entre otros puntos, concibe el suma qamaña como un amplio bienestar basado en una armonía entre las dimensiones material y espiritual, y que en buena medida depende de un contexto comunitario y ambiental, representado en el ayllu andino.

A su vez, el sumak kawsay ecuatoriano, según uno de los líderes históricos del movimiento indígena ecuatoriano, Luis Macas (2011), se corresponde entre varios aspectos, con el espacio comunitario, en donde existe reciprocidad, convivencia conla Naturaleza, responsabilidad social y consenso.

También se invoca el ñande reko de los guaraníes, cuya acepción más rigurosa invoca a un modo de ser. Bajo ese concepto se incluyen diversas virtudes de la buena vida, tales como la libertad y la felicidad, y que están orientadas a la búsqueda de la “tierra sin mal”. Se pueden seguir sumando otros conceptos similares desde otros saberes indígenas a los que se comentaron arriba, como puede ser el küme morgen de los mapuches de Chile, las ideas de la buena vida de los achuar (Amazonía ecuatoriana), los kunas (Panamá), y así sucesivamente se pueden sumar otras concepciones.

Queda en claro, por lo tanto, que el Buen Vivir es un concepto plural (podría hablarse de “buenos vivires” o mejor sería decir “buenos convivires”), donde por ejemplo el sumak kawsay no es idéntico al ñande reko, ya que éstos y los demás, tienen especificidades propias de cada cultura. El Buen Vivir no puede ser reducido al sumak kawsay o al suma qamaña de los Andes, sino que ideas similares se encuentran en distintas culturas indígenas, y también en algunas criollas, o como resultado de hibridizaciones contemporáneas recientes (Gudynas, 2011a, b). Es más, como se mencionó antes, el suma qamaña de Bolivia parece ser una formulación reciente de un grupo de intelectuales aymara. Esto no implica un aspecto negativo para el Buen Vivir desde nuestra perspectiva, y por el contrario es una de sus facetas positivas, ya que expresa el dinamismo propio de un concepto en construcción, donde interactúan saberes tradicionales con nuevas miradas, las cuales permiten redefinir identidades hacia el futuro.

Esto permite despejar otro malentendido usual con el Buen Vivir, al despreciarlo como una mera aspiración de regreso al pasado o de misticismo indigenista. Al contrario, el Buen Vivir expresa construcciones que están en marcha en este mismo momento, donde interactúan, se mezclan y se hibridizan saberes y sensibilidades, todas compartiendo marcos similares tales como la crítica al desarrollo o la búsqueda de otra relacionalidad conla Naturaleza.

El Buen Vivir también recibe aportes de algunas tradiciones occidentales que han cuestionado distintos presupuestos de la modernidad dominante. Entre ellas se encuentran posturas éticas alternativas, donde se reconocen los Derechos dela Naturaleza, los aportes del feminismo como reacción a la dominación de base patriarcal, las nuevas conceptualizaciones en áreas como la justicia y el bienestar humano y muchas de las críticas al desarrollo.

En efecto, el desarrollismo convencional también recibió una crítica sustantiva desde “dentro” del saber occidental. Muchas de esas corrientes heterodoxas fueron marginalizadas, y en algunos casos combatidas desde los saberes convencionales. Aquí aparecen posturas ambientalistas muy conocidas, destacándose la defensa del biocentrismo desde la “ecología profunda” (Arne Naess, 1989). Es evidente que la sensibilidad ambiental en el suma qamaña o el sumak kawsay tiene semejanzas claves con críticas ambientalistas que han existido al interior de la tradición cultural. Una situación similar se puede describir para algunas críticas feministas, y en especial ecofeministas. De esta manera, el Buen Vivir posee muchas afinidades con las corrientes “super-fuertes” del desarrollo sostenible, donde se reconocen los valores intrínsecos dela Naturaleza.

Otros análisis sobre el Buen Vivir incluso lo presentan como una re-elaboración del socialismo clásico, con un toque de republicanismo (es el caso de Ramírez, 2010).

Se puede retrucar que esta diversidad hace que el concepto de Buen Vivir se vuelva demasiado difuso, y que la solución radicar en encontrar una versión “verdadera” u “objetiva”. Unos podrían considerar que ese “verdadero” Buen Vivir es el suma qamaña, mientras que otros lo ven como una reforma sustantiva de la izquierda socialista. Pero este intento deja en evidencia las dificultades en pretender que existe una sola definición, o que sea posible acordar una versión esencialita, una “receta”, del Buen Vivir. Sea por sus ventajas como desventajas, el Buen Vivir es un concepto plural, tanto por su matriz cultural, como por la necesidad de ajustarse a diferentes marcos ambientales.

De esta manera se arriba a otra particularidad del Buen Vivir: es un espacio de encuentro de diferentes culturas, tanto aquella del sumak kawsay como las de feministas o biocéntricos. No es un mero ejercicio multicultural o de yuxtaposición de culturas, sino que es un encuentro intercultural, entendiendo que existe un plano de igualdad entre distintas culturas, pero que a la vez opera un decolonialidad en admitir la superioridad de los saberes europeos.

Siguiendo este razonamiento, el Buen Vivir puede ser entendido como una plataforma de encuentro de diferentes maneras de entender el mundo, y nuestro papel en éste. En otras palabras, es una plataforma para el debate político sobre las alternativas al desarrollo, donde si bien existe una diversidad y superposición de distintas posturas, de todos modos hay elementos críticos en común. Entre ellos destacamos otra relación conla Naturaleza, la descolonización de los saberes, otra ética para reconocer y asignar valores, el abandono de las pretensiones de instrumentalización y manipulación del entorno. Este espacio político discurre con un talante de encuentro, diálogo e interacciones entre diferentes saberes y afectos, y que de esa manera configuran comunidades ampliadas. Entendemos que es una plataforma política, entendiendo la “política” en su sentido más amplio, como el debate público que realizan sujetos sobre el bien común, buscando trascender lo que venía siendo descrito como desarrollo.

El cuestionamiento a la Modernidad

Es importante advertir que este amplio conjunto de alternativas, sea aquellas originadas en saberes indígenas, como el sumak kawsay, o las que cuestionaban desde dentro al saber occidental, como la ecología profunda, de una manera u otra están poniendo en discusión varios de los cimientos dela Modernidadde origen europeo. En efecto, la crítica al desarrollo convencional y la búsqueda de alternativas pone en entredicho posturas tradicionales, tales como las que conciben ala Naturalezaa ser dominada y manipulada por el ser humano, o la fe en el progreso material. Estas y otras ideas, en sus formulaciones actuales tienen un origen en el renacimiento, en posiciones como las de Francis Bacon o René Descartes. El mandato baconiano de una ciencia que “torture ala Naturaleza, como lo hacía el Santo Oficio dela Inquisicióncon sus reos, para conseguir develar el último de sus secretos…” (citado en Arrojo, 2010), se ha convertido en uno de los cimientos ideológicos del desarrollismo contemporáneo.

Por lo tanto, cuando el Buen Vivir cuestiona radicalmente las bases conceptuales del desarrollismo actual, simultáneamente pone en entredichola Modernidadde origen europeo. No son suficientes las reformas o ajustes al programa baconiano – cartesiano. Los “desarrollos alternativos” enfrentan limitaciones concretas en sus capacidades para resolver las problemáticas contemporáneas. Estas críticas determinan que el Buen Vivir, desde su pluralidad, represente exploraciones para ir más allá de las ideas de desarrollo propias dela Modernidad.Estorefuerza aquí la importancia de los saberes y sensibilidades indígenas, ya que esa pluriculturidad ofrece mejores posibilidades en poder salir del espacio de lo moderno.

Uno de los terrenos concretos de estas tensiones tiene lugar alrededor del extractivismo, la apropiación intensa y masiva de recursos naturales, con altos impactos sociales y ambientales. Ese estilo de desarrollo (que incluye la minería, petróleo y monocultivos), se está expandiendo en casi toda América del Sur, y en muchos casos bajo el empuje de los gobiernos progresistas. Las reacciones ciudadanas y el debate alrededor de esos emprendimientos con frecuencia expresan el reclamo por adentrarse en un sendero del Buen Vivir, frente a los efectos negativos que ocasionan esas actividades.

En este campo, las tensiones no son sólo instrumentales, tales como el manejo de la contaminación petrolera o minera, sino que es una disputa en las formas de entender el desarrollo y de buscar alternativas. Un buen ejemplo lo constituye el “Plan Nacional para el Buen Vivir, 2009-2013” del Ecuador. Debe ser bienvenida la presentación de un plan, y que éste no se organice bajo la idea convencional del desarrollo, sino que apunte al Buen Vivir como meta, incluyendo propósitos como poder remontar la dependencia del extractivismo actual. Pero el problema es que al elaborar las mediaciones concretas, el plan vuelve a caer en instrumentos y procesos similares al desarrollo convencional, incluyendo mantener el extractivismo tanto minero como petrolero, y todos sus impactos sociales y ambientales. Se genera así una contradicción inevitable, en tanto se busca una alternativa al extractivismo pero se acepta más extractivismo como intento para alcanzarla.

Una plataforma compartida para un concepto en construcción

Finalicemos reconociendo que en el mundo actual se comprende, paulatinamente, la inviabilidad global del estilo de vida dominante. Sus límites políticos, económicos, sociales y ambientales, se vuelven evidentes. La discusión debería dejar de centrarse en la validez de esas advertencias, para pasar a abordar la ponderación de las alternativas de salida.

Bajo ese grave contexto, el Buen Vivir, emerge desde sociedades marginadas históricamente, y se proyecta como una plataforma para discutir alternativas conceptuales, pero también respuestas concretas urgentes, a los problemas que el desarrollismo actual no resuelve. Es tanto una crítica al desarrollismo como un ensayo de alternativas. Es un cuestionamiento que abandona la idea convencional de desarrollo, y no intenta reformarlo. En cambio se lo quiere trascender.

El crecimiento material no es la única vía a la que debería darse necesariamente prioridad. A escala global, la concepción del crecimiento basado en inagotables recursos naturales y en un mercado capaz de absorber todo lo producido, no ha conducido ni va a conducir a las metas que promete del desarrollismo. Entretanto, ese recorrido está generando serios problemas sociales, como comunidades desplazadas o pobreza persistente, y un creciente deterioro ambiental, tanto a escalas locales (como sucede con la deforestación o erosión de suelos), como a escala planetaria (expresada en el cambio climático). El Buen Vivir se ha convertido en un fértil campo de construcción y análisis que permite abordar esta complejidad.

Con el Buen Vivir se ha renovado la crítica al desarrollo, pero se ha ido mucho más allá, ya que se quiere superar la idea convencional del progreso (en su deriva productivista) y del desarrollo (en tanto dirección única y lineal). Esto lo coloca más allá del “desarrollo sostenible”, en tanto se pone en cuestionamiento la idea de un “desarrollo” posible. Es por esto que este proceso de elaboración de propuestas, siempre que sean asumidas activamente por la sociedad y no se circunscriban a unos cuantos textos académicos, permiten proyectarse con fuerza en los debates que se desarrollan en el mundo.

Este concepto plural, en construcción, que cierra la puerta a las recetas y manuales, así como a los dogmatismos y a los comisarios políticos, es una plataforma de debate político en el camino de crear una libertad sustantiva y efectiva para todos y todas.

Referencias

Albó, X. 2009. Suma tamaña = el buen convivir. Revista Obets, Alicante, 4: 25-40.

Arrojo, P. 2010. El reto ético de la crisis global del agua, pp 281-328,  En Acosta, A. y Martínez, E. (comp.) “Agua – Un Derecho Humano fundamental”. Abya – Yala, Quito.

Dávalos, P. 2008. Reflexiones sobre el sumk kawsay (buen vivir) y las teorías del desarrollo. ALAI, Quito, Agosto 5. Disponible en: http://alainet.org/active/25617

Escobar, A. 2010. Una minga para el postdesarrollo – Lugar, medio ambiente y movimientos sociales en las transformaciones globales. Universidad de San Marcos, Lima, 2010.

Choque Q., M.E. 2006. La historia del movimiento indígena en la búsqueda del Suma Tamaña (Vivir Bien). International Expert Group Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals, Indigenous Participation and Good Governance. United Nations,New York.

Gudynas, E. y A. Acosta. 2011. arenovación de la crítica al desarrollo y el buen vivir como alternativa, por E. Gudynas y A. Acosta. Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana 16 (53): 71 – 83.

Gudynas, E. 2011a. Buen Vivir: germinando alternativas al desarrollo. América Latina en Movimiento, Quito, 46: 1-462.

Gudynas, E. 2011b. Buen Vivir: today’s tomorrow. Development, 54(4): 441–447.

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v54/n4/full/dev201186a.html

Huanacuni Mamani, F. 2010. Vivir Bien / Buen Vivir. Convenio A. Bello, Instituto Internacional de Investigación y CAOI,La Paz.

Macas, L. 2011. El sumak kawsay, pp 139-156, En: “Colonialismos del siglo XXI” (varios autores). Icaria y Entre Pueblos, Barcelona.

Naess, A. 1989. Ecology, community and lifestyle. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Quijano, A. 2000. El fantasma del desarrollo en América Latina, pp 11-27. En: A. Acosta (comp.), “El desarrollo en la globalización. El resto de América Latina”. Nueva Sociedad e ILDIS, Caracas.

Ramírez G., R. 2010. Socialismo del sumak kawsay o bio-socialismo republicano, en varios autores, Los nuevos retos de América Latina – Socialismo y sumak kawsay, SENPLADES, Quito.

Sachs, W. (ed.) 1992. The development dictionary, Zed Books, Londres.

Rist, G., 2002, The history of development, Zed Books, Londres.

Tortosa, J.M.  2008. Maldesarrollo inestable: un diagnóstico. Actuel Marx / Intervenciones, Universidad Bolivariana / LOM Ediciones, Santiago de Chile, 7: 121-138.

Unceta S., K. 2009. Desarrollo, subdesarrollo, maldesarrollo y postdesarrollo. Una mirada transdisciplinar sobre el debate y sus implicanciones. Carta Latinoamericana, CLAES, No 7: 1-34 http://www.cartalatinoamericana.com

Uzeda V., A. 2009. Suma qamaña. Visiones indígenas y desarrollo. Traspatios, CISO, UMSS, Cochabamba, 1: 33-51.

Yampara, S. 2001. Viaje del Jaqi ala Qamañan.Elhombre en el Vivir Bien, pp 45-50, En: “La comprensión indígena dela BuenaVida” (J. Medina, comp.). GTZ y Federación Asociación Municipales de Bolivia,La Paz.

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In this interesting comparison of sustainability in very different geographic and cultural settings—Long Island, New York versus the Chiloé archipelago, Chile—Vercoe and Brinkmann suggest that the societal framework for sustainability requires very different educational efforts.  Their in-depth analysis of how these societal frameworks are almost diametrically opposed opens us to understanding how important geography is to the way we formulate our educational goals and systems.

Introduction
The definition of sustainability, like many definitions, depends upon one’s viewpoint.  One’s experience and geographic setting heavily influence the way one sees the world.  In this paper, we examine sustainability from two distinct locations, a highly urbanized and suburbanized island setting in the global north, and a remote island archipelago in the global south.  Both locations have distinct cultural and geographic heritages.  Each provides an interesting way to explore the meaning of sustainability within our current era.  Our work suggests that sustainability is a highly fluid concept greatly dependent upon the cultural geography of a region in which the term is applied.  Thus, the term should be contextualized for geographic and cultural meaning when educators teach sustainability concepts.

A U.S View of Sustainability
In the global north, the concept of sustainability largely emerged out of the environmental movement of the 19th and 20th century.  With roots in the transcendental and romantic movement of writers like Thoreau (1854), environmentalists often note the start of environmentalism emerging from the debates of Muir and Pinchot over the use and management of public lands in the United States.  The root question was whether public lands should be set aside or if they should be used for the greater good of society or individuals.  This public/private debate over not only common lands, but also water, air, and other natural resources remains a key tension in American environmental policy.  In the middle of the 20th century, Aldo Leopold brought forward the idea of a land ethic to better contextualize the issues highlighted by Muir and Pinchot.  He argued in A Sand County Almanac (1949) that it was important for ethical frameworks to evolve around the protection of land in order to preserve nature for its inherent naturalness.

Shortly after the publication of Leopold’s ideas, Rachel Carson highlighted the emerging dangers of pollution in her book, Silent Spring (1962).  The book illuminated the dangers to ecosystems from industrial pollution, particularly pesticides.  Interestingly, industrial concerns tried to discredit her work and attacked her personally.  Nevertheless, Silent Spring ushered in a new era of environmental activism centered on pollution that led to the development of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and key laws, particularly the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.  These laws remain the foundation of much of the environmental policy rules in the United States and continue to be relevant.

By the 1980’s it was clear that the environment was a key theme in the emerging concerns over global economic development and social equity.  In 1984, the United Nations’ charged a commission, called the World Commission on Environment and Development, to develop a better understanding of development and sustainability issues on a global scale and to identify paths for solving identified problems.  The former prime minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, chaired the group.  The report of the commission, Our Common Future, often informally referred to as the Brundtland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), provides a key definition of sustainable development—development that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations—that remains in use today.  In addition, the report brought forward the idea that sustainability is not just about environmental protection, but also about sound economic development and social equity.  Emerging from this report is the idea that global sustainability goals need to be set and measured.  The U.N. Millennium Goals (United Nations Development Program, 2003), developed in 2000 in order to improve conditions in the poorest nations of the world, were heavily informed by the efforts of the commission.

The U.S. environmental movement was highly criticized up until this point as being largely focused on environmental protection without taking into account the needs of people living within communities.  However, nearly at the same time as the emergence of the Brundtland Report, Robert Bullard, an American sociology professor, began to publish works on racial inequalities associated with environmental burdens.  Specifically, his early work assessed the siting of hazardous waste disposal sites and the exposure of African Americans to a disproportionate amount of risk associated with them (Bullard, 1983).  Known as the father of the environmental justice movement, Bullard was a strong advocate for the development of policies that led to environmental equity.  As a result of Bullard’s work and that of others, the EPA has an office dedicated to environmental justice.

More recently, concerns about global climate change and associated greenhouse gases dominated much of the sustainability discourse in the United States (Brinkmann and Garren, 2011).  Because the U.S. government has largely been absent from any serious discussion about global climate change policy, many sustainability efforts have been made at the local and regional level that promote measuring and benchmarking sustainability indicators.  The U.S. Council of Mayors, for example, have a Climate Protection Agreement that over 500 mayors have signed that commits signatory cities to achieving greenhouse gas reduction levels to those agreed upon in the Kyoto Protocol.  Another organization, the Florida Green Building Coalition, certifies local governments as green if they reach a wide range of sustainability targets that include everything from water management, to public information (Upadhyay and Brinkmann, 2010).  Also, many businesses are embracing sustainability.  The late Ray Anderson, the founder of Interface Incorporated, a carpet manufacturing company, is largely credited with promoting sustainable business practices in the United States, although large organizations like Wal-Mart have had a profound impact on the development of more sustainable commercially available products (Anderson, 2009).  Unfortunately, due to a lack of national focus, many of the local and business sustainability efforts are uncoordinated. The lack of federal will on sustainability efforts is interesting from a cultural geography perspective because local regions in the United States have developed their own approaches to sustainable development and there are spatial differences and specialties that have emerged in recent decades.

Yet, in many ways, there is little that an enlightened American can do to make a significant difference in global climate change through daily normal activities.  There are millions of cars, hundreds of power plants, and thousands of sources of greenhouse gases.  To many, the problem is overwhelming and reflective of broader problems with our post-industrial society.  Thus, many have turned to what they can control—their food source.  Michael Pollan, in his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), highlights many of the problems associated with food in American culture.  We are eating heavily processed food that is part of an industrialized farming system.  As a result, we are fatter and less healthy than in previous modern generations.  The agricultural system that is in place is highly profit driven and there are concerns over the broader sustainability of the land and of agricultural communities.

Food as a Theme in the US Sustainability Movement
Many who are concerned with the current industrialized agricultural system have developed strategies to bypass this system in order to reconnect the eater with their food sources.  These include organic farming, community sponsored agriculture, community gardens, and farmers markets.  Organic farming is a federally regulated system of agriculture that requires farmers to use natural agriculture techniques and that forbids the use of manufactured fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and unnatural growth boosters such as hormones for animals.  While only 0.7 percent of the cropland and 0.5 percent of pastureland in the United States was dedicated to organic practices in 2008, the amount of land increased by 15% annually between 2002 and 2008 (USDA, 2011).  Plus, organic farms tend to be smaller and achieve greater yield than industrial agricultural farms.  Thus, the impact of this growth is a significant development in American agriculture.

Community sponsored agriculture (CSA) farms are subscription-based farms that provide fresh fruits and vegetables, and sometimes meat and fish, to subscribers.  Often the farms are small, intensively farmed organic operations that provide food during the growing season.  These farms are often located in the suburban fringes of cities and sometimes serve as centers for sustainable education and community events.  In 1990, the number of CSA’s was around 60.  By the end of the decade there were over 1000 (McFadden, 2011).  Currently, there are over 3000 and new ones are forming all of the time (Local Harvest, 2011).

Community gardens have also seen similar increases and there are now approximately 18,000 community gardens in the United States and Canada  (American Community Gardening Association, 2011).  Community gardens are shared plots of land, often in cities, where individuals or organizations can grow fruits and vegetables for seasonal production.  Food production is only one benefit of community gardening.  They also provide open space, opportunity to educate the public about food production, places for exercise, and opportunity to build community.  Also, according to the USDA (2011b), there were 1,755 farmers markets operating in the United States in 1994.  Today, there are 7,175.  One interesting adjunct of the community gardens movement is the growth of school gardens (Kitchen Gardens, 2011).  While school vegetable gardening has been around for decades, many schools have used the new interest in sustainability to teach children about food production, soil, water, and plant biology using vegetable gardens on school grounds.  This innovation, along with the growth of the other new approaches to agriculture, suggests that there is a shift in the culture around food in the United States that is part of the broader interest in sustainability.  The following section details how this shift is expressed culturally on Long Island, New York.

Food Sustainability on Long Island
Long Island, New York, here defined as the two-county (Nassau and Suffolk Counties) region of the island outside of New York City, consists of a variety of different types of land uses that are imprinted on an historical Native American and Colonial historic landscape.  While much of the area was agricultural up until the mid-20th century, areas of the island did have small urbanized nodes with historic significance.  However, the development of Hicksville and Levittown, arguably America’s first suburbs, changed Long Island forever.  The suburbs of Long Island were heavily influenced by the vision of Robert Moses who built a series of roadways that connected the suburbs with New York City.  The roadways allowed the suburbs to expand across the island and today, nearly 3 million people live in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.  Certainly most of the food is purchased in traditional grocery stores, but there are a number of food initiatives taking place on the island.

Slow Food and Agritourism.  Long Island is home to a number of famous restaurants and chefs.  The food celebrity, Ina Garten lives in the Hamptons in Suffolk County and the east end of the Island is known for its small farms, vineyards, and niche agricultural products.  Numerous restaurants, bed and breakfasts, shops, and markets in this area provide “local” food, slow food, and agricultural experiences for the suburban and urban individuals coming from the west.  This experience is important, and authentic in its own way.  However, the costs are high ($15.00 for a pie at a farm stand for example) and the access to enjoy these areas is limited to people who can afford this type of agritourism.  The costs are high, in part, due to the high costs of farming on the island.  The farms tend to be small and are threatened by the ever expanding suburbanization coming from New York.  Plus, land values are very high as the agricultural regions are the areas sought by those seeking weekend getaways and estates.  Such developments bring NIMBY types of conflicts because traditional types of agriculture, such as chicken or pig farming, is not always appreciated by newcomers who build million dollar homes next door.  Unfortunately, the farmers have no where else to expand and there is great concern over the ability of agriculture to continue on the island.  Nevertheless, Long Island is one of the top agricultural producers in the state of New York and it has a distinctive regional cuisine that includes fresh vegetables, fruits, and seafood.   Small farmers in the state recently started to meet annually at Long Island’s Small Farm Summit which seeks to promote small farming and sustainable agriculture on the island (Long Island Small Farm Summit, 2011).

Economic Development Planning.  In 2011, the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, instituted an economic development planning process that set a competition among ten regions of the state for investment of state resources.  Long Island was one of the ten regions.  The challenge was to create a plan that brought together a variety of interests in order to develop a way to improve employment.  The Long Island plan was unique in that organizers sought input from a variety of leaders in different economic sectors—including agriculture and fisheries (Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, 2011).  The plan includes a significant amount of detail about the importance of agritourism and sustainable agriculture and fisheries.  It focuses on building infrastructure to support the small farmers and new sustainable approaches to agriculture and fish and shellfish production.  This plan is one of the only ones in the nation that provides a clear vision for a suburban agricultural future that is clearly in line with sustainable food production, agricultural land preservation, and fisheries protection.  In the past, economic development focused much more on bringing industry to the region and on developing high paying and high-tech jobs.  While these themes are present and important within the Long Island plan, it must be stressed that the leaders of Long Island see a future for agriculture that is on par with other business activities and that has sustainability front and center.  Thus, in many ways, food sustainability has taken root as an equal partner with other business activities in the overall economic development of the region.

Farmers Markets, Community Gardens, and Community Sponsored Agriculture. As noted above, Long Island has a rich agricultural heritage that continues on the East End of the island.  However, most people in the older suburbs of the island do not have regular access to locally grown or raised food, except for that found on the shelves of their local grocery stores.  Sustainable Long Island, a local non-profit has worked on a variety of sustainability issues, including food sustainability.  They have mapped grocery store access and developed youth-run farmers markets that bring fresh food from the East End to underserved communities.

Long Island has also seen a great interest in community gardens (King-Cohen, 2011).  Many have sprung up in recent years and some of them are expanding.  Plus, the website, www.localharvest.com lists dozens of community sponsored farms not only on the East End of Long Island, but scattered through the suburban areas as well.   Farmers markets are also present in many communities on a weekly basis during the growing season.  They feature not only local fresh fruits and vegetables, but also prepared foods, baked goods, and seafood and locally butchered meats.  This is part of a national trend that saw only 1,755 farmers markets in 1994.  Today, there are 7,175.

Food as a Metaphor for American Sustainability
In some ways, Long Island’s approach to food sustainability is a metaphor for the broader issues with sustainability in the United States.  Many are working on food issues in the region through niche and organic agriculture, eco and agritourism, farmers markets, food accessibility, community sponsored agriculture, and community gardens.  Yet, while this unique market is growing, it remains relatively small.  Food sustainability, and sustainability in general is something that is not present within the mainstream of Long Island society, even though there are options all around.  There are large full parking lots around grocery stores during business hours, not around farmers markets or CSA’s.

Yet we want to have sustainable food sources.  Thus the presence of food sustainability options are comforting and well-known.  They are part of the culture, even though the majority of the population does not engage with them.  In many ways, this is similar to how the United States is approaching various aspects of sustainability.  We create options that enter part of the culture, but do not transform it.  Thus, we see hybrid and electric cars, but we do not change our relationship with transportation.  We see wind farms, but we do not see a strong energy or greenhouse gas policy.  We promote sustainable agriculture, but we continue to heavily subsidize the corporatized approach to agriculture that emerged in the last 40 years. Thus, the United States is currently schizophrenic in its approach to sustainability in that it supports through policy and tax dollars competing interests.  Some U.S. programs promote the tenets of sustainability (particularly protecting resources so that they are available for future generations), while some of them do not.

While this paper is in no way critical of the advent of sustainable approaches to agriculture on Long Island, it is important to consider it within the broader cultural ecology of the region.  Some seek to participate in the sustainable food production system as either producers or consumers.  Most, however, do not.  Most are passive observers.  This is the case with many broad sustainability initiatives in the US.  Traditional capitalistic approaches toward food and agricultural production make sustainability difficult to infuse into mainstream society because the costs of food produced through industrial-scale agriculture are low in this current era.  In many ways, those involved with sustainable food production are pioneers who are slowly diffusing the new technologies into a society highly divorced from the sources of their food.

Sustainability and Traditional Agriculture in Chile
Sustainability education must therefore include a discussion of the global contributions to biodiversity and agricultural heritage being made by traditional, rural communities in developing areas of the world both in the global south as well as the north.  An awareness of environmental sustainability depends upon the persistence of cultures as well species and varieties.  As Carl O. Sauer acutely pointed out almost half a century ago, cultivated plants are the living artifacts of culture’s intimate development with its environment (Sauer 1969).  If we are to learn, educate, and practice sustainable agriculture from the threatened diversity of environmental and cultural landscapes which currently predominate in the global north, and increasingly in the south, we  need to look to all regions and systems for insight and knowledge: past and present, traditional and modern, urban and rural, cultural as well as natural.

In contrast to the situation in Long Island, there are those in other parts of the world engaged in sustainable agriculture rooted in hundreds of years of tradition and practice.  Traditional agricultural areas are sources of heirloom biogenetic diversity, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and models for sustainable agriculture.   These human-environment systems balance the diverse influences of long-term human land-use and cultural practices with the dynamic processes of ecosystem diversity.   The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) identifies such systems as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) (FAO 2006).  GIAHS’s are described as systems that have resulted in the “maintenance and adaptation of globally significant agricultural biodiversity, indigenous knowledge systems and resilient ecosystems, but, above all, in the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security … these systems are linked to important centers of origin and diversity of domesticated plant and animal species, the in situ conservation of which is of great importance and global value.” (FAO 2008)  An agricultural heritage system, therefore, is a manifestation of a sustainably balanced, long-term, and intimate interaction between humans and their environment.  One of five pilot GIAHS sites identified by the FAO/ Global Environment Facility is the Chiloé region in southern Chile (FAO 2006).

The Chiloé archipelago consists of the Isla Grande and over 30 smaller islands form a protective barrier from the open Pacific Ocean to the west and the inner fjords where the Andes drop directly in to the sea to the east.  At 42º south latitude and exactly equal longitude, this coastal agricultural area could be considered a southern sister to Long Island.  However, there are some important differences of climate, culture, and history that qualify its own contributions to the discussion of sustainability in education.  The coastal temperate climate of the Chiloé region averages 50º F year-round with annual precipitation ranging from 6 feet on the western islands to over 20 feet in the temperate rainforests in interior fjords only 100 kilometers to the east (INTA 2001).  This region is home to the Chilote people, a unique mestizo hybrid formed from hundreds of years mixing between Spanish settlers and the indigenous Huilliche.  The Chilote have a strong cultural identity, renowned as sea-farers, wood craftsmen, and potato-farmers with a unique mythology blending pre-Columbian beliefs and practices with hundreds of years of Catholic traditions.  The 200-400 year-old wooden cathedrals throughout the Chiloé islands are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  The islands of Chiloé are one of the Vavilov centers of origin of crop diversity for the domestic potato.  Recent DNA studies have confirmed that more than 99% of the genetic material in most potato varieties currently produced in the world are directly descended from the Chilote potato (Solanum tuberosum) (Yao 2010).  Over 10,000 years of co-evolution with human livelihoods have resulted in 200 varieties (Solanum Tuberosum) (FAO 2006).  In recent years the largely sustainable subsistence lifestyle of the Chilote has come to be considered threatened by international resource extraction and development activities such as intensive logging of native forests and contamination of the seas due to industrial salmon aquaculture (FAO 2006).

Threats to sustainability in Chiloé
Chile has long been an exemplar of neoliberal economic development policies even being called the “Chilean miracle” by Milton Freedman (Oseland et al 2011).  With some of the highest economic growth rates in Latin America, much of Chile’s financial growth has come from the bounties of the land and sea provided by local labor.  One such example is that Chile has become the second largest producer of farmed salmon in the world with annual sales of over $2.4 billion USD.  Strikingly, 80% of the value comes from the Chiloé region (Terram 2008).  It has been argued however, that much of Chilean miracle has come at the cost of social equity and potentially irrecoverable loses to ecosystem health (Garretón 2001, Winn 2004, and Oseland et al 2011).  These industrial activities in the Chiloé region are having dramatic impacts on the traditional social equities long practiced by this agrarian-fishing culture, other traditional cultural practices, and the natural environment.  Chilote men and women that engaged in subsistence fishing, harvesting shellfish, and small-scale, self-supporting agriculture have “sold their lands, impoverished their families and developed undesirable habits (increased alcoholism), thus contributing to the loss of a distinctive culture in Chiloé” (Barrett et al 2002).  This is the issue of social sustainability that the Brundtland Report and initiatives such as the GIAHS seek to address in areas of critical cultural as well as agricultural diversity.

The Chiloé Perspective
The Chiloé Project, as proposed by the FAO within the GIAHS initiative, is intended to encourage global public recognition of Chiloé as a source of culture, traditional knowledge and genetic biodiversity, stimulate sustainable development in the area, and create social awareness, both globally and locally, of the importance of conserving biological and cultural diversity in the world (FAO 2008).  Local and regional supporting organizations are conducting educative workshops to maintain and transfer traditional knowledge and practices with in the communities.  Additional support is needed to store genetic material and seeds for future use, and aid in the development of alternative economic development activities that address poverty issues while maintaining the integrity of biodiversity in the ancient agricultural heritage system.  The conservation and continued sustainable management of these systems has been identified as an ecological/cultural resource of global significance that depends on the preservation of the local culture and traditional knowledge such as that held by the rural Chilotes.  This calls for what the FAO terms an “Eco-Cultural Landscape Perspective” whereby the harmony of humanity and the environment are understood within the context of the fragility of agro-diversity with challenges of poverty, climate change, urbanization, and globalization forces in rural communities (FAO 2011).

In many ways the Chiloé perspective provides an inverse view of the Long Island regional agricultural sustainability process.   The Chilote are largely still very connected to their food sources and, by the nature of their traditional practices, are practicing sustainable production.  Interestingly, it is not the arrival of industrial agriculture that threatens the continuance of this heritage agricultural system, but rather the social impacts of monetized labor structures required by global interests such as the salmon aquaculture industry that now rings the shores of the islands.  The relatively recent arrival of industrial practices such as salmon aquaculture has shifted the valuation of local labor from cooperative, subsistence practices to wage-labor schedules.  Previously self-supported fisher-farmer households are becoming dependent on third parties to earn a living in order to purchase their basic needs that they no longer have the time to produce themselves due to the industrial work schedule and migratory labor requirements (Barret etal, 2002).

The task for continued sustainability for Chilote agriculture lies in the re-visioning and re-valuing of subsistence agriculture and its place within the greater social and economic structures that are arriving on their shores and at the edges of their fields.  The acknowledgment of the importance of their heritage agricultural knowledge and practices that have provided essential food sources for these rural communities must not only come from the greater global community, but within the very households of Chiloé.  Without awareness and education regarding the trade-offs of un-mitigated engagement with global forces, this sustainable heritage system may become as cherished and limited as the farmscape of Long Island.

Two Sustainabilities and Implications for Teaching Sustainability
It is evident from the two case studies detailed above that there are two views of sustainability that emerge.  In suburban Long Island in the global north, sustainability is something that is being constructed in reaction to excess development and environmental degradation.  It the case of food, most of Long Island’s 3 million residents are not participating in the many options available to them to transform eating habits and concomitant planetary impact.  Instead, food sustainability remains a relatively expensive, and perhaps elite choice.  While sustainability options are available and largely cheered by the public, most do not engage.  Instead, most participate in a heavily industrialized and globalized food system.  In contrast, in Chiloé, residents and non-profits are seeking to maintain current conditions to continue sustainable practices.  They are seeking to limit or avoid the impacts of global food markets and neoliberal policies that promote commoditizing local natural resources to the detriment of social equity and the environment.

Thus, the idea of sustainability is clearly different in the two settings.  In one case, Quixotian efforts are being made to transform long-term trends of unsustainable practices and in the other, a society is seeking to maintain existing balances that have worked for generations.  So which sustainability do we teach?  While our example focused on food, the same conundrum exists for many other sustainability themes such as energy, building, water, and economic development.  Sustainability is an idea that has different meanings in different settings and to neglect this concept is to limit the theoretical breadth of the concept.  The growth of sustainability as a discipline in American schools, colleges, and universities suggests that an important transformation is taking place within the understanding of the relationship of the world’s population to the environment.  But it is significant to note that the cultural geography of places matter in the understanding and application of sustainability principles.  The example highlighted here demonstrates true differences between sustainability approaches in the global north and the global south that are not often part of the sustainability discourse.

References Cited

American Community Gardens Association (2011)  http://communitygarden.org/learn/training/growing-communities/index.php  Website accessed December 23.

Anderson, R. (2009).  Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose: Doing Business by Respecting the Earth.  St. Martin’s Press.

Barrett, G., M. I. Caniggia & L. Read (2002) “There are more vets than doctors in Chiloé”: Social and comunity impact of the globalization of aquaculture in Chile. World Development, 30, 1951-1965.

Brinkmann, R. and Garren, S. J. (2011)  Synthesis of climate change policy in judicial, executive and legislative branches of US Government.  Portal Journal of Mulitidioplinary International Studies. V. 8.  http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/portal/article/viewArticle/1717

Bullard, R.D. (1983).  Confronting Environmental Racism:  Voices from the Grassroots.  South End Press.

Carson, R.  (1962).  Silent Spring.  Houghton Mifflin.

Food and Agriculture Organization (2006) GIAHS:  Full Scale Project., ed. U. Nations. Rome.

— (2008) Conservation and Adaptive Management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS); Terminal Report., ed. U. Nations. Rome.

— 2011) Beijing Declaration: a Ten-point Charter to promote the dynamic conservation of Globally Important Agricultural Systems (GIAHS). ed. U. Nations. Crab Island, China: United Nations.

Garreton, M. A. (2001) Popular mobilization and the military regime in Chile:  the complexities of the invisible transition. In Power and popular protest:  Latin American social movements., ed. S. Eckstein. Berkeley, California.: University of California Press.

INTA (2001) Precipitaciones; Southern Cone of South America.

King-Cohen, S.E. (2011)  Community Gardens Sprout Across the Island.  Newsday April 15, 2011.

Kitchen Gardeners (2011)  http://kitchengardeners.org/blogs/rose-hayden-smith/brief-history-school-gardens Website accessed December 23, 2011.

Local Havest (2011) http://www.localharvest.org/csa/  Website accessed December 23, 2011.

Leopold, A.  (1949).  A Sand County Almanac.  Ballantine Books.

Long Island Regional Economic Development Council.  (2011)  Long Island’s Future Economy:  A New Beginning for Nassau and Suffolk Counties.  http://nyworks.ny.gov/themes/nyopenrc/rc-files/longisland/LongIslandsFutureEconomy.pdf  Website accessed December 23, 2011.

McFadden, S.  (2011) http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/0204/csa2/part2.shtml  Website accessed December 23, 2011.

Oselund, S. E., H. Haarstad & A. Floysand (2011) Labor agency and the importance of the national scale: Emergent aquaculture unionism in Chile. Political Geography.

Pinto, F. (2008) La Salmonicultura Bajo El Prisma De La Sustentabilidad. In Publicaciones Fundacion Terram. Santiago, Chile: Fundacion Terram.

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Jenny Finn reminds us that we all carry a full geography of internal landscapes, embodied in the simple act of breathing.  As we consider the deep and complex issues that entering learning about sustainability in the outer world, is it not essential, she asks, that we connect, profoundly through each breath we take, with those internal landscapes?

When we devote no time to the inner life, we become strangers in our own lives.

~ John O’Donohue

Every breath is a sacrament, an essential ritual.

~David Suzuki

When we think of landscape we often think of external geography; rolling hills, never-ending plains, tall pine trees rising towards the blue sky or the place where the ocean meets the jagged rocks. But there is another landscape that we are invited to consider in this human life, and it is the one that we cannot see; the landscape of the interior. As human beings we are given the gift of self-reflection, and through this gift, we are able to experience the depths of what it means to be human. Self-reflection is a choice, and like in any relationship, in order to learn from the interior life we must choose to pay attention to it. Turning towards the inner life is not easy. To traverse this inner territory takes great courage and discipline and a willingness to embrace the unknown. There are ultimately no maps, road signs or landmarks to help us on this exploration. As we descend more deeply into who we are, we might find ourselves in unknown, and even frightening, territory. For those of us who choose to embark on this inner journey, we need something to hold onto.  Amidst the wide-open spaces within, the breath is often the only constant we can find. The breath invites us to surrender and offers us an anchor to hold onto as we navigate the depths of ourselves.

Sustainability Education: Leading Forth From the Inside Out
Stephen Sterling (2001), in his book Sustainable Education: Revisioning Learning and Change, focuses on the importance of education as a primary agent for individual and collective change. He takes a holistic approach and writes that education today should educate the whole person, which includes the interior life of the individual. The interior is important when we are considering how we educate, and in mainstream curricular development, the inner landscape is often neglected. Classrooms today are not made for movement and teaching schedules are not made for creativity. We live in a world where data and testing overrules the inner geography of our children. Stephen Glazer (1999) in his book, The Heart of Learning: Spirituality in Education, speaks to this: “Education can serve as the core of a lifelong journey towards wholeness, rather than merely an accumulation of facts, figures or skills.” (p.3) To live into this transformative educational paradigm, we must be willing to experience the interior of our lives.

Nearly three years ago, I taught a class called Let it Shine in the public school system, where we used creative expression to build a sense of interconnectedness. In a second grade class, we explored our relationship to different emotional landscapes through movement and art process. In the middle of the class, students began to share stories of loss with each other. “I remember when my goldfish died.” “I was there when my grandmother died.” “My cat Oscar died last week.” Slowly, tears began to fall from their eyes, and in a few minutes, more than half of the class was sobbing. I knew that I had to get them back to math class in five minutes where they would be sitting at their desk with pencils in hand. I was panicked as I wondered how I was going to quietly transition these children down the hallway to math class. Needless to say, it did not happen. As the teacher scurried them back to their desks, I felt like a failure. The next day, when I met with the principal he said to me directly, “Though I fully support your program, the current educational system does not have the capacity to hold the emotions of these children.” I wanted to argue with him, but I knew that he was right.

The inner geography of our children is being left out of the learning process. With all that these children must “learn”, we just simply do not have the time for the landscape within. Parker Palmer, an advocate for holistic education writes, “Attention to the inner life is not romanticism. It involves the real world, and it is what is desperately needed in so many sectors of American education.” (Glazer, 1999, p. 16) Education can be a pathway to wholeness and a process by which interrelatedness is cultivated. But we must be brave and creative in reclaiming the inner landscape as an important aspect of this human journey. In order to respond to the brokenness of this world, it is the responsibility of sustainability education to address the whole person. The planet and its people need more than just facts and figures, as Glazer writes. We need a wholehearted response that includes not only the rational aspect of who we are, but the heart and soul too. Sustainability education is responsible for showing us the way and leading us forth into wholehearted living. But where do we start on this obscure and unmarked pathway inward? This is a journey that can overwhelm us to the point of apathy or overreaction. But we can simply go back to the basics, by starting with the very breath that breathes us—with the breath that our ancestors called sacred. The breath could be our starting point to a new way of educating and living in the world.

The Sacred Breath

We are breathed. We need not plan it or control it. The breath involuntarily moves in and out of our bodies without any effort on our part. Whether clenched in pain, sound asleep, or dancing in celebration, the breath keeps moving. In a culture of scheduling, planning and busyness, the breath itself reminds us that there is something that is out of our control; something bigger than our calendars and plans. Breathing is the invisible bridge that connects us to the human body where we experience our lives. The breath and the air we are immersed in is invisible, constant, interconnecting, hidden and mysterious- all words that we might use to describe a transpersonal or spiritual presence. Our ancient ancestors made this connection between the breath and the spirit as well. David Suzuki (2007) scientist and environmentalist writes, “the word “spirit” expands from its Latin source “spiritus” meaning “breath” or “air”, into so many other lively meanings- the soul, the animating principle, intelligence, emotional vigor, liveliness…each one in opposition to deadness or dullness. Our language knows better than we realize the vital nature of the air we breathe. It is the whirlwind and the breeze, a moving ocean of invisible forces in which we swim all the days of our lives, from our first gasp at birth to our last, slow exhalation at death. (p. 50-51)”

The ancients acknowledged the sacredness of the breath and honored how breathing connects us to ourselves and to what surrounds us. The word for spirit or soul in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Sanskrit all refer to breath or wind. We cannot live without the breath, and with the earthly degradation that we face, it seems that we have forgotten the resource that the breath truly is. Breathing not only keeps us alive, but allows us to thrive. The breath can teach us about the qualities that it embodies; qualities that we desperately need in relationship to ourselves, each other and the planet itself.

Teachings From the Invisible Landscape
The breath does not discriminate. The breath of life unifies and it tends towards diversity, not uniformity. The breath articulates itself in an infinite number of diverse ways, as every living thing occupies its own uniqueness. The breath breathes into all form and does not distinguish between a feathered friend, the color of one’s skin or how one chooses to live his or her life. It is everyone’s for the receiving. We experience this breath through the form of our own bodies or by witnessing it in the form of another; a flag blowing in the wind, the flickering of a flame, or the rise and fall of a person’s chest. Though the breath is universal, it is experienced differently. We all breathe to different capacities and take in varying amounts of this bountiful resource. The tree that stands in the middle of smog and pollution breathes differently than its neighbor in the forest. One who has suffered abuse at the hand of another breathes differently than one who hasn’t. Life itself shows us that what is universal births difference and is complex, organic and moving. When we forget the sacredness of the breath, we begin to see difference more starkly than we would if we were resourced by the universal breath. The breath is a resource for us to hold the tension between sameness and difference as neither needs to be overridden. Breathing naturally and gracefully holds both the diversity and unity of all life.

The breath pulses through this living planet. The tree breathes as does the squirrel that bounces from branch to branch. The mountain breathes as does the red scrub oak that grows on it. The wind blows through every living thing; those we know and do not know, those we like and do not like. The breath breathes in the winged creature trying to survive in the polluted waters off the coast and the pigeon that soars high up in the clean blue air. We breathe in the air that was breathed in by our ancestors; by the ancients whose scriptures we study and by those who have left the bodily form of this life. We breathe in the air of those who have not yet been born and when we do, we breathe in possibility and the unknown. The breath is not just a metaphor for interconnectedness, it is the invisible web that connects us to each other. The receiving of our own intimate and immediate breathe is not just a metaphor for life, it is life. We literally cannot live without it. We need the breath. We depend on it. And this very vulnerable truth can be so humbling that we often desperately avoid our humanity because of it.

The breath points the way to an invisible mystery breathing us into life. Not ultimately knowing the great mystery of life is humbling. John O’Donohue (1999) writes “ we endure the invisible by forgetting it- as long as we can…the invisible is one of the most powerful forms of the unknown. It envelops our every movement…there is no map with which to discern territories of the invisible. It is without texture. This is probably why we long to ignore the
invisible. There is a sense in which the invisible is the home of fear. We tend to be afraid of what we cannot see or know.” (p. 28) Our lives depend on the invisible air that surrounds us and fills us. We live within an atmosphere that is on average 7 miles high, and if we rise any higher than that, life cannot survive. The mystery of our breathing bodies is largely unknown and we are not ultimately in control of our precious human lives. We do not know and cannot describe the great invisibility from which we rise and die to. Rather than embracing this unknown, we tend to ignore it because the uncertainty can be too much to bare. The breath, in its ever-present generosity, can teach us how to surrender to the mystery that is this life. We can learn with the breath to receive the full range of the human experience. When we ignore the invisible, we ignore the patterns that connect us, the relationships within us and between forms. The breath can concretely teach us about the power of the invisible and how it connects us to each other and all living beings.

Taking the Breath for Granted
It is easy to take breathing for granted. We do not consciously control our breath. Suzuki (1997) writes “breathing is controlled by the oldest part of the brain stem, a relic that originated before the dawn of consciousness. Breathing is such a vital act that it has never given over to the control of the later arrival- the conscious brain.” (p. 54) Our breathing has nothing to do with our willing the breath to come forth. Even as you read these words on the page, rest one hand on your chest and feel it rise and fall as the air enters your body and leaves it. Respiration, in one form or another, belongs to all living creatures and exists ultimately as a mystery in our midst. We do not know where it begins or where it ends. The very fact that breathing is involuntary connects us to a time that was “before the dawn of consciousness,” before rational thought even existed. For human beings, who for centuries have followed philosophies and theologies that put the human species superior to all others, the ever-present and involuntary breath could bring us face-to-face with a deep sense of surrender and humility.

We might also take the breath for granted because the mechanics of breathing itself are hidden within the flesh and often what we cannot see we tend to forget. Mark Johnson (2007), a contemporary philosopher who has made significant contributions to both the fields of embodied philosophy and cognitive science writes “…the bodily processes hide, in order to make possible our fluid, automatic experiencing of the world.” (p. 5) He writes “the body does its marvelous work for the most part behind the scenes, so that we can focus on the objects of our desire and attention…we may survive and flourish precisely because our “recessive body” is going about its business.” (p.6) Because the vital processes of the body are hidden, the forgetting of our embodied existence is easier to understand. Drew Leder (1990), author of The Absent Body and a medical doctor and philosopher theorizes on why we might forget that we live in bodies, “It is the body’s own tendency towards self-concealment that allows for the possibility of its neglect and deprecation. Our organic basis can be easily forgotten due to the reticence of the visceral processes.” (p.69) Breathing, the most vital act of any living creature is hidden from our consciousness, so it takes some work to remember that breathing air is a precious, sustaining gift that if we pay attention to, might actually have something to teach us.

Finally, not only do we forget that our bodies breathe, but we can never touch or see the very air that we breathe. The air is invisible and is easy to forget. When we ignore this vital resource, we do so at our own expense and that of those around us. David Abram (1996), ecologist and philosopher writes that the air is “the medium through which we see all else in the present terrain. And this unseen enigma is the very mystery that enables life to live…it is that most intimate absence from whence the present presences and thus a key to the forgotten presence of the earth.” (p. 226) We do not realize that this air that we breathe not only connects us to our own embodied experiences, but those of others as we all breathe into this global commons of the atmosphere. We can also look to the ways in which we have treated this commons to see how we have forgotten its value and the sustaining presence that it is. Suzuki (1997) writes “air is not a national or a local resource but a global commons into which we contribute our wastes and from which draw air to fuel our bodies.” (p. 75) As we watch the levels of carbon dioxide rise beyond  levels that we humans can manage, it is clear that we have not taken care of what is absolutely necessary for life to thrive. Devaluing the air that surrounds us speaks to the high level of disembodiment that we humans live with. We cannot live without air, yet we dispose our waste into it readily at the expense of the health of all living creatures. It is difficult to understand how the human species, the greatest polluters of the air, could degrade a resource we most vitally need. Suzuki reminds us that “we need to acknowledge our responsibility to protect the air that we breathe” (p.79) and “once we have restored the breath of life to its rightful primacy- the first above all other human rights and responsibilities, the reference point from which all decisions flow- we can start to work in the long term to revive an ancient equilibrium.” (p.80) Life begins with the breath, so our relationship to air is fundamental to everything else.

From The Inside Out
Paying attention to the breath can bring us back into the body and all that lives within it. The inner journey paradoxically fosters relationship to the outer world.  When we traverse the inner life beginning with the breath, we find a sense of place in the body, and navigate the outer world with a greater sense of belonging and safety. When we come back to the earth of our bodies we return to the larger Earth body that we are intimately a part of. With great discipline and practice, the intimacy of this relationship between the inner life and outer world deepens so much so, that the boundaries between the two begin to blur. Unity and unique both come from the same Latin root unus, meaning one. When we take the journey into our own unique world within, our own singularity, we find unity with the world around us. We have the choice to breathe into this unique inner landscape that is experienced within the body. When we make the choice to turn inward, to know ourselves more deeply, we begin to awaken to the world around us in new ways. It is from this embodied and awakened place that reverence and care for all life is possible.

References
Abram, D. (1996) The spell of the sensuous. NY: Random House.

Glazer, S. (1999) The heart of learning: Spirituality in education. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Books.

Johnson, M. (2007) The meaning of the body. The University of Chicago Press.

Leder, D. (1990) The absent body. The University of Chicago Press.

O’Donohue, J. (1999) Eternal echoes: Exploring our yearning to belong. NY: Harper Collins.

Sterling, S. (2001) Sustainable education: Re-visioning learning and change. Devon, England: Greenbooks.

Suzuki, D. (1990) The sacred balance: Rediscovering our place in nature. Vancouver, BC: Greystone
Books.

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In this comprehensive review, Kenneth Young gives a robust and sweeping analysis of how global climate change might affect landscapes in the global South.  His unique emphasis on including the human element, within both a current societal and historical-political framework—provides a hefty morsal of food for thought regarding the multiple and complex ways in which real cultural and natural landccapes will respond to global warming.

Abstract:

Drivers of change may force land use systems over thresholds, with strong influences on migration, land tenure, public health, and sustainability goals. Global change tends to exacerbate existing inequalities and asymmetries. Some of these imbalances are due to historical and postcolonial legacies of previous extractive systems designed for the removal of natural resources. Some are due to innate asymmetries in how biological and ecological diversity is distributed in the world. As a result, there is much need for geographical research on the spatial consequences of how biophysical change is coupled to socioeconomic and political processes. Similarly, sustainable use requires sensitivity to environmental and social disparities and injustices.

Introduction

Directional change in climate regimes may lead to tipping points, which would shift climate in particular places and their associated land use/land cover systems into new configurations. These regime shifts in turn could change the sustainability of land use, the vulnerabilities of families and communities, and the governance of natural resources. As a result, for many places and situations the criteria used to evaluate long-term sustainability, exposure to risk, and institutional structures must be reconsidered and recrafted. Knowledge of place-to-place differences in livelihood strategies, biophysical constraints, and landscape effects of global change will be crucial.

Land use systems that connect the forests, grasslands, farmlands, and water bodies of the world to agricultural and resource extraction systems are best evaluated from a coupled systems approach (Liu et al., 2007), which accommodates both independent and linked changes in biophysical and social factors. In relation to global environmental change and coupled systems, Adger et al. (2009) points out that couplings can be helpfully conceptualized as networks and in regards to their interconnectedness, and also as hierarchies and in relation to their nestedness. If so, then there are then implications for the ways that vulnerability can be transferred or experienced as their linkages and causal relationships will differ. Adger et al. (2009) also suggest that globalization acts through the integration of global markets that connect once separated places and economic sectors through what they label as “teleconnections”. The case studies they evaluate from this framework include emerging diseases (see also Jones et al., 2008) and commodities such as coffee (e.g., Ponette, 2007). This article continues this interrogation by examining implications of considering the directional shifts imposed by global climate change.

Humanized landscapes where many people live in the developing countries of the Global South are affected by global fluxes, but adaptive responses may be constrained by national and local pressures or resources (e.g., Greenough & Tsing, 2003; Silva et al., 2010). Geographers and researchers from cognate disciplines have pointed to the challenges that come from globalization (Dalby, 2007; Herod, 2009). The spatial and power asymmetries involved are discussed in this article in reference first to the biophysical template, then in relation to postcolonial structures and legacies, and finally focusing on implications for environmental governance.

Global Asymmetries: Now and in the Future

Williams et al. (2007) predicted massive changes in the location of biomes under likely future climate scenarios. The high and the low latitudes will have the largest qualitative and quantitative alterations. What was startling, however, was their demonstration that many future changes would move landscapes, ecosystems, and vegetation types into novel configurations, with non-analog biotic communities resulting that have no counterparts under current conditions and that in some cases have not existed on Earth for many millennia, if ever. Disturbance regimes will change, with consequences for landscapes shaped by fire or other perturbations (Krawchuk et al., 2009) and for possible feedbacks causing further climate change due to biomass burning by people.  The future distributions of species and particularly of invasive species will be hard to map; it will be particularly difficult to predict range shifts when climate change produces novel conditions, and when they are associated with disease (McClintock et al., 2010). Novel biophysical conditions in turn will create new land covers, with profound implications for land uses such as farming, gardening, and the raising of livestock (e.g., Figure 1), or the harvesting of timber and other fibers (e.g., Figure 2).

The atmosphere of the low latitudes receives the majority of the planet’s solar energy. The circulation systems of the Earth’s air and oceans act to move that energy through temperature and moisture towards higher latitudes. This fundamental physical asymmetry (e.g., Cruz et al., 2009; Garcia & Kayano, 2009) puts the bulk of the planet’s incoming solar energy to work in the tropics, setting up huge and shifting intertropical convergences of surface winds, lifting air parcels to more than 40 km heights, and creating some of the world’s wettest environments (Bush & Flenley, 2007). On the margins of the northerly and southerly extents of the Intertropical Convergence Zone are located dryland and arid landscapes, which are exposed to clear skies when air masses subside and seasonal rainfall at other times of the year. Future climate change will especially alter precipitation and seasonal anomalies (Tan et al., 2008), affecting the locations of the subtropical and tropical climate regimes and biomes.

The couplings of these global-scale atmospheric and energetic processes to terrestrial ecosystems appear to be behind the well-known high diversity of both species and ecological conditions at lower latitudes (Willig et al., 2003). There tend to be many plant and animal species where rainfall and/or available energy are high (Hawkins et al., 2003). In addition, the dry-to-wet environmental

Figure 1. Andean agricultural landscape in north-central Peru. Visible are plantings of wheat, broad bean, and alfalfa, plus fallowed fields and eucalypt stands amid small settlements. Farmers can adapt to changing biophysical conditions in such landscapes by altering their farming practices through the use of different crop mixtures and varieties, by shifting the locations of actively farmed fields, by raising livestock, or by increased wage labor or out-migration.

Figure 2. Local people harvesting grasses from the margins of the Okavango Delta (Botswana) for roof thatch and other building and handicraft needs. The sustainability of the extraction depends on environmental fluctuations (e.g., timing and height of floods) and access rules for other community members who also need to collect thatch, all of which will likely change in the future due to climatic and economic drivers.

Gradients that stretch from the tropics to the subtropics permit many different ecosystem types and species to be present over relatively short horizontal distances. Tropical mountains in turn pack much biological change into short vertical distances with changes in elevation on steep slopes. Frequently, additional asymmetry in biodiversity has been noted, arising from the northern hemisphere’s steeper declines in biological diversity with increasing latitude than is true for lands in the southern hemisphere (Chown et al., 2004). The islands of the tropics are highly altered by people and have the most unique, endemic species, many threatened by extinction (Fordham & Brook, 2010).

The tropics of the Global South are hence biologically diverse (Young, 2011), with a propensity for special vulnerabilities to the effects of global change (e.g., Sommer et al., 2010). Global climate change will alter plant growth, biome locations, carbon storage, and available energy (Field et al., 2007), often with an increase in the dominance of woody plants (Asner et al., 2004) and more asymmetry in precipitation (Chou and Tu, 2008).

In recent research, Zhao & Running (2010) examined worldwide terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) for the time period from 2000 to 2009, showing a slight global decline in productivity, with substantial inter-hemispheric asymmetry. The southern hemisphere, especially as controlled by the tropics and subtropics of South America, southern Africa, southeast Asia, and Australia, had important declines in NPP, triggered by droughts in 2002, 2005, and 2007. In turn, the northern hemisphere actually showed an increase in NPP. One of the expectations for future global change is an increase in plant photosynthesis, given sufficient available soil moisture; this study suggests that based on trends seen now since 1982 (cf. Nemani et al., 2003), planetary-scale change is already occurring and differentially increasing stresses in the Global South.  In turn, the humanized landscapes used for settlements and agriculture will operate under novel ecological settings.

Postcolonial Landscapes: Legacy Effects

There are also important fundamental asymmetries in the social, economic, and political couplings that connect humans and land use to the biophysical systems of the Global South. Many of those areas were colonized by European nations, and their infrastructure systems and settlements show historical legacies of previous extractive systems for natural resources (Grove, 1985; Sluyter, 1999; Howe, 2010).

For example, Bush & Silman (2007) suggested that current data show land use intensity and associated deforestation and alterations to soil chemistry (e.g., Lehmann et al., 2003) were concentrated in places in the New World tropics that could support relatively large and dense populations before European contact. These tended to be sites adjacent to large rivers (Denevan, 1996), in seasonally dry forests (Whitmore and Turner, 2001), and in the highlands (Denevan, 2001). Most other neotropical sites would have had sparse human populations, a condition exacerbated by widespread demographic crashes after exposure to Old World diseases (Crosby, 1972) and only recently reversing with planned infrastructure development and planned and spontaneous colonization and deforestation of humid tropical forests (Rudel, 2005).

World history can be rethought in relation to the spatial implications of colonization, exploitation of natural resources, poor health conditions, and economic development (e.g., Klepeis & Turner, 2001; Harvey, 2003; Coatsworth, 2008; Butlin, 2009; Majumder, 2010). Forward looking analyses may overlook these complexities, overly simplifying the history of globalization (Heine & Thakur, 2011). Redclift (2006) uses a more complete approach, tracing through implications of European settlement, economic integration, and land cover changes with case examples from landscapes in Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, and Spain.

Liverman (2009) elucidated another structural asymmetry, in this case socioeconomic and political in character, with historical precedents of “southern” countries being exploited for the benefit of “northern” countries. She suggested that carbon markets in a world affected by climate change would reinforce those historical and current disparities, with developing countries penalized both for carbon dioxide release during the production of goods for export to developed countries and by greenhouse gases created by land cover changes occurring with the conversion of lands for agriculture and for settlements.

Saul et al. (2003) summarized land cover change in Burkina Faso in relation to colonial policies and postcolonial shifts in development goals. More intensive land use is shown to be due to an expansion of commercial agriculture rather than to population growth. Because much land use change has increased size of areas in tree crops, deforestation as such is not a primary environmental concern. The human dimensions of these kinds of landscape transitions are still not included in conceptual models of how regimes shifts take place, however. For example, this oversight can be seen in the recent study of Hirota et al. (2011) that only uses rainfall as the underlying driver of change for forest/savanna/grassland shifts, ignoring the role(s) of humans.

It is not difficult to identify other ongoing change processes that would increase inequality among pastoralists (Kristjanson et al., 2007; Mulder et al., 2010), and for other people faced by development for mining (Horowitz, 2009), by side effects from the control of poaching (Neumann, 2004) and the conservation of tropical biodiversity (Rodriguez et al., 2007), and in the aftermaths of natural disasters (Carey, 2005; Pelling & Dill, 2010) or as threatened by health concerns (Patz et al., 2005). Landscape change will often be both symptom and consequence of global drivers.

Environmental Governance under Directional Change

Dramatic changes in coupled socio-ecological systems may occur quickly, with systems flipping from one relatively stable regime to another (Hastings & Wysham, 2010; Staver et al., 2011). These kinds of changes are hard to predict, especially as they may result as a consequence of slow directional changes in biophysical conditions. This means that environmental perceptions and the capacity of people to respond are both critical considerations. For example, Schneider et al. (2000) pointed out that farmers exposed to the effects of climate change will adapt in quite heterogeneous ways, in part because of variation in how they were able to detect such influences and then alter farming practices. It is crucial to acquire additional information on this kind of individual variation in order to predict adaptive capacities of households, villages, and regions.

Schlenker & Roberts (2009) used crop models to suggest a likely nonlinear effect of temperature on future yields; that is, some harvests are predicted to increase with warming temperature, but would be followed by drastic declines in yields when critical temperature regimes are exceeded. Wang et al. (2009) used economic experiments and game models to show that heterogeneity of preferences in decision making about resource use collectively creates stable conditions interrupted by unpredictable shifts in regime mode. Simulation modeling suggests that massive reforestation projects in deforested areas of the tropics would be effective at mitigating warming feedbacks, while this would not be the case for the middle and high latitudes (Bala et al., 2007). All of these are examples of research approaches using different kinds of modeling to evaluate the ranges of social and ecological responses to directional change.

Espinosa (2009) used empirical observations and interviews to evaluate decision making in semi-arid coastal Peru by families without irrigation and hence dependent upon goat herding for their livelihoods. She showed that people with better access to formal education and/or experience as migrants had larger herds and more diverse income sources. These would be elements leading to better household economic and health conditions. However, the perverse influence of the market in this case was to keep low the values of the goats and their products, limiting the local development possible. Most families are “adapting,” not by increasing their use of these dry forest landscapes, but by the out-migration of their youth. This example also shows how external drivers are acting upon traditional land use systems in novel ways.

Chapin et al. (2006) used examples from high latitudes to show that directional climate change will affect coupled subsystems differentially, with for example soil nitrate levels, herbivore populations, and community incomes responding relatively quickly, but with soil properties, natural disturbance regimes, and land tenure, all much slower to change. The interactions will put land use systems under stress in complex ways, making human vulnerability, resilience, and transformability all issues of concern. Similar examples from the lower latitudes of the Global South would include the need for new institutions for dealing with river basin management (Engle & Lemos, 2010), land rights (Escobar, 2001), reforestation and deforestation (Betts et al., 2008), carbon politics (Lahsen, 2009), the new biogeographies of diseases (Peterson, 2008), and remaking agriculture (Foley et al., 2011). Environmental governance will require adaptive approaches cognizant of coupled shifts in socio-ecological systems (Chapin et al., 2009).

Conclusions

Global change causes disparate shifts in the coupled natural-human systems associated with land use in landscapes in the Global South. There are inherent asymmetries in the ways that alterations in atmospheric composition and dynamics affect biodiversity and biophysical constraints on farming, grazing, and resource extraction (Young, 2007, 2009).

In addition, the ways that land use decisions are shaped by the globalization of economic and information flows are also fundamentally asymmetrical. The land cover changes made by farmers and pastoralists of the Global South would have only a small additional contribution to environmental change at a planetary scale. In turn, the biophysical and socioeconomic drivers that force rural land use systems over thresholds will have severe contingent influences on millions of individuals and their families.        Globalization synergizes with some of the coupled natural-human linkages that increase inequalities in general (Darby, 2004; Leichenko & O’Brien, 2008; Parks & Roberts, 2010) and could further heighten asymmetrical power/economic relations in particular. Examples include uneven development and geopolitical conflict (Saull, 2005; Sioh, 2010), the degree of local control over water supplies (Bakker, 2007), activity of the biotechnology sector (Frew, 2009), and women’s health concerns (Jagger, 2002). At the same time, each of these sociopolitical issues can be addressed or resolved in ways that help and empower local people.

Livelihoods of rural smallholders may be adaptable to future changes if not unduly constrained by legal, economic, and practical limitations on shifting the location and mode of production. Continued future shifts in drivers of change, however, may well force land use systems over thresholds, with strong influences on migration, land tenure, and public health. The rural sites where small-scale agriculture will become more marginalized could act as sources of environmental refugees, with people moving to urban-fringe settlements.  As a result, global climate change will tend to exacerbate existing inequalities and asymmetries, at local, regional, and national levels, with multiple effects on livelihoods, health, and their interrelations.

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In this deeply cohesive and fundamentally geographic argument, Helena Norberg-Hodge brings an impressive array of sustainability issues under a single guiding rubric for educating and changing society—the need for a shift from globalised systems to local practice.  While every point in her argument is backed with interesting details—including her fascinating experiences with the Himalayan Ladakhi people—she is consistent in bringing us back to valuing localisation and yet measured in her prescription which calls for gradual shifts, not radical and potentially harmful jumps, towards localisation.

Introduction

Despite the fact that almost every news item today brings information about the seeming endless list of crises, there is hope that we have the power to turn things around.  In recent years, more and more people are waking up to the root causes behind our problems—from global warming and species extinction to fundamentalism and fear.  If we stand back and look at the bigger picture, we will see that all these crises are connected to the globalised economy.  Although it may initially be difficult to perceive, the economic system underpins almost every aspect of our lives today—from our jobs to the food we eat, the state of the environment to the state of education, politics to health.

Our system of education, scientific research and the development of new technologies have all been shaped by a fossil fuel-dependent global economic model.  Economic globalisation, with its massive, centralised system of production and distribution, is transforming unique individuals into mass consumers, and homogenising diverse cultural traditions around the world.  It is destroying wilderness and biodiversity, and creating an expanding stream of waste that the biosphere simply cannot absorb.  It is widening the gap between rich and poor worldwide, and leading to increased levels of crime and violence.  In the name of ‘growth’ and ‘efficiency’, it is dividing us from each other and from the natural world on which we ultimately depend.

Despite the apparent enormity of the task of making changes to our economic system, isolating this root cause can actually be very empowering.  Rather than confront an overwhelming list of seemingly isolated symptoms, we can begin to discern the disease itself.  Just as importantly, the outline of a cure starts to take shape as well.  Localisation is a positive and realistic alternative to economic globalisation.  Along with many others, I believe it is the best way to ensure our future wellbeing and that of the planet.  One of the key steps to localising our economies is rebuilding local knowledge.  It is an antidote to the global monoculture and the foundation of healthy, happy individuals and communities.

Globalised Knowledge

Today’s global economy is based primarily on abstract knowledge, divorced from our natural and cultural surroundings.  It has allowed us to build a system of production and consumption that is entirely incompatible with natural ecosystems.  It has increased our sense of being separate and distant from each other.  We get news from Iraq, Japan or Washington, D.C.; at the touch of a button on a TV remote control, we have access to all the wildlife of Africa, and our immediate surroundings consequently seem dull and uninteresting by comparison.  But this knowledge is made up of flat abstractions.  It is not the sort of intimate knowledge gained through face to face interaction.  People and places are reduced to abstract, simplistic concepts.  In this way, the globalised media enables us to build up false generalisations of people from different cultures, thereby breeding prejudice, racism and fear.

The global economy has built a monoculture of ideas and consumer goods and is foisting them on people in every corner of the world.   Nearly everywhere you go in the world today, you will find multi-lane highways, concrete cities and a cultural landscape featuring grey business suits, fast-food chains, Hollywood films and cellular phones. In the remotest corners of the planet, Barbie, Madonna and the Coke can are familiar icons. From Cleveland to Cairo to Caracas, CSI:Miami is entertainment and CNN is news.  As a result, villages, rural communities and their cultural traditions are being destroyed on an unprecedented scale by the impact of globalising market forces. Communities that have sustained themselves for hundreds of years are simply disintegrating.

Conventional ‘development’ brings tourism, Western films and products and, more recently, satellite television to the remotest corners of the Earth.  All provide overwhelming impressions of luxury and power.  Advertising and action films give the impression that everyone in the west is rich, beautiful and brave, and leads a life filled with excitement and glamour.  In the commercial mass culture which fuels this illusion, advertisers make it clear that Westernised fashion accessories equal sophistication. In diverse ‘developing’ nations around the world, people are induced to meet their needs not through their community or local economy, but by trying to buy in to the global market.

Even more damagingly, people are encouraged to reject their own ethnic and racial characteristics – to feel shame about who they are. Around the world, blonde-haired blue-eyed Barbie dolls and thin-as-a-rake ‘cover girls’ set the standard for women.  The one-dimensional, fantasy view of modern life promoted by the Western media, television and business becomes a slap in the face for young people in the ‘Third World.’ Teenagers, in particular, are made to feel stupid and ashamed of their traditions and their origins. The people they learn to admire and respect on television are all ‘sophisticated’ city dwellers with fast cars, designer clothes, spotlessly clean hands and shiny white teeth. Yet they find their parents asking them to choose a way of life that involves working in the fields and getting their hands dirty for little or no money, and certainly no glamour.  It is hardly surprising, then, that many choose to abandon the old ways of their parents for the siren song of a Western material paradise.

Learning from Ladakh

My experience in Ladakh has been a vivid, if painful, example of this destructive process at work.  Ladakh is a remote, region in the Himalayas.  Politically part of India, it shares more cultural similarities to Tibet.  When I first arrived, over 35 years ago, the vast majority of Ladakhis were self-supporting farmers, living in small, scattered settlements in the high desert. Though natural resources were scarce and hard to obtain, the Ladakhis had a remarkably high standard of living – with beautiful art, architecture and jewellery. They worked at a gentle pace and enjoyed a degree of leisure unknown to most people in the West. Most Ladakhis only really worked for four months of the year, and poverty was an alien concept.

During my time in Ladakh it became clear to me that this traditional nature-based society was far more sustainable, both socially and environmentally than the Western consumer society I had been living in.  The old culture fulfilled fundamental human needs while respecting natural limits.  The various connecting relationships in the traditional system were mutually reinforcing, encouraging harmony and stability.  Most importantly, I am convinced that Ladakhis were significantly happier before the arrival of western-style development in the mid-1970s than they are today.

To integrate Ladakh into the Indian, therefore global economy, the government built a paved road into the area.  Suddenly, Ladakhis were subject to an avalanche of imported goods, Western media and propaganda extolling the virtues of everything from DDT to Jersey cows to hydroelectric dams. “Development” also brought westernised education.  Now, instead of spending the growing season alongside the rest of their community, children were separated into age groups and forced to sit inside learning times tables.

No one can deny the value of real education, that is, the widening and enrichment of knowledge. But today education has become something quite different. It isolates children from their culture and from nature, training them instead to become narrow specialists in a Westernised urban environment. In Ladakh, modern schooling acts almost as a blindfold, preventing children from seeing the context in which they live. They leave school unable to use their own resources, unable to function in their own world.

For generation after generation, Ladakhis grew up learning how to provide themselves with clothing and shelter; how to make shoes out of yak skin and robes from the wool of sheep; how to build houses out of mud and stone. Children were given an intuitive awareness that allowed them, as they grew older, to use resources in an effective and sustainable way.  None of that knowledge is provided in the modern school. Children are trained to become specialists in a technological, rather than an ecological, society. School is a place to forget traditional skills and, worse, to look down on them.

The basic curriculum is a poor imitation of that taught in other parts of India, which itself is an imitation of British education. There is almost nothing Ladakhi about it.  Once, while visiting a classroom in Leh, I saw a drawing in a textbook of a child’s bedroom that could have been in London or New York.  It showed a pile of neatly folded handkerchiefs on a four-poster bed and gave instructions as to which drawer of the vanity unit to keep them in.  For homework, one of my young friends was supposed to figure out the angle of incidence that The Leaning Tower of Pisa makes with the ground. Another time she was struggling with an English translation of the Iliad.

With the exception of religious training in the monasteries, the traditional culture had no separate process called “education.” Education was the product of an intimate relationship with the community and its environment. Children learned from grandparents, family, and friends. Helping with the sowing, for instance, they would learn that on one side of the village it was a little warmer, on the other side a little colder. From their own experience children would come to distinguish between different strains of barley and the specific growing conditions each strain preferred. They learned to recognise even the tiniest wild plant and how to use it, and how to pick out a particular animal on a faraway mountain slope. They learned about connections, process, and change, about the intricate web of fluctuating relationships in the natural world around them.

The importance of experiential knowledge is evident in the Ladakhi language itself.  Compared with any Western language that I know, Ladakhi seems to put a greater emphasis on relativity. The language obliges one to express more of the context of what one is trying to say. Most strikingly, the verb to be has more than twenty variations, depending on the specifics of the situation—in particular, on the relative intimacy of both the speaker and the listener with the subject matter. Unlike Westerners, Ladakhis never express themselves with certitude about something they have not experienced. Any event in which they have not personally participated will be described using verbs that reflect the limitations of their knowledge.

In every corner of the world today, the process called ‘education’ is based on the same assumptions and the same Eurocentric model. The focus is on faraway facts and figures, a supposed universal knowledge. The books propagate information that is meant to be appropriate for the entire planet. But since only a kind of knowledge that is far removed from specific ecosystems and cultures can be universally applicable, what children learn is essentially synthetic, divorced from the living context.  If they go on to higher education, they may learn about building houses, but these houses will be of concrete and steel, the universal box.  So too, if they study agriculture, they will learn about industrial farming: chemical fertilisers and pesticides, large machinery and hybrid seeds.

In Ladakh, modern education not only ignores local resources, but, worse still, makes children think of themselves and their culture as inferior. They are robbed of their self-esteem. Everything in school promotes the Western model and, as a direct consequence, makes them ashamed of their own traditions.  Education pulls people away from agriculture into the city, where they become dependent on the money economy. In traditional Ladakh there was no such thing as unemployment. But in the modern sector there is now intense competition for a very limited number of paying jobs, principally in the government. As a result, unemployment is already a serious problem.

Modern education has brought obvious benefits, like improvements in the rate of literacy and numeracy. It has also enabled the Ladakhis to be more informed about the forces at play in the world outside.  However, it has divided Ladakhis from each other and the land and put them on the lowest rung of the global economic ladder.

The Western educational system is making us all poorer by teaching people around the world to use the same resources, ignoring those of their own environment.  In this way education is creating artificial scarcity and inducing competition.  It gives most of us the knowledge useful only for becoming anonymous producers and consumers in the globalised economy, where jobs are limited.  Basic local knowledge, such as how to build your own shelter or grow your own food—skills that have ensured the survival of humans for millennia—have become the domain of specialists.

Eroding cultural integrity and self-esteem

The main agents of conventional development—education, tourism and media—combine in an almost unstoppable force that dissolves cultural integrity and individual self-esteem.  As they lose the sense of security and identity that springs from deep, long-lasting connections to people and place, the Ladakhis are starting to develop doubts about who they are. The images they get from outside tell them to be different, to own more, to buy more and to thus be ‘better’ than they are. The previously strong, outgoing women of Ladakh have been replaced by a new generation – unsure of themselves and desperately concerned with their appearance. And as their desire to be ‘modern’  grows, Ladakhis are turning their backs on their traditional culture. I have seen Ladakhis wearing wristwatches they cannot read. Even traditional foods are no longer a source of pride; now, when I’m a guest in a Ladakhi village, people apologise if they serve the traditional roasted barley, ngamphe, instead of instant noodles.

Ironically, then, modernisation – so often associated with the triumph of individualism – has produced a loss of individuality and a growing sense of personal insecurity. As people become self-conscious and insecure, they feel pressured to conform, and to live up to an idealised image. By contrast, in the traditional village, where everyone wore essentially the same clothes and looked the same to the casual observer, there was more freedom to relax. As part of a close-knit community, people felt secure enough to be themselves.

In Ladakh, as elsewhere, the breaking of local cultural, economic and political ties isolates people from their locality and from each other. At the same time, life speeds up and mobility increases – making even familiar relationships more superficial and brief. Competition for scarce jobs and political representation within the new centralised structures increasingly divides people. Ethnic and religious differences began to take on a political dimension, causing bitterness and enmity on a scale hitherto unknown. With a desperate irony, the monoculture creates divisions that previously did not exist.

As the fabric of local interdependence fragments, so do traditional levels of tolerance and co-operation. In villages near the capital, disputes and acrimony within previously close-knit communities, and even within families, are increasing. I have even seen heated arguments over the allocation of irrigation water, a procedure that had previously been managed smoothly within a co-operative framework. The rise in this kind of new rivalry is one of the most painful divisions that I have seen in Ladakh. Within a few years, growing competition had actually culminated in violence – and this in a place where, previously, there had been no group conflict in living memory.  Ladakh is not an isolated example.  Wherever I go in the world, people from “developing” nations tell me that the same process is happening in their own communities.

The impacts of the global monoculture on our wellbeing are equally apparent in Western countries.  The number of people suffering from depression has reach record levels in Western countries.   And, it is not only adults who are affected.  An estimated five million American children are being given at least one psychiatric drug.  This disturbing trend is growing rapidly. The number of children ages 2-4 for whom stimulant and anti-depressant drugs have been prescribed increased 50 percent between 1991 and 1995. In the following four years, prescriptions for anti-depression drugs rose even more steeply, climbing 151 percent for children in the 7-12 age group, and 580 percent for children six and under.

The number of pre-pubescent children with eating disorders is on the rise, with girls as young as four showing signs of anorexia. Cosmetic surgery, another symptom of insecurity and poor self-image, is also on the increase, with the number of teen-age girls having their breasts augmented quadrupling, and liposuction procedures tripling, in just the past five years.  Violence is also on the rise.  In the last decade there have been more than thirty school shootings in the US. The youngest killer was a six-year old boy.

As corporations scour the world for bigger subsidies and lower costs, jobs move with them, and families as well: the typical American moves eleven times during their life, constantly severing connections between relatives, neighbours and friends.  Within almost every family, the economic pressures on parents systematically rob them of time with even their own children. Americans put in longer hours at work than people in any other industrialised country, and the trend is ever upward.  As a consequence more and more young children are relegated to the care of strangers in crowded day-care centres. Older children are often left in the company of violent video games or the corporate sponsors of their favourite television shows. Time spent in nature – fundamentally important to our psychological well being – is increasingly rare.

Globalisation and the spreading consumer culture thus work to displace the flesh-and-blood role models – parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbours – that children once looked up to, replacing them with media and advertising images: rakish movie and rock stars, steroid-enhanced athletes and airbrushed supermodels. Children who strive to emulate these manufactured ‘perfect’ idols are left feeling insecure and inadequate. It is not surprising that American children, many of whom seem to ‘have everything’, are so unhappy: like their parents, their teachers at school and even their television heroes, they have been put on a treadmill that is ever more stressful and competitive, ever more meaningless and lonely.

In the UK, the statistics tell a similar story.  In 2004, nearly 10% of children between the ages of 5 and 16 had a mental health disorder and that figure is increasing.  Substance abuse and violence are also on the rise.  Recently, a group of experts gathered together to publicise their concerns that modern life and “junk culture” are poisoning childhood.   The Archbishop of Canterbury has accused entertainment companies of creating a consumer culture where children are corrupted and “sexualised”.  Sue Palmer, the author of Toxic Childhood, points out that “a sort of sedentary, screen-based existence has crept up on children. They used to be free-range and now they’re practically battery children, living indoors, experiencing through the medium of a screen. That, along with the food that they’re eating, many of them in great quantities now, actually is inhibiting brain development.”

Localising Knowledge

Unless the consumer monoculture is halted there is no hope of preventing ever-greater poverty, social divisiveness, and ecological degradation. There is nothing inevitable about this process of globalisation.  It is entirely within our power to shift direction–to rebuild local economies and communities, to protect our natural resources and to ensure peace and security.  In addition to opposing technological uniformity, we need to actively support ecological and cultural diversity by encouraging the fullest possible use of local resources, knowledge, and skills.

Revitalising local knowledge is essential to localisation.  Without retreating into cultural or economic isolationism we can nourish the traditions of our own region.  A true appreciation of cultural diversity means neither imposing our own culture on others, nor packaging, exploiting, and commercialising exotic cultures for our own consumption.  One of the most effective ways of reviving cultural differences would be to lobby for a reduction in unnecessary trade. At the moment, much of our taxes are going to expand transport infrastructures and to increase trade for the sake of trade. We are transporting across whole continents a vast range of products, from milk to apples to furniture, which could just as easily be produced in their place of destination.  By reducing and eliminating subsidies for transportation, we would cut waste and pollution, improve the position of small farmers, and strengthen communities in one fell swoop.

Local agricultural knowledge is essential to knowing which crops are adapted to the local environmental conditions.  Producing food with this sort of intimate understanding of the land and climate enables farmers to work in a much more sustainable and efficient way.  It is in robust, local-scale economies that we find genuinely “free” markets; free of the corporate manipulation, hidden subsidies, waste, and immense promotional costs that characterise today’s global market.

Paradoxically, a trend toward smaller-scale political and economic units would help us to develop a broader world view—one based on interconnectedness. Instead of narrowing our vision, an intimate connect ion to community and place would encourage an understanding of interdependence. When you are dependent on the earth under your feet and the community around you for your survival, you experience interdependence as a fact of daily life. Such a deep experiential understanding of interconnectedness—feeling yourself a part of the continuum of life—contrasts starkly with the analytic, fragmented, and theoretical thinking of modern society.

Since extreme dependence has already been created on both national and international levels, it would be irresponsible to “delink” economies and cut off assistance from one day to the next. We cannot, for example, suddenly halt our purchase of coffee or cotton from those countries in the Third World whose economies totally depend on such trade. But we can immediately begin supporting aid programs that will enable farmers to return to growing food for local consumption, rather than cash crops for export to the West.

Parallel to agricultural decentralisation we need to decentralise the production of energy. Again, this ought to happen both in the West and in the Third World, but because the energy infrastructure of most developing countries is still relatively limited, the widespread application of solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower technologies in these regions would be comparatively easy. Truly appropriate technology would be far less costly than “high” technology—not just in purely economic terms but, very importantly, in its impact on society and the environment. It would be born of research in specific social and geographical settings, and be tailored to them, rather than vice versa. As anyone who has been close to the land knows, variations in wind, water, sun, soil, and temperature are significant even within very short distances. Just as brick-making in Ladakh varies from region to region, depending on the type of mud available, so small-scale installations adapted to local conditions are required if we are to make optimum use of available resources. This would entail a listening, intimate knowledge of nature—a very different approach from the heavy-handed ways of industrial society.

If development is to be based on local resources, knowledge about those resources obviously needs to be nurtured and supported. Instead of memorising a standardised universal knowledge, children need to be given the tools to understand their own environment. In the process, the narrow specialisation and urban orientation of Western-style education would give way to a broader, more contextual and ecological perspective. Location-specific knowledge of this kind would be holistic and specific at the same time. Such an approach would seek to perpetuate or rediscover traditional knowledge. It would build on centuries of empathetic interaction and experience with the web of life in a particular place.

Support for local knowledge should extend to all areas of education, including the natural sciences.  We need to promote research that is less centralised and more accessible to a broader section of the population. Instead of isolating variables under artificial laboratory conditions, emphasis would be placed on experimentation by local researchers in diverse cultural and ecological environments. Rather than maintaining elaborate high-tech seed banks, for instance, farmers would be encouraged to grow rare indigenous varieties, thus perpetuating living reservoirs of biological diversity.

To understand the complexities of the natural world, theory must be grounded in experience. Experiential learning is based in messy reality, with all its paradox and untidiness, its ever-changing pattern, its refusal to conform to our expectations. As such, it inevitably leads to humility. If our studies were conducted less in the laboratory and more in the field—in the fields, in fact—scientific advance would proceed more cautiously. If we learned to examine the potential effects of new technologies in context, over time, we would be less likely to set off destructive chains of unintended effects.

In the West, we tend to live our lives at one remove from reality, relying on images and concepts. After spending a few months in England, a Ladakhi friend of mine commented, “It’s amazing how indirect everything is here. They write about the beauty of nature, they talk about it, and everywhere there are potted plants and plastic plants, and pictures of trees on the wall. And all the time television programs about nature. But they don’t ever seem to have contact with the real thing.”

However, there are signs of a shift happening around the world.  Many initiatives are emerging that reconnect people with place.  In Scotland, a teacher of twenty years has set up a nursery, where children spend most of the day, everyday outdoors.  Dressed in rubber boots and woolly jumpers they play and learn in sun, rain and snow.  According to parents, the children not only love it, they acquire valuable knowledge.  Before they even graduate to primary school, the children can distinguish poisonous from edible fungi, can spot yew berries or foxgloves, the flowers that contain the toxin digitalis.  The teacher explains that “in a normal nursery you might have to learn about shapes, but these children know the difference between an oak tree and a birch tree, which is a lot more complex than a square and a circle.”

More and more people are reconnecting with the sources of their food.   Farmers’ markets, which shorten the distance between producer and consumer, are springing up, while around the world thousands of individuals and organisations are exploring locally based, sustainable alternatives, often inspired by the proven success of traditional agricultural systems. Official support, however, still lags a long way behind.  Although there are encouraging signs that governments are recognising the need for a move toward organic agriculture, economic incentives continue to favour biotechnology and large-scale agribusiness.

However, people are beginning to make their voices heard.  For example, individuals and groups from a wide variety of sectors are coming together to protest the privatisation of water.  All around the world—from Argentina to Australia, the UK to Portugal, Norway to Uruguay—trade unions, community groups and environmental activists are demanding that access to clean water be designated as a fundamental human right.  They propose that control over water be kept in the hands of the public, managed at the local level, rather than owned as a commodity by corporations and doled out at prohibitive prices.

There are even positive moves toward supporting cultural diversity at the policy level.  In 2007, UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection of Diversity of Cultural Expressions came into force.  Thirty-five countries—“developed” and “developing” — ratified this text that aims to re-establish the connections between local culture, development and dialogue.  For future development to progress in a way that is adapted to needs of people, culture and the environment, the convention affirms the rights of countries “to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions” and “to create the conditions for cultures to flourish and to freely interact in a mutually beneficial manner.”

Local economies are much more than utopian ideals; they have served admirably in many parts of the world for millennia. They tend toward a more equitable distribution of wealth than growth-oriented centralised systems, and are more responsive to the needs of people and the limitations of natural resources.

Conclusion

The changes that we need to make can greatly enrich our lives. Yet they are often treated, even within the environmental movement, as sacrifices. The emphasis is on giving things up and making do with less, rather than recognising how much we stand to gain. We forget that the price for never-ending economic growth and material prosperity has been social impoverishment, psychological insecurity, environmental crises and the loss of cultural vitality. We think of ourselves as “having everything,” and are surprised when young people turn to drugs or violence to fill the void in their lives.

We still have an opportunity to steer our society toward social and ecological balance.

I have seen how human-scale structures nurture intimate bonds with the earth and an active and participatory democracy, while supporting strong and vital communities, healthy families, and a greater balance between male and female. These structures in turn provide the security needed for individual well-being and, paradoxically, for a sense of freedom.

Perhaps the most important lesson of Ladakh has to do with happiness. It was a lesson that I was slow to learn. Only after many years of peeling away layers of preconceptions did I begin to see the joy and laughter of the Ladakhis for what it really was: a genuine and unhindered appreciation of life itself. In Ladakh I have known a people who regard peace of mind and joie de vivre as their unquestioned birthright. I have seen that community and a close relationship to the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication.

Rekindling local knowledge opens us up to a world of richness and diversity.  It is a fundamental step towards dismantling the global monoculture, healing our societies and rebuilding local economies.  Localisation ultimately helps to ensure the wellbeing of ourselves, our communities and the planet.

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Reza Banai makes a strong case for urban sustainability as the perfect area of practice to apply a broad range of effective pedagogies.  The complex multi-disciplinary nature of urban design means that it requires advanced, high-level, analytical, holistic, hands-on pedagogies to bring about real solutions for sustainability.  With urban popuplations booming worldwide, chances to apply Banai’s nexus between urban sustainability and a robust education abound. 

Abstract

Urban sustainability informs and is enhanced by the pedagogic principles that have emerged with discussions of teaching and learning effectiveness of alternative educational models. Furthermore, the urban sustainability-education nexus suggests that reciprocity is beneficial, meaning the theory and practice of planning sustainable cities and regions is also enhanced by certain pedagogic procedural principles from classroom to community. However, these pedagogic principles are more than mere procedural abstractions if informed substantively by urban sustainability values. The nexus has implications for urban education with an emphasis on environmental sustainability and the practice of planning sustainable cities and regions.

“Our educational systems are only beginning to make use of the local community and the region as a locus of exploratory activities: but before the resources and activities of a region are treated as abstract subjects they should be understood and felt and lived through as concrete experiences.” The Culture of Cities (Mumford, 1938, p. 383)

1. Introduction

With the ever-increasing urbanization of world population demanding limited natural resources and contributing to climate change, cities and regions are viewed as logical loci for discussions of urban sustainability, envisioning quality of life for present and future generations.  The emphasis on “actors”—individuals, organizations, and governments—in discussions of urban sustainability highlights the notion that collective action is a key to addressing challenging multifaceted issues and promising opportunities in the planning and design of sustainable cities and regions in the twenty-first century. Where better than in the region, as Mumford (1938) would say, to experientially explore the challenging issues of urban sustainability, participating actively in shaping the sustainable cities and regions of the future? (see also Fishman, 2000; Wheeler, 2000; Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001; Brown, 2011)

In this paper I argue that certain pedagogical principles are aligned with the values of urban sustainability, and identify those principles that urban sustainability values in theory and practice have in common.  While the pedagogic principles are compelling tools for universal teaching and learning, they are more than mere procedural abstractions if substantively informed by urban sustainability values such as conservation, efficiency, and justice.  Furthermore, the nexus suggests the benefit of reciprocity, meaning the practice of urban sustainability in planning sustainable cities and regions is also enhanced by certain pedagogic procedural principles from the classroom to the community.

It should be noted that the educational practices and principles identified are not held in every classroom, just as urban sustainability values are not identically held in every community across cities and regions. Circumstances and values are different in different cities and regions (see Lynch, 1981). However, the six principles outlined in the next section are better regarded as scalable “performance dimensions” (Lynch, 1981) that reflect the sustainability values and circumstances specific to a city and region.  In the section that follows, these principles are identified from a vast education literature.

Discussions of the use of technology and social media tools as means to enhance learning in “classrooms” with timely feedback and engaged teaching protocols initially motivated the literature search method and the topic of this paper (see also thencat, 2005).  It turns out that universal pedagogic principles are strikingly similar to emerging city- and region-planning and design paradigms, like those that value reflective, collaborative, and communicative action (e.g., Forester, 1999; Innes, 1996 and 1998).  Logically, we also included in our search of a vast education literature a subset that contained “sustainability” as a subject-matter (e.g., Pepper and Wildy, 2008; Svanstršm et al., 2008; Sibbel, 2009). Notwithstanding a focus on sustainability, this literature lacks a nexus with the city and the region in substance or procedure, which is a methodological focus of this paper.  The literature search was not just limited to education for sustainable environments.  Effective pedagogic models with features that directly correspond with emerging principles of urban sustainability are identified. Furthermore, abstract pedagogic principles are given concrete expressions with sustainability values embedded in the planning and design of sustainable cities and regions, which are discussed in section 3.  The paper concludes with a discussion of the urban sustainability-pedagogy nexus’ implication. We begin with a brief review of effective pedagogic principles in the classroom before we consider the implications for the community.

2. Emerging models of effective education

A brief recap of emerging pedagogic models in a vast literature reflects experiences in mainly higher education (e.g., Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Boud & Falchikov, 2006; Svanstršm et al., 2008).  The areas of focus in models of effective education are varied.  An exhaustive review of all models is not attempted here. However, the following pedagogic features are common to these models: critical thinking; holistic or systemic thinking; long-term orientation; engaged, participative learning (in contrast to passive or spectator sports-like behavior); collaborative learning; timely feedback; and learning in cyberspace-as-classroom. Each of the six pedagogic features is outlined with a brief description. We will then briefly note urban sustainability values with commonalities to pedagogic principles in education literature.

2.1 Thinking Holistically

Shea (1998) makes the flowing observation:

“The image of the classroom as a living ecological web of relationships is a favorite metaphor used to describe the structure and functioning of the American public schools. This metaphor is grounded in the image of caring, sharing, and of mutual coexistence; the implication here is that since we are all connected, we should act cooperatively to maintain and preserve our collective work environments. Here, one sees oneself and others as part of a collective whole, an organic ‘Gaia,’ a universal classroom, a part of an interconnected biologically based web of community alliances and obligations. At its core, then, the living ecological web metaphor resonates with a concern for the delicacy of the strands that connect us and provide us with sustenance—it dramatically captures the theme that we affect everything and everything affects us.” (pp. 349-350)

Holistic approaches to education stress the kind of learning that occurs when we think about the interconnections. Understanding the “bigger picture” is accomplished by understanding the logic of the whole system’s links (Ackoff, 1979).  The logic of the links is featured both analytically and holistically with holistic approaches evident in both “basic” theoretical and “applied” professional disciplines (see also Simon, 1981). The whole-part connection is emphasized in sciences and professional fields—the universe (cosmos) and matter (particles) in physics; community and individual in social science; nature and nurture in natural science. In medicine, the holistic paradigm calls for treatment of the whole person—body and mind, the individual and the environment. The web of knowledge is increasingly forging connections, combining separate disciplines with hyphenated labels—astrophysics, biochemistry, environmental psychology, and the like!

Pedagogic models that emphasize instructions that foster holistic thinking appear in a wide variety of urban-planning and design-related fields. Ackoff (1979) argued that analytical methods encounter limitations in dealing with interconnected—”messy”—managerial and design problems, particularly in a turbulent, uncertain environment that characterizes urban sustainability. Others have labeled them as “wicked” problems, and the search for optimal solutions to them is considered to be in vain (Weber & Rittle, 1973).  Rather than analytic methods that take the parts apart, to paraphrase Ackoff (1979), “systemic thinking in a changing environment helps with holistic skills that planners, designers, and managers use to devise means to “invent” and to bring about a desirable future. This kind of systemic thinking is particularly in synch with unified ecologic, social, economic, and physical world views of planning and design toward creating a sustainable urban future (Calthorpe & Faulton, 2001).

2.2 Critical Thinking, Reflective Practice

Modern sciences, particularly economics and psychology, have highlighted that peoples’ capacity to process information is bounded, and that people rarely have complete information on which to base optimal decisions. The seemingly “optimized” decisions are actually “satisficed”—or good-enough—choices made in the face of incomplete information in the decision-making environment (Miller, 1956; Simon, 1981 and 1983).

People may not have complete information, but they do possess a natural ability to think logically and to make discerning judgments. From ancient to modern times, philosophers, logicians, and scientists have been contributing to the development of critical thinking, a particular mode of thought process in problem-framing and problem-solving. For example, Marx was thinking critically in writing about the crises of capitalist markets, revealing structural problems—like the tendency of declining profit—and characterizing economist colleagues as prisoners of their own categories, successful in interpreting the world, but unable to change it [paraphrasing David Harvey—a critical thinker-geographer extraordinaire, for example see Harvey (1973, 2006)]. Oxygen’s discovery within the field of chemistry represents another example of challenging existing categories and theories.  As Harvey (1973) recounted, Lavoisier is considered the real discoverer of oxygen with his critique and rejection of phlogiston theory, rather than Priestly who had called it dephlogisticated air (paraphrasing again). The critique and falsification of exiting concepts, theories, practices, or paradigms is part and parcel of doing science, with scientific revolutions bringing new formulations, as Kuhn (1970) described. The elements of critical thinking are summarized thus:

“[R]easoning occurs within points of view and frames of reference…evaluate clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and logicalness; reasoning proceeds from some goals and objectives, has an informational base [data]; data must be interpreted; interpretation involves concepts; concepts entail assumptions; basic inferences in thought have implications.” (aboutCT, 2009)

2.3 Long-Term Orientation

Pepper and Wildy (2008, p. 613) interviewed public (western Australian government) secondary school teachers “leading the education for sustainability.”  Their conclusion: Leadership for sustainability “requires a combination of a deep knowledge of sustainability; forward thinking and the ability to imagine a different future; the interpersonal and networking skills to build strong relationships; and the energy and capability of taking action to achieve the imagined different future.” These features are in contradistinction with educational practices that are fragmented, capricious, or unpredictable, and lack vision, collegial alliance, and collaboration. It turns out that these very features correspond to the values that are manifested in urban-sustainability concepts and practices (section 2).

2.4 Communication and Collaboration

By arguing that it is beneficial to collaborate when learning challenging subject-matter, Feltovich et al. (1996) confirm the popular adage that two heads are better than one! The “multifaceted relationship between desirable individual and group cognition” is asserted thus. In particularly complex, ill-defined knowledge-application domains, the effective features of team learning and collaboration are individuals finding “points of intersection with diverse others in their collaborations, [so that] the groups they are a part of are more likely to maintain a healthy diversity, avoiding an undesirable group assimilation of different individuals’ contributions toward some oversimplified and ineffectual common denominator” (Feltovich et al., 1996). Multiplicity—diversity of perspectives—openness, and flexibility are desirable pedagogies. However, they also stress the importance of “nurturing” team-learning features in individuals in “learning situations” (Feltovich et al., 1996, p. 25). See also Friend and Cooke (1992). For a discussion of the pedagogic paradigm shift in distance education to a “learner-centered” environment and the technologies that foster collaboration, see Beldarrain (2006).

Bruce and Easley (2000) argue that a broadly conceived community e.g., a community of neighbors, scholars, learners, students, practitioners, or a community distinguished by diverse entities, e.g., local or global communities, is sustained by communication. Lynch (1981) remarked “communication is one fundamental reason for being of any human settlement” and defined the city as a “communication network” (Lynch 1981, p. 336). Global climate change and infectious-disease epidemics are prime examples of reasons for the international scientific community to communicate and collaborate (RAND, 2001). Environment issues, however, are only broadly labeled by the crises of climate change. Employment security, poverty, world hunger, social and regional inequality, affordable shelter and health care, renewable and nonrenewable energy, and the like are issues with a global reach (see also Brown 2011).  These issues are interconnected and exceed the capacity of any one community to address (see also Sibbel, 2009). They require the communication and collaboration of multiple communities of interest—scientists, governments, and citizens of the globe—with similar virtuous features of effective team building in the classroom, coping with challenging, complex, multifaceted problems!

2.5 Feedback

Boud and Falchikov (2006) argue the case for an educational model of assessment (feedback) for lifetime learning in practice (work and life)—not just those that are limited to the assessment of the learning experiences in the academy. The notion of “sustainable assessment” is interesting. Sustainable assessment “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of students to meet their own future learning needs.” (Boud, 2000, p. 151) Self-assessment and reflective practice in context are those very features that characterize urban planners and designers learning in professional practice (Schön, 1983 and 1987).

Active engagement and immediate and effective feedback are among “best-practice” principles in instructional design (thencat, 2005). Instructional technologies that aid in timely feedback with instructor-student communication or group discussion further these principles. Increasingly, the technologies are Web-based, used in the virtual classroom or the community. They are used in education, business and industry, and government with so-called webinars, podcasts, and the like that facilitate sustained communication and collaboration in the “network” society (see also Castells, 2000 and 2009).

2.6 Learning in Cyberspace

The motivation for sustained learning beyond initial schooling is individual and social, and lifetime learning occurs through communication in different arenas.  The purposes for communication in cyberspace—distance-learning—are as varied as their users—schools, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), companies, businesses, and individuals in both developed and developing counties (Potashnik & Capper, 1998). For educational institutions, the motivation is to cater to a population with jobs that limit physical presence on campus, and to deliver cost-effective education that results in increased enrollment. For businesses and companies, the reasons for continuous learning/training are survival and further growth in a complex, competitive, and dynamic environment. For governments, it is an obligation to train teachers for public education or workers for the private industry and to serve the population in isolated communities and regions that are neglected by markets. For individuals, it is self-motivation arguably induced by the constraints and opportunities in the environment, broadly conceived, for personal lifetime learning and growth (for discussion, see Potashnik & Capper, 1998).

Just as money and credit circulate global markets, advances in technology are breaking down the barriers of distance in the global reach of education and training. Interestingly, similar local-global tensions arise in educational markets and capital markets!  What is more important, though, is that the schools, governments, NGOs, companies, businesses, and individuals that  participate in distance learning are the very parties whose collective actions are considered instrumental in the stewardship of a sustainable environment. It follows, then, that Web-based telecommunications, as well as the wide venues of the communication media, electronic books, documentaries, video (conferencing), TV, and (interactive) radio that are used in distance learning, also provide public-education venues by drawing attention to challenges and opportunities of a locally and globally sustainable environment (see also Wiland & Bell, 2008).

We now turn to a brief discussion of urban sustainability, in principle and practice, in relation to the effective instructional models.  The common features are identified, as are the conflicts and implications of strategies for narrowing the chasm in practice and education for urban sustainability.

3. Emerging Theories and Practices of Urban Sustainability

The six above-highlighted pedagogic principles that enhance teaching and learning effectiveness are identified in a vast education literature. However, it turns out they correspond with values of urban sustainability. The parallels are indicated in Table 1. The common features are holistic, systems thinking; critical thinking and reflective practice; long-term learning; communication and collaboration; feedback; and learning in cyberspace.  For example, holistic, systems thinking, emphasized as a desirable educational principle, has parallels with the view of ecology as a unified whole. Long-term (learning) is a feature in common with views of urban sustainability adopted in comprehensive metropolitan regional plans.  Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Salt Lake City, UT; and Vancouver, BC are among examples of Regional Cities with long-term plans that emphasize sustainable urban growth and development (for in-depth views of the plans and principles of urban sustainability, see Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001 and Wheeler, 2000; 2002; and 2008). Portland’s long-term comprehensive plan time-horizon is the year 2040. Planning for Seattle as a sustainable Regional City with Vision 2020 was set into motion in the 1980s (Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001, p. 161).  To appreciate the education of urban sustainability, we quote Calthorpe and Fulton (2001) at length, describing the planning process in Salt Lake thus:

“In a large conference room in downtown Salt Lake City…civic leaders gather to begin the process of envisioning the future of their fast-growing region. The 150 participants sit at small tables in groups of 10, armed with detailed maps of the region and seventy ‘chips’—small squares of paper, each representing four square miles of typical suburban growth. Their assignment: to accommodate the next million people in Salt Lake City by finding the best way to arrange the chips on the map…The participants…soon realize that if the Salt Lake region continues to grow at the current densities, much of what they love about the Wasatch Front will be destroyed. So each group takes a different approach. Instead of spreading the chips out, the participants begin stacking them, one on top of the other—indicating that they are willing to accept higher densities in order to preserve agriculture and pristine land. When that isn’t enough, they begin laying the chips on top of existing urban areas—in places that they know are underbuilt or in need of renewal. By the time they are done, they recognize that a different vision of their future is necessary and possible (p. 1).”

Planning for a sustainable Regional City thus reflects the pedagogic principles that emphasize thinking holistically (urban and suburban, built and natural environment), critically (unsustainability of urban sprawl), reflectively (situational learning and decision-making), communicatively, and collaboratively (group deliberation). As Fishman (2000) chronicles, “regional conversation” is among the planning lessons learned from the 1960s. Wiland and Bell (2008) argue the case for the use of documentary film and media, including the Internet, as a “communication strategy” toward environmental sustainability. The documentary Edens Lost & Found addresses wide-ranging topics regarding sustainable environments, including watershed management, green buildings, public transit, walkable communities, and environmental justice and stewardship. Furthermore, the contents of a high school curriculum that uses Edens Lost & Found are similarly characterized with a wide range of environmental sustainability issues. Rather than in the abstract, the pedagogic principles noted above are effectively presented in the classroom with urban-sustainability issues thought of in concrete situations—e.g., a green building that uses renewable resources for heating and cooling, a pedestrian-friendly street, a neighborhood with convenient access to a reliable public transit. In other words, pedagogic principles—compelling tools for learning and teaching about urban sustainability in the classroom—are more than mere procedural abstractions if informed substantively by urban-sustainability values.

Urban sustainability calls for stewardship (for a discussion of urban ecological stewardship with a watershed restoration project, see Platt et al., 2008).  Brown (2008) discusses the use of the Internet to communicate citizen feedback. Brown (2008, p. 165) cites a project, “D-Tower,” (Spuybroek, 2002) “a roughly 40-foot sculptural structure that changes color based on the emotional state of a Rotterdam community of approximately 45,000 people, as evidenced by their responses to a monthly questionnaire administered over the internet.” Brown (2008) concludes:

“If a neighborhood beacon reported environmental data like conservation and waste, how many citizens might be motivated to take action to turn it from red to green? While this is an extreme proposal, clearly the Internet and its associated communications technologies offer many new avenues for citizen participation, feedback, and behavior modification—as yet unexplored (p. 165).”

Table 1. Comparative pedagogic and urban sustainability principles and values

Sibbel (2009, p. 79) argues the case for environmental sustainability with a greater emphasis on the actions and expertise of professionals—in government, industry, and communities—rather than on mere behaviors and choices of consumers (individuals/households). Consumers arguably have limited knowledge or capacity to process information, or to make informed decisions while keeping in mind the actions’ environmental consequences.  In contrast, professionals, if introduced to a multidisciplinary curriculum in higher education, have the opportunity to build the capacity for “balancing all the social, environmental and economic costs and benefits,” recognizing values of “self-efficacy,” and thereby determining the priorities of actions. The education for urban sustainability, however, adds a physical or spatial element to the professional-capacity building, while balancing the benefits and costs.

The multifaceted problem of urban sustainability is addressed in the Regional City (Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001). The Regional City world view is simultaneously ecological, social, and physical—dealing with land use, transportation, the environment, housing, tax equity, and education.  The Regional City’s neighborhoods are diverse in population, land-use, and housing types. The neighborhoods are walkable. The urban centers are hierarchically differentiated and thus varied in size and mixed in land-use and density. The corridors that link neighborhoods and urban centers provide regional mobility options with accessibility to jobs and opportunities. The metropolitan region’s natural environment is conserved in zones designated “preserves.”

The Regional City features durable design concepts and principles holistically, from the design and orientation of buildings that optimize energy efficiency to the regional location of towns that preserve natural open space or contain urban sprawl. In this way, it is similar to the garden city concept (Howard 1898/1902) with its layout of multiple urban centers linked with transit and highway corridors in a metropolitan region (e.g., 2040 Metro Framework Plan of Portland).  In sum, the Regional City “building blocks” are commensurate with its varied scale—from the metropolis-wide region and its global reach down to the level of the buildings and sites in neighborhoods.  Synthesized from otherwise vast but scattered planning and design literature, the building blocks offer perspectives on urban sustainability concepts and indicators systematically akin to holistic, nested notions of regionalism (Wheeler, 2002).

4. Urban Sustainability-Pedagogy Nexus: Conclusion

The six educational principles—holistic, systems thinking; critical thinking and reflective practice; long-term learning; communication and collaboration; feedback; and learning in cyberspace—correspond to the principles, values, and practices of urban sustainability. However, they vary in relative importance in the practice and education of urban sustainability, and are contradicted in certain planning and design paradigms. For example, long-term (learning) orientation is a feature of comprehensive metropolitan planning (feedback and review in plan implementation), but not of the incremental, short-term project planning. The proponents of incrementalism plausibly argue that learning occurs with each incremental step, however disjointed. Holistic or systems thinking is a hallmark of urban planning and design in practice and education.  The urban-sustainability emphasis in a long-term comprehensive plan draws on integrated views of urban development in balance with conservation of natural resources akin to holistic principles of ecology. Feedback is a feature of planning paradigms, though it is also varied in relative importance in synoptic, incremental, transactive, radical, mixed-scanning, reflective, interactive, strategic, communicative, and the like (see Hudson, 1979; Banai, 1988; Innes, 1996; 1998; Forester, 1999). However, feedback is the kernel of Brooks’s (2002) experimental “trial ballooning” planning strategy. The idea is to jump-start planning process with concrete situational alternatives—instead of abstract goals—to solicit public and political attention. Finally, cyberspace has widened the local and global reach of the media stewards, advocates, leaders, and managers of common goods—watersheds, open spaces, public infrastructure—which characterize the natural and human-made environment with dissemination of information, public education, communication, and collaborative action, just as in the classroom (see also Ostrom, 2000;  Wiland & Bell, 2008).

If, as some have argued, the classroom is a community like the neighborhood, the city, or the region—diverse in populations, purposeful in intentions, seeking ideals, and anticipating desired outcome(s), then  pedagogically effective models provide perspectives relevant to the principles, practices, and education of planning and design in bringing about a sustainable urban future. It turns out that certain pedagogic principles have synergies with substantive goals of urban sustainability. Holistic, systems thinking; critical thinking and reflective practice; long-term learning; communication and collaboration; feedback; and learning in cyberspace represent a synthesis of pedagogic principles and skills identified in higher-education research, with implications for planners, citizens, and leaders to engage effectively in planning sustainable cities and regions. By exercising these skills, the practitioner takes cognizance of the strength and liabilities of the theories and practices of planning the sustainable cities and regions of the future. The theories of planning practice, however, are distinguished by varied emphases placed on knowledge and skill areas, and are even contradicted in certain planning and design paradigms as noted above.  In combination, the pedagogic principles are effectively considered meta-criteria with which urban sustainability is plausibly informed and calibrated systematically in concrete practical situations. However conversely, the specificities of urban sustainability—as in unified ecologic, social, economic, and physical world-views of the Regional City—supply the substance with which pedagogic procedure in urban environmental education is gauged.

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Wheeler, S. M. (2000). Planning for metropolitan sustainability. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 20 (2), 133-145.

Wiland, H. & Bell, D. (2008). Leveraging media for social change. In E. Birch & S. Wachter (Eds.), Growing greener cities: Urban sustainability in the twenty-first century (pp. 207-226). Philadelphia, PA:  University of Pennsylvania Press.

White, S. S. & Mayo, J. M. (2005). Environmental education in graduate professional degrees: The case of urban planning. The Journal of Environmental Education, 36 (3), 31-38

Wright, F. L. (1958). The living city. New York, NY: Horizon.

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Maceo Carrillo Martinet calls for bringing the local geography of sustainability into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curricula, all the while framing this call in the global context of climate change.  He makes a convincing case, based on the experiences of the Instituto Querencia in New Mexico, for using three principals to guide STEM curricula:  students as agents of change; diverse cultural perspectives enrich the curriculum; and involve the local community—wherever you might be—in the curriculum.

Society and Science

Having strong science and math skills translates into making good observations and measurements, which are essential to everyday life. Taking shape the first day we open our eyes as babies, these skills have a lot to do with how human society is what it is today. Over the past decade, U.S. student academic assessments show a steady decline in the level of science and math proficiency (PCAST 2010). According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, akin to the Nation’s report card, about 75% of our students that enter high school are not proficient in the basic concepts of math and science determined for that age group (National Research Council 2011). Although assessing student academic proficiency solely through test-taking provides an incomplete picture, not to mention the life that is sucked out of the art of teaching from today’s test-taking-frenzy, we can all agree to the following: a malfunctioning education system together with modern day distractions has a lot to do with the proficiency decline in math and science. There is a palpable connection between our youth not understanding basic science and math concepts, and not having the basic experiences with the natural world that past generations held for granted. The dropping levels of science and math proficiency should come to no one’s surprise, given how the learning of science has become a passive, sedentary discourse, and very much removed from the natural environment, its seasons, and its elements. In an attempt to counteract this downward trend, we often here the patriotic drum beat that ‘America will better educate its youth so that we can better compete in the world market.’ But raising the level of math and science proficiency in our students is a much deeper issue to address than just having the right to claim that we are beating our chest the loudest.

Science, in the broadest sense of the word, is observing and learning from the surrounding environment and applying these lessons to everyday life. Throughout most of human history, the surrounding environment, hence the stage where all learning took place was principally the natural environment. Today, more than half of humanity lives in cities where there is very limited interaction with the natural environment. As a consequence, society is losing cultural perspective on what it means to have a healthy relationship with the earth, let alone have any kind of relationship to the environment. We are fooled into thinking that nature is the debris-cleaned landscape that makes buildings more pleasing to look at. The concrete-covered earth is not seen as something integral to what we are, but something shaped to meet our needs and desires. Our young people grow up disconnected from nature, and on top of that the educational system removes any opportunity for them to get outside and explore their communities in an integrative, hands-on way. Even our modern day language reflects the reality of this disconnection. We now use the term nature deficit disorder to identify the real impact that being detached from nature is having on our mental and behavioral development. We are now living in an era that geologists are calling ‘anthropocene’, because the influence that humans are having on the geology of the earth is what distinguishes this era from any other.

Ironically, the lack of student proficiency and interest in math and science comes at a time when we are dangerously teetering on the edge of earth’s ecological limits. Whether you believe in climate change or not, most people would agree that for humanity to survive the 21st century we need the young generations to have a strong scientific and technical understanding and creativity. We need a general citizenry to have some scientific background and appreciation of the earth in order to confront the monumental environmental challenges we face, such as cancers, diabetes, oceans with more plastic than plant life, and rivers swelling with Styrofoam and caffeine. A recent study of U.S. citizen’s views on climate change showed that 57% of the population believes that global warming is happening, a significant decrease compared to a similar study in 2008 (America’s Climate Choices 2010). This lack of understanding of climate change has a lot to do with the massive, corporate-funded disinformation campaign about climate change, but it also has to do with the absence of a basic ecological literacy of the population. Although climate change is a challenging and complex phenomenon to understand, if the general population was ecologically literate it would be much more difficult to pass disinformation as fact.

A new agenda for STEM education

A major reason driving the decline in student success in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) proficiency, as recently highlighted in a report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, “is not just a lack of proficiency among American students; there is also a lack of interest in STEM fields” (PCAST 2010). If you stop to think about it, it is quite remarkable and unnerving that students would not be interested in what essentially amounts to the study of life! A group of educators and professionals in Albuquerque, New Mexico decided to join forces to create a summer science-based program called Querencia Institute (Institute), that could begin to counteract both the lack of proficiency and student interest. The following principles were formed and developed over the past several years of the Institute. We believe these principles could guide our science curriculum and help stimulate student interests and literacy in the STEM fields.

The first principle is to ensure the curriculum allows students to be direct participants in creating change in the community. Student learning of science, as well for most subject areas, is greatly improved when students are engaged in science-related issues that directly affect their everyday lives (Krajcik and Sutherland 2010). If properly explored, climate change can be a powerful incentive for young students to become more engaged in their everyday lives, as well as to jazz-up students to learn more about the sciences. If anything, climate change should be the one science issue that every young person should be familiar with considering that it will be young people presently in K-12 grades that will have to confront a human-altered climate system. Climate change, as Van Jones and others have highlighted, is a generations’ calling to lead the deep transformative processes needed to change society (Jones 2008). One of the goals at the Institute is to expose students to this transformative energy and the ocean of opportunity within the STEM fields that the realities of climate change beckons. Students are to become engaged in hands-on projects, while developing a map of where they see themselves in the future. Unfortunately, student hands-on learning is starkly missing from today’s secondary and post-secondary classrooms, with learning amounting to test taking and memorization. Reflecting on the summer Institute, one student commented, “I like how our project was mostly hands-on. I think hands on projects are most fun, and we don’t do enough of this in our classes.” Another issue we wanted to address was to encourage student learning to take place outside of the classroom. During the Institute, students set up a rainwater harvesting tank, toured watershed restoration projects, and collected fish while rafting the Rio Grande. These projects were designed to provide students with a hands-on outdoor learning experience that also embodies the necessary work to make society more sustainable. Reflecting on this experience, one student commented that, “I felt that this experience helped us better prepare for a better future for the planet. We also learned valuable working skills that we can use as adults or now in our own households. I feel accomplished with what we got done, but I still feel the need to do more.”

The second principle to engage young students in the STEM fields is to explore the process of science within different cultural traditions, expressions, and settings. Science is not just a process that takes place in a lab, but is a way of life and is embedded in our cultural identity (Krajcik and Sutherland 2010, National Research Council 2011). One of the key components of our Institute is to explore the nexus between science and culture as a tool to both cultivate youth interest in the sciences and a sense of cultural identity. For example, students were introduced to green technology/engineering and agricultural science through experiencing the indigenous technique of adobe making and companion crop planting (i.e. the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash). One of our Native American students explained that, “I see adobe and corn growing all over the place at home on the rez, but I didn’t realize all the science behind it.”  Being exposed to science as a cultural expression is especially important for students of color, whose cultural perspectives are grossly absent from any discussion of today’s science or its origin (which holds true for all subjects) (National Research Council 2011). A cross-cultural science exploration reveals that science has a diverse tapestry of expressions across humanity, rooted in the human experience of living in diverse natural environments, where modern day science is an accumulation, denial, and revisiting of these expressions. In many cases, the cultural perspective of the natural world represent some of most insightful ways humanity has learned to survive, and offers profound lessons for how to sustain our humanity into the future. New Mexico, and the greater southwestern U.S., is a unique area to explore this time-honed knowledge of place because many communities and individuals still have strong cultural ties and practices to the local mountains, rivers, and other ecologies.

The third principle is to integrate the local community into the science curriculum. The community that surrounds each school, which includes the parking lot down the street to the wildlife preserve just outside town, should be a direct extension of the classroom. During our Institute, students learned about food and health through conducting a food access survey of local markets near their school, some they had already been to with their families and others they never knew existed. Students also worked with a local urban farming network to make soil with locally sourced organic waste. After this experience, one student commented that “when we purchase food from the local market, we don’t know where or how it gets to the shelves. But when you purchase the food from the farmer down the street, you know it’s from here.” The community surrounding each school is a wellspring of knowledge, teachers, oral histories, and spaces where science and math take place every day, but are too often forgotten by our learning institutions. Addressing scientific literacy within the community context not only shows the students the practical applications of science happening around them, but it also encourages them to build a connection to their community, which is an essential ingredient for a positive learning environment (Stone and Barlow 2005). Community-based science learning will help students see their educational development in relationship to what society needs, as opposed to the stereotypical imagery of what science is supposed to produce. Integrating the surrounding community in the classroom is also a means to challenge what we see as the role that science plays in society. Science is not something that only takes place on the University campus, but it is something that workers do throughout our community on a daily basis. The scientific experts are not only in the University lab, but they are the local farmer and environmental health worker. The scientific knowledge and skills that go into designing a home, for example, is just as important as that knowledge that goes into actually building the home. Although modern day science and much of its history profess otherwise, science is not an elite, brain-centered profession but, as Clifford Conner explores in his book “A people’s history of science”, is something that “illustrates the collective, social nature of knowledge creation.”

Climate change as opportunity

The reality of climate change opens up many new opportunities for our youth to get directly involved in creating a better future, a future that is based on a different thinking than what was used yesterday. Climate change is forcing us to rethink things across the social-environmental spectrum, and to build bridges across multiple issues and generations. The struggles to promote social equity in the economy are now impossible to talk about in isolation of the environmental struggles. In our struggle to prevent climate change, it is not enough to replace a dirty non-renewable energy form with a cleaner, renewable form. The real heart of the struggle is for us to confront the mentality that got us into this situation. It is time to redefine a healthy environment to include the health of people and the natural environment that we all depend on. This is why it is important to discuss culture and science in concert with each other, and look at present and historical ways that human civilizations have related to their surroundings. Ultimately, a sustainable economy is not possible if we do not address how to better educate our youth. It doesn’t matter what technological or economic advances we employ to become sustainable, because sustainability essentially depends on how we treat and educate our youth. The students ended the Institute this past summer, with a quote by Gandhi that they had grown to respect and actually embody, “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

References

America’s Climate Choices. 2010. Informing an effective response to climate change. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

Conner, C.D. 2009. A people’s history of science: miners, midwives, and low mechanicks. Nation Books. New York, N.Y.

Jones, V. 2008. The green collar economy: how one solution can fix our two biggest problems. HarperOne, New York, NY.

Krajcik, J.S. and L.M. Sutherland. 2010. Supporting students in developing literacy in science. Science 328: 456 – 459.

National Research Council. 2011. Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Committee on Highly Successful Science Programs for K-12 Science Education. Board on Science Education and Board on Testing and Assessment. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

PCAST (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology). 2010. Prepare and Inspire: k-12 education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for America’s future. Executive Office of the President, Washington, DC.

Stone, M.K. and Z. Barlow (eds). 2005. Ecological literacy: educating our children for a sustainable world. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, C.A.

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In this report from “down under,” Linda Zibell recounts the triumph of eco-centric language over a techno-centric approach to bringing sustainability into the Australian school curriculum.  She brings deep insight into deconstructing the power of word choice and language patterns with real examples of how school-age kids might perceive and understand the words we use.

Sustainability education is currently in the process of being embedded as a cross-curricula priority in the Australian curriculum. During recent national consultations with the educational community, tensions emerged over the kind of language which was most likely to serve children’s wellbeing and bring a better world. In this paper I explore these tensions and put forward social, environmental and broader educational reasons why eco-centric language is preferable to techno-centric language as sustainability is integrated into the broader curriculum.

Introduction

As her teacher encourages her to step onto warm brown earth, little Ruby’s bare toes are firmly clenched. “No”, she says, “I don’t want to touch it.” The teacher has already removed her own shoes, “See Ruby, my toes are happy feeling the dirt. They want to dance.” The teacher does a little jig, and then sits beside Ruby on the step, spreading her toes wide.  She says, “My toes feel the sunshine and they smile.” She takes a felt pen and draws tiny smiling faces on her toenails. Ruby is interested. “Can you do that for me?”

The language that teachers use today will assist students, (or not), to find meaning and belonging in their wider world, steering the shape of our shared future. Ultimately sustainability educators are social educators. Sustainability deeply involves human societies in local dwelling places. It also deeply involves the wild habitat and wildlife of the world that shares the land with those human societies, in an evolutionary history that runs to millennia. Sustainable change, for the health of Earth’s water, soils, air and the entire living matrix on which we depend and with which we interact, simultaneously involves our human aesthetic, physical, cultural, social, psychological, spiritual and scientific belonging. As educators we must reflect upon, remain aware of, and take time to carefully choose our language so that understandings are wisely conveyed, engagement is maintained, values are clarified, and students are assisted to find a sense of belonging within the natural world which is their wider human home. This responsibility is strengthened for curriculum writers because their language will guide so many teachers’ understandings and seed the words they use with their students.

Organising ideas for sustainability in national curriculum

The Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA] provided ‘organising ideas’ to teachers during Australian curriculum consultations late in 2011. These ideas were to…“reflect [sustainability’s] essential knowledge, understandings and skills,” (ACARA, n.d.a.) in preparation for it to be embedded across the curriculum’s content descriptions and elaborations as a ‘cross-curriculum priority’.

In preparing my submission I was reading through the consultation document when I came upon a section entitled “Futures”. My aversion was instant.

Here was a language of control: the future world organised by these words was set to be dependent on human behaviour, intervention, manipulation and product creation. It was not one I wanted.

Soon the deadline for comment would arrive. I immediately wrote a long email to teacher networks, calling for help. This language would not promote democratic values in the Australian curriculum. Students would not learn to be proactive, or critically aware about their world with an approach like this. Where was the ability to problem-solve? How would students be able to clarify their values to bring about shared care for the environment? How were autonomy and shared decision making, both intrinsic to active environmental citizenship, to be made possible with this language? More than likely, as I saw it, these organising ideas would disengage students from the world. The educational goals set out for the Australian curriculum, as expressed in the Melbourne Declaration would not be served by this language…

“all young Australians [will] become…active and informed citizens…with a sense of optimism about their lives and the future…who work for the common good, in particular sustaining and improving natural and social environments, while being responsible global and local citizens…” (The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008, p.7)

Different world views

Further reading led me to understand that this language demonstrated a ‘technocentric’ (techno/tekhne/skills) approach to education for sustainability, which…‘maintains the view that advances in technology and market forces will resolve ecological and social crises,’ in contrast to an ‘ecocentric’ (eco/oikos/home) approach that…‘values the environment for its own sake’. These, I was told, were ‘locked in struggle for supremacy’ in education for sustainability, (Cutter-Mackenzie, 2011, p.351).

Why not a technocentric approach?

I singled out the words I disliked in this ‘Futures’ table: they were systems, behaviour, intervention, design, product, management; then I set about examining what was wrong with them. Just why was I so sure that this technocentric language was inappropriate for broader curriculum?

I began with the word systems. Both ecocentric and technocentric approaches were compatible with systems thinking, however the consequences of sustainability being solely about ‘systems’ could de-vitalise students’ lively connection and emotional engagement with the world. ACARA’s (n.d.) draft Science curriculum for students in years 7 to 10 provided an example…

“The idea of sustainability is central to the nature of dynamic systems. A system has inputs, outputs and a variety of internal functions. The interaction of these inputs, functions and outputs determines the degree to which any system can sustain itself.

The inputs include resources that may be renewable or non-renewable.” (p.5)

This conception of sustainability did not presuppose or require connection to any actual environment: no contact was needed between the student and the real world of their biosphere. Somehow students would have to make the leap from ‘life as systems’ to the lively natural world they moved within. Such a leap might be self-evident to a scientist, but as a social educator I questioned how students, often literal thinkers, might struggle to comprehend these complex, abstract ideas.

I once met an teenager who, as is typical in secondary school, learnt about the world as ‘atoms’. As an adult experiencing nervous exhaustion, when he used words like ‘going to pieces’, ‘falling apart’, ‘breaking down’ – language commonly used in our society – I asked why he believed this to be possible. He said it was logical: ultimately he was made of atoms, little bits stuck together. Could the metaphorical idea of ‘systems’ similarly guide students to imagine life and the world deterministically? What future might this lead us to? In a book that mapped the mind, I found the statement…“Future generations will take for granted that we are programmable machines, just as we take for granted the fact that the earth is round,” (Carter, 1998, p. 207). Language stimulates imagining and has power to influence personal understandings of our connection to the natural world.

Teachers need to be aware that the language they use may become literalized within their students’ minds. In the case of ‘systems’ it may lead to mechanistic thinking that separates children from nature. While systems thinking assists us to conceptualise the way we perceive the world as operating, fundamentally it is a human metaphor for the way the world works: we overlay the world with this interpretation. I suggest it is hubris to assume that this is literally ‘The Reality/The Truth’, and that this is where the story ends. Scientific understandings of our physical world are constantly changing: they bring new knowledge daily. Millions of species yet to be discovered (if we allow them to survive into the long term), offer future potential. I suggest that to limit the world to a mechanistic ‘systems’ model could be counter-productive, and a similar argument applies to conceptualising the human brain as a computer.

Next to be considered was the word behaviour. How different the effect of this word was to its alternative – action. The latter spoke of personal decision-making for change as distinct from following ‘behavioural change regimes’ set out by experts who “know best” when it comes to sustainability. ‘Behaviour’ is assumed to be potentially steered by others, whereas the word ‘action’ presupposes intention: a mind is acknowledged behind what is carried out. Action has agency, it implies connection to something, whereas ‘behaviour’ is passive, more correct. I saw how this word might also become counterproductive for sustainability. Active citizens, proud of their ability to resist manipulation, might resent the pressure to ‘behave’, even if in a good cause.

The word intervention followed: it evoked a “leave-it-to-the-expert” attitude, one that assumed we humans actually know enough to manage the environment as a complex whole. Sadly not true! The more I thought of our damaging historical record of human environmental neglect, error, and deliberate destruction, such as the daily escape of ‘controlled’ burns; of our excessive and increasing fossil fuel energy generation resulting in exorbitant pollution and land displacement; of oil spills from trading vessels, the pollutions of war; of burgeoning waste disposal problems such as the ‘islands’ of chemicals and plastic in our oceans, the more I felt there was danger in placing trust in human “intervention”. I thought of our global over-use of natural resources and of environmental disasters that occurred regularly in the everyday world of manufacturing activity to support our lifestyles. For students this word “intervention” might end up inflating powers of human control and inspire false hope that human ingenuity was set to save our planetary woes.

Newman (2008) in his advice to Australian curriculum writers indicated that a …“significant characteristic of sustainability is that it encourages and enables values-based discussion on future issues rather than just expert opinion,” (p. 13). He indicated that the language of sustainability education should facilitate student voice and active citizenship, so that wherever humans live they learn to actively respond to and consider environmental care over ‘intervention.’ To provide an alternative example, ecocentric language is more likely to emphasise the peoples’ common right to conserve, propagate and proactively share seed, which respects citizenship, conservation, biodiversity, common ground, and building a sense of ‘economy’ (in its true sense of ‘thrift’); whereas the technocentric approach, by emphasising ‘intervention’ leads more towards genetic modification and seed patenting (which represent ‘expert’ commercial appropriation and economic advancement). This word “intervention” could also fail to educate the citizens of tomorrow to argue for or defend a shared common right to public land, clean water, biological diversity, genetic variability or unpolluted air. But how much harder is it to replace or restore them, once lost? Lindenmayer (2007) says that human intervention in the natural world should be minimised: instead, pollution and ecological damage (environmental costs) should be factored into production…“eco-system services are in fact almost priceless… nature itself can deliver them far more cheaply,” (p. 113).

Next I examined ‘product’ and ‘design’: words that incline our thinking towards commercial solutions. What future might they lead us towards? I thought of policy decisions made by governments. Words such as these could lead politicians to spend millions to try to store carbon dioxide underground in preference to encouraging Australia’s citizens and industry to embrace emissions reduction. At times in our future it might be important to resist the idea that another ‘product’ would bring answers. Graeme Pearman (2009), former Australian government climate advisor has said that ‘being economical’ in relation to CO2 emissions could bring about drastic reductions – up to 60% – but this is only likely to occur with an underpinning of active citizenship.

Australians during recent droughts showed their willingness to demonstrate such citizenship in relation to water, so why not carbon dioxide? And isn’t this preferable to a techno-centric solution like cloud-seeding with silver iodide: a product that also pollutes the land? Scientists are discovering that products like DDT, used forty years ago in Australian agriculture, are now turning up on pristine New Zealand glaciers, blown as dust across the Tasman Sea.

The final word was ‘management’. How do we manage the world we live in? I wondered whether a better question could be: Is the world really there for us to manage, and should we be encouraging values such as these in our school students? Thoreau’s words rang in my ears: …“the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure,” (1902).

The importance of a language of connection for children

Louv rang social warning bells: in 2005 he created a new term for an increasing failure of connection in children of our times, naming it “Nature Deficit Disorder”.

“Our society is teaching young people to avoid direct experiences in nature. That lesson is delivered in schools [and] families…/Yet, at the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature – in positive ways.  (p. 2/3)

Louv drew attention to a lonely sadness that comes upon people disconnected from nature, of their loss of a sense of belonging, saying that, deprived of the companionship of nature we lose a sense of vivacity and optimism. Quoting Townsend, Louv reminds us that “we gain life by looking at life,” (p. xii). He drew the conclusion that …“the human child in nature may well be the most important indicator species of future sustainability,” (p. 351).

The Australian Psychological Society (Burke, 2008) also voiced concern.

More children live in urbanized environments now than ever before. Children risk

growing up disconnected from the natural world, with implications for their future relationships with the environment. Active care for the environment in adulthood is associated with positive experiences of nature in childhood or adolescence, along

with childhood role models who attended to and appreciated the natural world.

The importance of a language of connection for the world

Ecocentric language is not just warranted for children it is what the land needs too. Last year’s independent national audit, Australia, State of the Environment [SOE] Report 2011, (Australian Government), called upon Australians to cease seeing themselves as separate to our natural world. We were warned that though many examples of good practice exist, on the whole our record of care for our country continues to worsen. As an educator reading the report I felt the power behind choices offered by its authors: would I allow environmental damage to continue relentlessly? Or would I teach children to conserve and restore our country? Australia’s dubious distinctions include…“one of the world’s largest ecological footprints per capita, requiring 6.6 global hectares per person…[with] over 50%…due to greenhouse gas emissions,” (World Wildlife Federation, no date), and being the country with, “the worst species extinction record in the world”, (Gray, 2012, p. 5).

That warrant extends out into the world. On reading the United Nations’ Millennium Eco-system Report (2005) – the most comprehensive audit ever conducted of Earth’s natural capital – it is clear humans are increasingly ‘fouling our own nest’.

…“human actions are putting such strain on the environment that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations is in doubt… [but]…it is possible to reverse the degradation of many ecosystem services over the next 50 years, if we take the appropriate steps.”

Environmental restoration should clearly be our priority both nationally and internationally.  Ecocentric language which serves to connect students to the world can underpin the motivation to actually do that restoration and my contention is that it should be prioritised in curriculum for sustainability education.

The ecocentric approach to curriculum

After gathering these arguments I was convinced that ecocentric language was the right choice for educational curricula at this moment in time in Australia. But how to define it and express it in curriculum? It was all very well to talk about the language that didn’t work, but harder to come up with the language that could replace it. How could these ‘organising ideas’ be better expressed? What cogent language could support a future in the best interests of children and the world?

The spark of anger I had acted upon during the curriculum consultation period that had led me to dash off an email to teacher association networks; the reading I had delved into to learn more about eco and techno-centric language, and the writing of this paper had finally brought me full circle when, a month or so later, an interesting email arrived: “Have you visited the ACARA website and seen the updated Sustainability ‘Futures’ section, now that consultation is complete? It is so much better.” I eagerly clicked on the link, wanting to compare the revised language with the original. Here is what I found: (ACARA, n.d.b.)

Futures

Conversations of Australian educators via national consultation had resulted in positive changes to the language used to organise sustainability across our curriculum. These changes represent individual decisions made by educators around Australia who acted from a sense of educational citizenship. Together a language of connection to serve the child and the world was constructed.

Conclusion

The words sustainability educators choose can invite children’s connection to the world. Having experienced this process I begin to understand what Newman may have meant when he spoke these words…

Sustainability challenges technological modernism to be more nurturing of the environment and of community…[but]…will more than likely be subsumed into another set of techniques and processes that are built into manuals and curricula and standards. It will be worthwhile but the chances of truly changing our world to achieve the visions of environmental and sustainability professionals are more than likely doomed to failure.

Then again there could be some magic…

(Newman, 2006, p. 15)

Let me give you a closing story. As two children stood near the fence in a nearby suburban Childcare Centre they called out, “Treasure! We’ve found treasure!” Their friends all flocked to see. Triumphantly the two showed a place where they had dug right through the green plastic grass to the earth below. “Look!” they said as they pointed downwards with pride, “Dirt!” The charm of this event is that it occurred in spite of, rather than as a consequence of pedagogy. Perhaps our next task here in Australia is to identify the preferred pedagogies for sustainability education across the curriculum – underpinned by ecocentric language – so that our young citizens of tomorrow find their home always and ever in the natural world.

References

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (n.d.a.). Cross Curriculum

Priorities, Sustainability.  Retrieved December 20, 2011, from www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/CrossCurriculumPriorities/Sustainability

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (n.d.b.). Cross Curriculum

Priorities, Sustainability.  Retrieved January 24, 2011, from                     www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/CrossCurriculumPriorities/Sustainability

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (n. d.) Australian

curriculum draft consultation version 1 for science Retrieved January 12 from                    http://www.theage.com.au/pdf/ScienceK-10.pdf

Australian Government, Australia, State of the environment (2011). Retrieved December 16 2011, from www.environment.gov.au/soe/2011/index.html

Burke, S. (2008) ‘Saving the Planet: including environmental considerations in child development

research and practice’ Inpsych. Retrieved January 12 from https://www.psychology.org.au/inpsych/saving_jun08/

Carter, R. (1998) ‘Mapping the mind’  London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

Cutter-Mackenzie (2011) ‘Teaching for environmental sustainability.’ In R. Gilbert and B.

Hoepper, Teaching society and environment. South Melbourne: Cengage learning

Lindenmayer, D. (2007) On borrowed time, Australia’s environmental crisis and what we must

do about it. Camberwell: Penguin/CSIRO

Louv, R. (2009) Last child in the woods, saving our children from nature deficit disorder. London: Atlantic Books

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, Melbourne Declaration

on educational goals for young Australians, Retrieved January 25 2012 from http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Newman, P.W.G. (2006) “Can the Magic of Sustainability Survive Professionalism?”, in

Sheldon, C. (ed) Environmental Professionalism and Sustainability: Too Important to Get Wrong, London: Greenleaf Books.

Newman, P.W.G. (2009) ‘Embedding Sustainability in the National Curriculum,’ in

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In Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: Bringing Life to Schools and Schools to Life, Williams and Brown (2011) place living soil at the center of the discourse on sustainability education. One of the seven principles that guides their pedagogy of learning gardens is: valuing biocultural diversity. This photo-essay of elementary students in K-8 schools, explores how 4 inches of soil in the learning gardens can teach about life’s diversity. The author urges humble attentiveness to that which is below our feet seemingly hidden and unnoticed yet teeming with life.

In my visits to over 80 school gardens across eight states, I have been struck by the fact that almost all of them have compost piles or bins, and many of them teach students about decomposition, composting, and soil. Art, science, math, poetry, and politics all emerge on school grounds that had in the past been either asphalted or manicured with lawns. Children and youth learn that there is no such thing as “out of sight, out of mind” waste.  Instead, they are fascinated by the organisms they discover in the soil and also by soil’s mysteries when taught to observe soil with care. Composting as a way to “make” soil is slowly becoming common sight on school grounds.

In locating biodiversity in the learning gardens, one need go no deeper than 4 inches of soil. Algae, ants, arthropods, bacteria, crickets, fungi, nematodes, millipedes, mites, molds, mushrooms, slugs, spiders, springtails, and ticks, among a myriad of other organisms, interact with one another and with the plant biomass to form a soil food web.  A teaspoon of soil holds a billion invisible bacteria, several yards of invisible fungal hyphae, and thousands of other organisms including protozoans and nematodes (Lowenfels & Lewis, 2010). Decay, death, birth, and life play a dance impacting soil texture, smell, porosity, and color. More importantly, the basics of life itself surfaces in significant ways when we pay attention to that which is below our feet.

Soils have defined human societies historically and continue to do so today (Landa & Feller, 2010). As McNeil & Winiwarter (2006) explain:

Soils have their own histories, both natural and human. What people believe about soils influences (although does not determine) what they do with them, whether they conserve and nurture them, whether they abuse and abandon them. What people understand—and misunderstand—about soils is thus a necessary part of any history of the nexus between soil and society (pp. 2-3).

Thousands of learning gardens have sprouted and are established on school grounds providing learning opportunities to students of all ages, as biology, chemistry, physics, along with mathematics and language arts, are integrated with school learning (Williams & Dixon, forthcoming).  For children, there can be no better place to commune with life than below the feet on school grounds. Beyond the distant outdoor field trips, children can connect to their own locale and the human-biotic community where learning is housed. In school learning gardens students can relate with soil, plants, food, and the nonhuman animal world. Soil is the frontier where nature, culture, and biology are intertwined, where humus teaches gratitude, where knowledge of decomposition becomes as critical as learning composition (Williams & Brown, 2011). The pedagogy of school learning gardens blurs the boundaries between the human animal and nonhuman vertebrate and invertebrate animal life. Meeting soil organisms as partners in the web of life, learning gardens invite children into kinship with life at a level deeper than words. As interlocutors of nature and life beneath our feet, learning gardens via living soil offer pathways toward organizing a pedagogy from below. Thus, to care about sustainability, we must care and be mindful about soil.

This photo-essay presents how soil curriculum is integrated on a daily basis in three sections of blended first and second grade classrooms at Sunnyside Environmental School (K-8), in Portland, Oregon and at Waters Elementary School (K-8), in Chicago, Illinois. Each photo is a snap-shot of the rich and diverse curricular integration that takes place. Students question, wonder, marvel, and make connections as they get their hands and feet soiled, and learn about biological diversity captured by living soil.

********

The soil is at once a living community of creatures and their habitat.

-          Wendell Berry, 2009

(1) Magnificence of the earthworm: Children’s fascination with earthworms is a known fact. In my visits, I have noticed children literally get into compost piles, bend over them, digging for earthworms. I have also seen them “find” earthworms that they readily pick from all over the grounds as they watch them wriggle in their palms. Older students learn how the earthworms are classified and how they reproduce. Often, it is difficult to know where poetry ends and science begins when students are engaged with life in soil.

It seems appropriate to pay tribute to the earthworm symbolizing the important life’s learnings.

(2) Decomposition: Students learn that decomposition is as important as composition. At all grade levels students can be seen to learn about fungi, bacteria, leaves, and decomposing biomass—and in the process learning that soil is teeming with life. This is captured in a mural, integrating art and science. The mural was developed over two months of learning about how soil is formed and what forms soil. First and second grade students imagined what was underground and with each unit of soil study, their murals embodied character and details as seen in the photograph of a bulletin board spanning a wall in their urban classroom.

.

(3) Varying Layers of Types of Soil: Students take a close look at texture, porosity, and colors of soil from different parts of the school grounds. They become observant and study about humus, topsoil, parent soil, subsoil. They imagine the various organisms that form a web of life and interplay and discuss how soil quality affects all of life.

(4) Slugs, Slime, and Crystal Eggs: As part of the study of soil, students become researchers. They build terrariums by looking for all sorts of decaying matter in and around the school grounds. Leaves, woodchips, cones, needles, fruits, and more, are carefully placed in the terrarium along with some scooped up soil and then enclosed for daily close observation. One day, a group of students discovered that there was not only a slug that had “grown” in their terrarium but there were slimy shining crystal-like eggs, too. This discovery led to many questions as students took the initiative to investigate into how slugs reproduce and what other inhabitants might there be in the soil, not seen by the naked eye.

(5) Magnifying soil, looking for more: In a number of schools and classrooms, simple magnifying glasses are available for students to observe. With the use of microscopes from the laboratories, soil’s world changes in dramatic ways for students: they are enamored and simply stunned that what they thought was lifeless is actually teeming with life, magnified. Bacteria and protozoans appear to “swim” leading to investigation about who and what actually lives in soil.

(6) Terrarium—Variety of decaying matter to create soil. A group of students brought living matter along with what they thought was “dead” matter to observe the cycle of change and how soil would form as long as they kept their terrarium aerated, as seen in this unique soil-supported life created by students.

(7) Diversity of mushrooms in the soil: Students learned about mushrooms and fingi essential to the decay of matter. Their art work captures the diversity of mushrooms they “researched” as part of the unit on soil.

(8) Can you count the life in soil? A group of first graders could not wait to “turn the compost.” They took turns to lift the soil out of the compost pile even as they paused to examine the number of worms they found. The joy of soil being alive was evident in their squeals. According to Shiva (2008): “The millions of organisms found in soil are the source of its fertility. The greatest biomass in soil consists of microorganisms, fungi in particular. Soil microorganisms maintain soil structure, contribute to the biodegradation of dead plants and animals, and fix nitrogen… It is this amazing biodiversity that maintains and rejuvenates soil fertility” (p. 101). Living soil, thus, is an endless recursive food web.

(9) What do we know already about decomposers? As first and second grade students explore soil, they learn that decomposition is a scientific term that is used for the normal term “rot.” Together, as a class, they are able to identify the various organisms, captured by their teacher, for the entire class to see.

Worms eat the plants and decompose them. They are good for the earth.

Mushrooms are decomposers too.

Different snails are decomposers.

Moles are decomposers.

Decomposed things sink into the ground and help other things grow.

Decompose is a scientific word for rot.

Decomposing is a cycle.

(10) Composted soil under chips left for a year. Middle school students were surprised that the bark chips they had left on the west side of their garden a year ago, actually had a layer of beautiful black soil underneath. They scraped off the remaining bark chips and decided to move the newly earthed soil to new beds they were creating for planting potatoes, digging out the upper layer of “rich soil,” as they called it.

(11) Moving composted soil to create new bed for vegetable planting. With the help of a wheel-barrow, a student is enthusiastically moving the composted soil that the class discovered to the new bed.

Life’s diversity in 4 inches

            Out of sight and out of mind, the vibrant life of living soil has largely been forgotten in traditional education. With concerns about the environment and for sustainability, pedagogy and curricular shifts are being accepted to include school gardens as a viable option. Learning gardens bring life to schools and schools to life through inviting children into relationship with the more-than-human world embodied in living soil (Williams & Brown, 2011). Viewing the complexity of soil counsels care in bold interactions and encourages curious and empathetic engagement with this dynamic entity. The new frontier for pedagogy is not to be sought in the gaze of stars but rather arises from below—it is beneath our feet in the school grounds. Soils and gardens serve as both poetic and scientific text as seen in this photo-essay. This snapshot represents a growing movement to connect students to life, by getting them to pay attention to and appreciate the worth of dirt and soil.

As one 6^th grade Hispanic student noted, while trying to transplant a tomato seedling: “Dad says to keep the dirt with the plant. It’s full of nutrients.” She gently handled the roots, separating the fine threads and placing them into the hole she had created in the garden bed (Anderson, 2009).  When children and youth gain this critical understanding of life and its biodiversity, there is hope for sustainability. Understanding 4 inches of soil might be an important step to learn about biodiversity. In the words of Thomas Barrett (1947), “The new frontier is beneath our feet.”

Connecting students with the more-than-human world of soil, children are brought into direct contact with a richly diverse animal and plant world often out of sight and out of mind. This contact sensitizes students to care about and value the diversity hitherto unnoticed. The dynamic aspects of school learning gardens can be understood by connecting with soil on school grounds. A mere 4 inches should suffice.

Note

Special thanks to teachers Peter Leki, Robin May, Abby Roth, and Rebecca Wagner for their care and wisdom in teaching children and youth about life and in doing so inspiring others to find wonder and joy in the mundane.

Photos

Courtesy, Dilafruz R. Williams

References

Anderson, J. (2008). Tongue-tied no more: Learning Gardens and social justice. Unpublished master’s research project. Portland State University, Oregon.

Barrett, T. J. (1947) Harnessing the earthworm. Boston: Bruce Humphries.

Berry, W. (2009). Bringing it to the table: On farming and food. Berkeley: Counterpoint.

Landa, E. R. and Feller, C. (Eds.). (2010). Soil and culture. London: Springer.

McNeill J. R. and Winiwarter, V. (Eds.). (2006). Soil and societies: Perspectives from environmental history. Isle of Harris: The White Horse Press.

Shiva, V. (2008). Soil not oil: Environmental justice in a time of climate crisis. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

Williams, D. R., & Brown, J. D. (2011). Living soil and Learning Gardens: Bringing life to schools and schools to life. New York, NY: Routledge press.

Williams, D. R & Dixon, S. P. (Manuscript submitted). Impact of learning gardens on academic outcomes: Synthesis of research between 1990 and 2010.

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CASE STUDY

The push toward sustainability & “greening” in organizations is evident in the Federal government as well as within the private sector.  A more specific focus on “greening” information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) can also be seen. As might be expected, a corresponding increase in green jobs is also occurring with many of those jobs focused on IT.  The trouble with filling green jobs, IT or otherwise, is finding educated and qualified workers to fill them.  As a result, there is a growing demand for green computing education. As early research has indicated, however, the demand for green computing knowledge by those in industry is only slowly making its way to the academic world. A recent study by Sendall (2010) identified a surprising “lack” of green IT/IS/computing and/or sustainability curriculum initiatives in institutions of higher education.  With this knowledge as background, this research efforts attempts to identify, even so: Where can green computing education and/or training be found today?

Executive Order 13423, Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management and Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, assign responsibility to federal agencies for increasing their environmental sustainability and contain green information technology (IT) and green information systems (IS)-related requirements (Obama, 2010; Bush, 2007).  These executive orders indicate a commitment by the federal government to green information technology and information systems.  Select business entities have also dedicated themselves to the greening of information technology and systems to reduce costs as well as market their sustainability goals (Fanning, 2009).  Techniques and methods for the greening of information technology and systems must be taught or communicated to current and upcoming workers in both government and business. Finding such education or training opportunities can be a challenge.  Sendall et al. (2010), for instance, indicate only a handful of educational institutions offer courses in green IT. Even though the development of green IT education and training curriculum within academia may be slower than expected given the obvious trends and business drivers, forward-leaning organizations are looking for ways to educate workers today. This research attempts to both fill a gap in the literature and address a practical need by providing an initial assessment of the variety of options that exist today.

Sustainability and Green IT/IS/Computing: The Connection

A cursory investigation of green IT reveals a broad spectrum of terminology and ideas associated with sustainability, green IT, green IS, and even the more general, green computing. Although this research has helped to highlight the potential differences, it is important to point out they are all connected.  In order to establish a proper context for our research, we attempted to define each and their relationship to each other.  Sustainability (or environmental sustainability) can be viewed as the highest order and most general concept where the focus is on the “capacity to endure” (Wikipedia, 2011; Sendall et al., 2010).  With regard to humans, it involves the long-term maintenance of well-being and encompasses the concept of stewardship and the responsible use of resources. With regard to ecology, it describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time (Wikipedia, 2011; Sendall et al., 2010). A narrower focus on green IT (or green computing) has to do with “the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment” (Murugesan, 2010, p. 4). Finally, green IS has emerged as an extension of green IT where information systems—seen as a broader,  integrated and cooperating set of people, processes, software, and information technologies—are used to support sustainable business processes ( Watson et al., 2010).  In executing this research, it was necessary to use all the terms—sustainability, green IT, green computing, and green IS—in order capture the broadest collection of sources and offerings possible.

Business Demands for Green IT/IS/Computing Education

Environmental sustainability is an increasing concern worldwide. It follows that businesses are becoming more concerned as well; some from a genuine concern about the environment, some from the viewpoint of being seen as socially responsible, some in response to governmental mandates, and some a combination of two or more (Watson et al., 2010; Greenbiz, 2011; Bonini et al., 2008). Regardless of motivation, however, the end result is an increasing demand for “green-educated” workers to match the predicted growth in green jobs (BLS, 2011). Because green IT/IS is a key element of corporate social responsibility and often a starting point for recognizable sustainability-related efforts, the increasing need for related education and training is now prescient. In a recent survey of CIOs by Ovum, it was found that green IT is becoming a business priority as it is “shedding its image as an optional investment that delivers only vague benefits” (Ascierto, 2011).  Academia has been slow to respond to the need for such education despite the recognition by key bodies such as the College Student Educators International (ACPA) and initiatives such as the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) that reflect sustainability education as vital (Sendall et al., 2010).

Green IT/IS/Computing Education and Training

Literature related to the “greening” of IT/IS is sparse and even less information is available on related curriculum.  Sendall et al. (2010) appears to provide the most comprehensive work on green IT/IS curriculum to date.  In that study, a green computing college minor was identified at 11% of schools surveyed and a college major was identified at 16% of schools contacted.  Three institutions were identified that offered green computing courses while only 17 institutions offered green computing contained within other course content.  No difference was found between the mean number of US and non-US countries offering green computing course content (Sendall et al., 2010).

Watson, Boudreau, and Chen (2010) encourage the Information Systems (IS) academic community to take action to engage in the development of environmentally sustainable business practices. In doing so, they provide a thorough overview of universities that offer business-related degrees with a sustainability focus. Even though one of the key arguments of the paper is that “green” topics should be incorporated into IS curriculum, there is no mention of where that education may currently exist today.

From the Computer Science (CS) academic community, some specific attempts to incorporate green IT/IS in the classroom have been described. Qian, Lo, and Yang (2010) report on the use a portable lab to instruct students in the benefits and importance of green computing.  Their teaching method for green computing involves hands-on projects using a portable wireless sensor network (WinBox).  Roodt (2010) found that introducing green computing content into undergraduate computer courses increased their awareness of sustainability issues, contributed to their personal adoption of green techniques, and contributed to their projected use of green technologies in their future work environments.  Finally, Yu (2010) examined three sustainability integration strategies and found that integrating sustainable information into curriculums contributed to students’ understanding of sustainability in computer applications.

METHODOLOGY

The method used in this research was a literature review and internet search combined with content analysis (Krippendorf, 2004).  Both academic and practitioner literature and course/class information was gathered using internet and library searches from July-September 2011.  Key phrases such as “green IT course”, “green IS class”, “green computing”, “sustainable IT training” and “green curriculum” were used as well as exploring references/links found using a comprehensive internet search.  “Green computing course” was by far the most productive of the search terms used during the internet search while “green information technology” was the most productive during the library search.  The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) site was also used to identify colleges and universities with significant sustainable initiatives.  Course catalogs from these schools were examined to identify green information technology courses.

RESULTS

A number of green IT/IS offerings were identified through the internet search.  Courses/classes containing all or substantial portions related to green IT/IS were targeted during the search.  Undoubtedly, there is green IT/IS content contained within other college classes.  However, only courses that appeared to contain substantial content related to green IT/IS were examined in this work.  Green IT/IS content was found in degree programs, college courses, certification/training classes, and workshops/conferences/forums.

Certification and training courses outnumber college course offerings, perhaps indicating the providers see green IT/IS education as an emerging profit-generating activity. Similarly, it also reflects an attempt to meet the immediate needs of businesses as they hastily attempt to incorporate sustainable practices into business operations as demanded by the market.  A surprising number of conferences and workshops also offer a green IT/IS focus. The content of these offerings seems to mirror the different views on green IT versus green IS. The analysis revealed that a majority of the content is focused on green IT (i.e., the greening of computer systems during their design, use, manufacture, and disposal); however, some content was found to address the broader goals of green IS (i.e., the use of information systems to further green technology pursuits). In the following four sections (degree programs, college courses, certificate programs, and workshops/conferences/ forums), the specific sources and their varying offerings are highlighted.

Degree Programs:

Only two institutions were found that offered degree programs in green computing.  The University of Bradford has a master’s degree in Sustainable Computing currently in development (University of Bradford, 2011).  Courses such as Sustainable Computing Technology, Critical Contexts, Computing for the Environment, Developments for Sustainable Computing, and Frameworks for Sustainable Computing are offered within the degree.

Leeds Metropolitan’s MsC in Green Computing is designed to investigate green information and communications technology (ICT), assess the environmental impact of ICT and look at how companies can streamline their systems, increase sustainability and save energy costs.  Research and design of practical systems that provide sustainable computing for the future is the focus. The MsC in Green Computing is a collaborative project that brings together academic and technical colleagues from across Leeds Metropolitan University (Leeds Metropolitan University, 2011).

College Courses:

Numerous colleges and universities were found that offer at least one green IT/IS course.  Colleges and universities both in the United States and in other countries were identified that offered green curriculum.  Course offerings included a focus on green IT as well as some for green IS.

The University of California at Berkeley extension office offers a survey course called Principles of Green IT for Sustainability.  The course covers green information technology concepts and examines green IT from economic, environmental, and corporate social responsibility perspectives, covers the basic vocabulary of the emerging green IT industry, explores key drivers of current green IT investments, and addresses the typical barriers and challenges CIOs and IT managers face with respect to “greening” operations (University of California Berkeley, 2011).

The University of the South Pacific, Fiji, offers Advances in ICT (course IS413) which provides a comprehensive view of the advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).  Advances in ICT can enhance business services for economic, ecological and social benefits using cloud computing and green computing (University of the South Pacific, 2011).

The University of Massachusetts offers Green Computing Seminar (course 691GC).  This seminar focuses both on the greening of computing—the design of green servers, storage and networks—as well as on computing for greening (i.e., the use of sensor networks and computing for estimating and reducing the carbon footprint of physical infrastructure such as buildings.) Related topics such as green energy and smart-grids, and their use in the computing context are also incorporated (University of Massachusetts, 2011).

Arizona State University offers Topics in Green Computing and Communication (course CSE 591/494) which covers the topics of cloud computing, social networking, mobile telephony, datacenters and energy efficient and environmentally friendly desktop computing among many other topics (Arizona State University, 2011).

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers Green Computing: A Cyber-Physical Problem which covers the building of more energy-efficient computing systems as well as applying computing technology that increases energy-efficiency of other physical systems. Initiatives from HP’s Green Business Technology and IBM’s Smarter Planet are discussed. A holistic coverage is given ranging from single device issues to algorithms for reducing power consumption of data centers, transportation systems, and smart buildings (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 2011).

Linkoping University (Sweden) offers Green Computing (course TDDD50) which provides basic knowledge about the impact of the ICT on the environment, metrics to measure it, and some computational techniques that can reduce its impact. Global ICT footprint, the life cycle of the ICT, data centers, networks, mobile devices and applications are discussed (Linkoping University, 2011).

The Australian National University offers Green Information Technology Strategies (course COMP7310) which teaches students how to reduce carbon emissions and improve organizational efficiency (Australian National University, 2011).

Boston University Metropolitan College offers Green Information Technology (course CS504) which empowers students to reduce the energy use, waste, and other environmental impacts of IT systems while reducing life cycle costs, thereby improving competitive advantage.  Students learn how to measure computer power usage, minimize power usage, procure sustainable hardware, design green data centers, recycle computer equipment, configure computers to minimize power, use virtualization to reduce the number of servers, and other green technologies. Students also learn how to make green IT an integral part of organizational culture and planning in order to foster long-term sustainable information technology (Boston University Metropolitan College, 2011).

University of California Santa Barbara offers Green Computing (course CS 290N) which examines green IT from a systems perspective and draws from multiple disciplines such as mechanical engineering, industrial ecology, and economics. Energy efficient system designs ranging from data centers to embedded devices are explored and Life Cycle Analysis is completed on some of these systems, evaluating the carbon footprint of manufacturing, use, and disposal of each design (University of California Santa Barbara, 2011).

Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL offers Green Computing and Technology (course CMPSC 107) which focuses on understanding the significance of technology and its positive and negative impacts on the environment. This course explores the many possibilities to lower the carbon footprint associated with technology use. Topics include power consumption, e-waste, recycling, information technology environments, and green design and usage. Practical considerations such as developing the green computing scorecard or conducting green computing audits are part of the coursework requirements (Saint Xavier University, 2011).

Calderdale College, UK, offers Green Computing which offers learning in how to ensure the longevity of their home personal computers (PCs), printers and other hardware. Students also learn about new tools being introduced into the computing world to help minimize the impact of computing on the environment, including cloud computing, telecommuting, material recycling, terminal servers, and power management (Calderdale College, 2011).

Swarthmore College, PA offers Socially Responsible Computing  (course CS91) which explores how computers can be used to ease suffering, reduce poverty, empower women, improve the environment, or just make life better. Topics include the technologies for the developing world, the open source software movement, access technologies for people with disabilities, computer literacy and the digital divide, reusing and recycling computers, and green computing (Swarthmore, 2011).

Certificate Programs

Organizational entities not related to academic institutions were found to offer significant amounts of green IT/IS training and certification courses.  Industry groups and select vendors were found to offer short-term training ranging from several hours to several days in duration. These programs cover a broad range of topics relevant to green IT/IS. Again, certificate courses and certifications appear to be more prevalent than courses offered at colleges/universities.  This echoes the idea found in Sendall et al. (2010) that the engagement of most institutions of higher education in sustainability practices are more optimistic than systemic.

Plus Green IT, a UK consulting/training company, offers the Foundation Certification in Green IT course which is a three-day, classroom-based, instructor-led, non-technical training course that provides a formal introduction to the concepts, principles and practices of green IT policy. Successful completion of the course leads to the British Computer Society (BCS) Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) Qualification of Green IT Foundation Certificate. Knowledge on how to develop Green IT policy, formulation of an action list to identify the organization’s Green IT requirements, and how to address those requirements is presented (Plus Green IT, 2011).

RAPIDSTART, a Singapore/Malaysia IT solutions and service provider, offers a Mastering Green IT certificate.  Certification at the Green IT Associate, Green IT Specialist, and Green IT Professional level is offered.  The Global Science and Technology Forum Certification on Green IT and Sustainability addresses all aspects of Green IT including the data center, the office environment, working practices, legislation, certification and energy supply (RAPIDSTART, 2011).

Gatlin International, an international e-learning provider, offers Green IT Certification – Information and Communications Technology for a Sustainable Future which is designed to prepare working professionals and university-level students to be sustainability leaders of the future. Students are educated on the basics of sustainability and technology. They are taught practical tools used in managing the rapidly growing eco-footprint of the ICT systems and educated on how to use ICT as an enabling tool to drive sustainable development (Gatlin International, 2011).

Unitek Education, a Northern California IT training company, offers a four-day, green IT boot camp at any requesting business facility. Unitek approaches its green IT education from the perspective cloud computing and what benefits it has to offer (Unitek, 2011).

Offered in collaboration by the University of British Columbia (UBC) Continuing Studies and the University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education, The Certificate in Green IT is a professional development program that provides a comprehensive understanding about the planning and implementation of a Green IT strategy.  Delivered 100% online, the three courses in the program cover green computing essentials, such as energy and carbon management, life cycle assessment, creating Green IT baselines and metrics, measuring the environmental and social impact of IT operations, and how to foster stakeholder engagement for transformative change (University of British Columbia, 2011; University of Washington, 2011 ).

BicneT eLearning, a web services and eBusiness solutions provider based in Mumbai, offers The Certificate Course in Green IT which introduces the concepts of green IT, the reasons an organization should go green, different ways to go green and the advantages of going green. After completion of the course, successful participants should be able to implement energy saving measures that can reduce energy consumption of an IT infrastructure by up to 95% (BicneT eLearning, 2011).

The Australian Computer Society offers a Green Technology Strategies class as an elective in its Computer Professional Education Program.  The focus of the course is the study and practice of using computers and telecommunications in a way which maximizes positive environmental benefit and minimizes the negative impact.  The outcomes of this course include the ability to estimate the carbon footprint of the information communications technology (ICT) operations of an organization and asses ways to reduce the carbon footprint of an organization by changes to polices for procurement of ICT, changes to the ICT operations, and revising business processes (Australian Computer Society, 2011).

Tonex, a Texas-based education and training consulting service, offers a Capacity Planning Bootcamp that contains information on green computing.  Green capacity planning is explored and case studies on green data centers are analyzed (Tonex, 2011).

IT Governance Ltd, a UK-based company focused on the IT governance needs of today’s organizations, offers three courses: Accounting for Carbon, ISEB Foundation Certificate in Green IT, and the Green Personal Assistant/Office Manager. All three of these training courses are designed to help in achieving a mindshift by providing practical advice and guidance on the most cost-effective steps any organization can take to become greener, improve efficiency, save money and become more attractive to customers, partners and staff (IT Governance, 2011).

QA, a UK-based training company, has partnered with the British Computing Society’s Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) to provide the ISEB Foundation Certificate in Green IT. In completing this certificate, delegates learn how to assist their organization in understanding the impact of Green IT regulations, legislation and policy, baseline their organization’s current Green IT credentials, advise the organization how to move forward in delivering greener IT, identify the political, environmental, social and legal drivers for Green IT, and understand the practicalities of energy efficiencies while learning to explain the business benefits of adopting a Green IT strategy (QA, 2011).

The Green Computing Initiative (GCI), with member offices around the world, act as the steward of the Eco-Friendly Green Computing Definition (EFGCD) and is the industry and community-acknowledged organization that is energetically involved in community building, education and public advocacy to promote awareness and the important significance of green computing across the globe. GCI is the owner and creator of the Certified Green Computing Professional, Certified Green Computing Architect and Green Computing User Specialist programs which are currently offered worldwide through a network of authorized training partners (Green Computing Initiative, 2011).

NetAssist, a Singapore-based advanced IT training and professional certification provider, offers three courses: Implementing, Maintaining and Optimizing Green Computing Technologies, Strategizing, Designing, and Optimizing Green Computing Technologies and Understanding and Utilizing Green Computing Technologies as part of a certification package (Net Assist, 2011).

Penn State Abington offers a green IT certification course for the business professional which will be offered through the Workforce Development office.  The nine-module course covers the definition of green computing, recognizes environmental leadership in the IT industry, advocates stimulation of green competition, raises business/professional/consumer awareness of green computing benefits and gives ideas on how to transform the IT field/process (Penn State, 2011).

Totuba/DBond IT Consulting, China’s first provider of green IT training, offers How ITIL Helps You to Green Your IT Department.  This certification is accredited by eco-net China and enables IT managers to develop creative solutions for lowering energy costs by applying the ITIL methodology. It is targeted at beginning IT professionals/students (Totuba/DBond IT Consulting, 2011).

Freescale, a global leader in embedded processing solutions focused on green innovations, offers a one-hour free course called Green Computing in Networking Applications. The need for going green in the computing space and the challenges of green computing are covered in the course.  Energy efficiency market drivers, opportunities from a networking equipment perspective, and current and future technology implementations are covered (Freescale, 2011).

NTUC LearningHub, a Singapore-based training company, offers The Singapore Certified Green IT Professional. This course provides participants with a basic understanding of green IT. The method used is a framework where existing IT techniques and skills can be employed, classified, and measured in the context of green IT in a practical way (NTUC Learning Hub, 2011).

Workshops/Conferences/Forums:

Conferences and workshops likely harbor the most current of information on green IT and provide a method for more quickly sharing that information.  GreenIT 2011, in its second year, is sponsored by Global Science and Technology Forum (GSTF) International Journal on Computing.  Green IT 20XX is a yearly conference that includes presentations on algorithmic efficiency, resource allocation, product longevity, virtualization, power management, materials recycling, and telecommuting (IT Event, 2011;GSTF, 2011).

A Special Interest Group of the Association for Information Systems on Green (SIGGreen), whose focus is to further the development of new applications of technology that support environmentally sustainable outcomes,  also started an annual workshop in 2010 on green IT (SIGGreen, 2011). The goal of the first workshop was to build a community of green IS researchers in the most effective and environmentally sustainable way.

Finally, The Green Grid, a non-profit, open-industry consortium of end-users, policy-makers, technology providers, facility architects, and utility companies collaborating to improve the resource efficiency of data centers and business computing ecosystems, offers a variety of on-line and classroom technical forums to include metrics and decisions on related business and sustainability issues and provided new technical content, training, and discussions on industry trends (Green Grid, 2011).

A summary of the sources for green IT/IS education and/or training content is provided in Table 1 on the following page.

Table 1.  Sources & Green IT/IS Education & Training Content Offered 

¹ Certification program offered jointly

LIMITATIONS

Although this research offers a starting point for finding a variety of sources for green IT/IS education and training, the nature of the methodology is such that all sources may not have been identified despite best efforts. It is possible that the use of different search terms and even different search engines may have provided “returns” beyond those presented. Additionally, this paper does not address the quality of the source offerings which is likely to span a considerable range. Finally, as the source content descriptions were pulled directly from web searches, there is a possibility that the content may not be delivered “as advertised” once the education and/or training begins.

CONCLUSIONS

This research confirms the findings of Sendall et al. (2010) in that very few institutions of higher education were found to have Green IT/IS degree programs.  On a more positive note, however, the increased number of college course offerings is encouraging & evident of an increasing attention to the need for sustainability/green IT/IS education and training. Most notably, is the availability of vendor provided education, training and certification. This availability echoes a growing business need that is not being met by more traditional education. Additionally, the fact that the vendors are found across the globe is also a strong reminder that sustainability, in general, is a global vs. local problem.  A final, interesting observation, is that many of the sources offer their education and/or training in completely on-line formats.

McDonough and Braungart (2002) call for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design.  Information systems are an integral part of these manufacturing and service industries and require forward thinking to reduce environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle.  Education of the designers, manufacturers, and users of these information systems is critical and begins with the availability of college courses and degrees as well as continuing education and educational certification programs. This research marks a first step in matching varying green IT/IS education and training needs with an overview of potential sources.

References

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Arizona State University Mobile Computing Research Group.  (n.d.).  Retrieved August 18, 2011, from http://impact.asu.edu/cse591gc.html#description.

Ascierto, R. (2010). CIO Survey: green IT grows steadily in key global markets.  Retrieved September 14, 2011 from http://about.ovum.com/app/cio-survey-green-it-grows-steadily-in-key-global-markets/ .

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Calderdale College.  (n.d.).  Retrieved August 21, 2011, from http://www.calderdale.ac.uk/courses/view/green-computing-calderdale-college-certificate.

Fanning, E. (2009). The Top Green-IT Organizations Find Fertile Ground for Innovation. Retrieved August 24, 2011 from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/335943/Fertile_Ground_for_Green_IT_Innovation.

Freescale.  (n.d.).  Retrieved August 21, 2011, from http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/training_information.jsp?code=WBNR_FTF2008_GREEN_COMPUTING.

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IT Governance Ltd  (n.d.).  Retrieved August 19, 2011, from http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/green-it-training.aspx.

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Krippendorf, K. (2004). Content Analysis An Introduction to Its Methodology.  Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE Publications.

Leeds Metropolitan University.  (n.d.).  Retrieved August 21, 2011, from http://www.ntileeds.co.uk/green-it-course/.

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McDonough, W. Braungart, M. (2002). Cradle to Cradle Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York, NY, North Point Press.

Murugesan, S. (2010). Making IT Green, IT Professional, Vol 12, No. 2, pp.4-5.

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Saint Xavier University. (n.d.).  Retrieved August 21, 2011, from http://www.sxu.edu/academic/liberal/Computer_Science/ug_descriptions.asp.

Sendall, P. Shannon, L., Peslak, A. Saulnier, B. (2010). The Greening of the Information Systems Curriculum, Proceedings of the 2010 ISECON, vol. 27. No. 1330.

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University of California Berkeley Extension. (n.d.).  Retrieved August 15, 2011, from http://extension.berkeley.edu/cat/course2209.html.

University of Massachusetts. (n.d.).  Retrieved August154, 2011, from http://lass.cs.umass.edu/~shenoy/courses/fall09/691gc/wiki/doku.php.

University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. (n.d.).  Retrieved August 22, 2011, from http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/class/fa10/cs598tar/syllabus.html.

University of California Santa Barbara. (n.d.).  Retrieved August 17, 2011, from http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~chong/290N/index.html.

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University of the South Pacific School of Computing , Information and Mathematic Sciences. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2011, from http://www.usp.ac.fj/index.php?id=10597.

Watson, R., Boudreau, M., Chen, A. (Mar 2010). Information Systems and Environmentally Sustainable Development: Energy Informatics and New Directions for the IS Community. MIS Quarterly, Vol 34, No. 1, pp. 23-38

Wikipedia (n. d.). Retrieved September 14, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability .

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In this fascinating case study from Miami Dade College, Anouchka provides us with a detailed and subtle look at the effects of a simple school garden on her students.  The garden’s potential to build a sense of community and place as well as a new environmental ethic is developed through vivid vignettes woven throughout the description of how Anouchka and her colleagues launched the project.  The garden project described is a powerful example of complex, interdisciplinary teaching that also takes advantage of the college’s physical campus to foster experiential learning and cultural exchange.  Whether or not readers are involved in similar projects, this story is important for its illustration of the interconnectivity and endless learning possible in any discipline from a connection to the living earth.

Planting the Seed of Sustainability:

Languages and Cultures Fertilize an Organic Garden at Miami Dade College

The “banana effect” works whenever a new group of students visits the Organic Garden for the first time. This morning, it is Marilyn, a young woman from the Dominican Republic, who heads straight to the corner where the banana trees stand clustered. She reaches up to touch the dark green bunch above her head, then turns to inquire whether this is a banana or a plantain. Soon several classmates congregate around her, and a lively discussion in Spanish and English ensues. Eventually, I settle their dispute by telling them that this is, in fact, a banana variety called Gros Michel, or Big Mike, which used to be the main variety exported to the United States until disease diminished the crop in the 1950s. This announcement delights the young woman, who promises to send me a Dominican recipe for green bananas so that I can post it on our course website.

The idea to create an organic garden on campus came after a fellow Earth Ethics Institute Council member who had been reading the novel Seedfolks  (Fleischman, 1997) with her EAP (English for Academic Purposes) class told me about her gardening experience with students. The following week, I contacted the director of the Earth Ethics Institute (EEI), a college-wide initiative that fosters Earth Literacy and sustainability in all disciplines and departments at Miami Dade College (MDC),  to seek funding and expertise to establish a garden at the Kendall Campus, where I teach. EEI provides support for the development and supplies of the garden as well as the advice and support of their local organic farmer. A colleague and I scoured our campus to identify a spot that would receive 5-6 hours of sunlight and be accessible to a large group. Next to one of the central buildings, amid a sea of concrete, we found a neglected rectangle covered with a layer of decaying mulch. Nothing, not even a weed, had grown there for years. For a few days, we observed the space at different hours before agreeing that it would provide sufficient sunshine for our crops.

After obtaining permission from the administration, who reminded us not to obstruct access to three manholes, we set out to install a drip irrigation system around the perimeter of the plot with a second smaller loop delivering water to the center. With the help of our students, we added a fresh layer of soil, erected trellising, and planted our first seedlings: tomatoes, beans, basil, eggplant, and dozens of bright yellow and orange marigolds that would protect the plants’ roots from harmful nematodes and hungry beetles.

Since then, hundreds of students have enjoyed learning about sustainable agriculture through the Organic Garden Project, which promotes an understanding of local ecology and seeks to build community at a large urban commuter college. Each term, I select one of my courses, usually an intermediate EAP speech class, to work in the garden. We start out with a discussion on where the food we buy comes from and how it is grown before we examine the differences between conventional and sustainable agriculture methods. In the fall term, the first visit to the garden does not take place until early October, when the heavy rains have subsided and the planting season in South Florida begins. In the spring term, we can head straight to the garden as the temperature is mild and ripe tomatoes beckon.

After meeting our farmer and mentor, Cliff Middleton, who runs a local organic farm and teaches sustainable agriculture at several schools in Miami, we prepare the ground and plant a variety of vegetables. Most of my EAP students have immigrated from Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti, and Brazil, but there are also students who hail from Thailand, Bangladesh, China, and Russia. Some are familiar with the fruits and vegetables we grow; others have never seen yuca, callaloo, or malanga before. “The nature of Florida is very different from my country. This land is very wet,” a student from Cuba wrote in one of his reflection papers. Another student, also from Cuba, recognized similarities: “In my country, the people who work with the land use natural fertilizers for their crops…Families try to use their backyards, and those who live in apartments often use pots to plant in.” As they compare and contrast the geography, climates, and lifestyles of their former and current regions, the students recognize many dichotomies that exist with regard to urban and rural living, conventional and sustainable agriculture, and individualistic versus communal thinking. Their impressions find an outlet in classroom discussions, where we tackle global issues such as immigration, climate change, hunger and obesity, and the recent Occupy Wall Street movement.

With a multi-lingual, multi-cultural group of students, the dynamic conversations in the garden center on what the individual vegetables are called here and there, how they are used in dishes, and what they taste like. “I really enjoyed this experience,” one student related in her journal, “and I think it is a wonderful way for students who came from countries with different nature to learn about this culture. In the garden, students have an opportunity to touch the seeds and the soil when they plant.” Farmer Cliff always gives away some seedlings, which has inspired a number of students to start their own organic gardens, however small, at home. Over the course of the semester, we pull weeds, spread mulch, and check for unwanted intruders like snails and ants, and we document our progress by uploading photos of plants and people in the garden to a shared website. Before the semester ends, students harvest some of the fruits of their labor, whether this means digging for sweet potato tubers, plucking yellow pear and sun gold tomatoes from the vine, or snipping off young arugula leaves. Some students bring their children after school to show them what they have planted.

I began the garden at the same time I started working on my dissertation on the role of community college faculty in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). It gave me a much-needed practical outlet to apply the theories I spent so many hours reading and writing about. Aside from the principles of Earth Literacy, the seven Key Characteristics of Education for Sustainable Development as described in the Framework for the UNDESD International Implementation Scheme (2006) also inform the pedagogy of the Organic Garden Project:

1.     Interdisciplinary and holistic:  The project combines foreign language learning with social and natural sciences and is infused into the course curriculum over the course of the entire semester, not as a one-time unit.

2.     Values-driven: In class, we examine the values associated with sustainability and the interconnection of environmental, social, and economic aspects of various issues. Students learn to agree and disagree respectfully in informal discussions, formal debates, and written assignments.

3.     Critical thinking and problem solving: The garden offers many chances to practice critical thinking and problem solving. Challenges have ranged from insect infestations and broken sprinklers to loofah vines “gone wild,” and since neither the professor nor the students are Florida natives, we are all learning how to become better gardeners in this climate. A few years ago during hurricane season, the garden was partially destroyed by strong winds. A student described it as follows:

Last week a tornado passed through Miami, creating a huge mess in my school garden. In the morning, our professor and the whole class went to the garden to help the farmer fix it and make it beautiful again… The farmer explained to us how to do all the work required without destroying the plants that were still alive. He also told us how important it is to work together because great things are not made by one person only. It was a beautiful experience to help my school garden look better and to make the farmer very happy.

4.     Multi-method: The garden project allows students and professors to engage in experiential learning and “to work together to acquire knowledge and play a role in shaping the environment of their educational institution” (UNESCO, 2006, p. 17). Due to its central location on campus, the garden draws onlookers and visitors and invites the community to see changes taking place in real time. Two years ago, the facilities department set up tables with benches around the garden, and now many students, faculty, and staff enjoy the green space while they eat lunch or prepare for classes.

5.     Participatory decision-making: While I still plan lessons and decide on the grading system, I invite students to participate in decisions on how we shape the classroom learning experience. Would it better to write reflection paragraphs or create PowerPoint presentations about the visit to the Environmental Center? Should we have a traditional quiz on the garden terms, or should we try a role-play that includes the new vocabulary instead? Students get to voice their preferences, and we decide with a show of hands.

6.     Applicability: According to the UNDESD document, “the learning experiences offered are integrated in day to day personal and professional life.” When asked what the benefits of a campus garden were, one student explained: “Having a garden on campus is great because it allows the students to participate in the maintenance, fertilization, and care of plants, and the management of water…Also, the students can learn techniques in how to plant an organic garden themselves.” Many students report that they started conserving water and implemented sustainable ways of living in their own homes as a result of what we learned in class.

7.     Locally relevant: This last characteristic defines the Organic Garden Project, which started before the reawakening of the local farmers’ market movement in Miami. There was a time when I had to drive thirty minutes to buy tomatoes and cucumbers from one of the few remaining U-Pick-It growers or the Knaus Berry Farm in the Redlands, a rural area south of Miami. Now I simply swing by the garden to fill my salad bowl. Others benefit as well.  The college’s organic buying club CROPS (Community Rooted Organic Produce Services) supplements its shares with herbs that are literally rooted in the community: parsley, cilantro, and basil planted and harvested in the garden by service learning students. What could be more locally relevant?

To conclude, the Organic Garden Project offers faculty and students an opportunity to apply the key characteristics of ESD within the context of higher education. As Miami Dade College embraces its new student success and completion initiative, MDC3, our traditional ideas of what constitutes success and what promotes retention and graduation are reexamined. In a small but noticeable way the garden is contributing to creating the “Community of Well-Being” that the Earth Ethics Institute envisions. As one student elaborated:

The garden helps us practice English and enrich our vocabulary. Besides, organic food is richer in vitamins and nutrients, and it reduces the impact of toxic chemicals in our bodies because it does not use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, it is a great way to relax and be in touch with nature. For me, it has been a great experience. In my opinion, it is a wonderful idea to have an organic garden, and it would be fantastic to expand this experience to every student of the college.

A few weeks ago, the bananas were finally ready to be harvested. Two students held the bottom of the bunch while the farmer skillfully severed the top with his rusty machete. Despite the students’ best effort, the bunch crashed to the ground with a thump, resulting in some bananas splitting open. “Never underestimate the power of gravity,” their surprised looks indicated. The students divided the huge bunch into individual hands and hosed them off like one would on a farm. Everyone got to take some green crescents home. We give to the garden, and the garden gives back to us.

Back in the speech class, final reflections on the garden project were due. Marilyn from the Dominican Republic summed up her experience: “Personally, I like to go see how our plants are growing. It is like having something that is yours at the College. It is a way to feel less alone in this city and more connected with MDC.”  Maybe I should show these reflection paragraphs to our administrators in charge of retention. If more of our urban commuter students begin to feel this way, completion rates may improve, too.

References:

UNESCO. (2006). United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

 2005-2014.  Framework for the UNDESD International Implementation Scheme. Retrieved December 18, 2011, fromhttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001486/148650e.pdf

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As we continue into the future, if we hope to move in the direction of sustainability, the question of energy efficiency in buildings old and new becomes increasingly relevant and key to success. Read this article by Dr. Terri Norton and Matija Ratovic to learn about efforts I the Midwest to prepare university students to take on this task.

INTRODUCTION 

In the last couple of years, the United States of America’s (U.S.) drain on energy has become a prominent issue. The rate that energy is consumed in U.S. has overcome rate of which it is produced. It is projected that by the year 2030 the U.S. will annually produce90.3 quadrillion BTUs of energy, while simultaneously consuming 110.9 quadrillion BTUs (U.S. Energy Information Agency Report 2011). The difference, approximately 20.6 quadrillion BTUs (or 22.8 %), will need to be compensated for with imports or energy saving techniques.  Additionally, by the year 2016, the average cost of production of one MW of electricity will be $150.9 (Energy Information Administration 2010).  The Energy Information Administration 2007 report states that commercial energy use per capita is projected to be about 25 percent higher in 2030 than it is today. As the demand for electricity continues to increase, utility companies will experience great challenges as they try to meet the increasing demand. In addition, the supply capacity is very limited. Building a new fossil fuel power plant is a long process that is heavily opposed by environmental groups. Building a hydro power plant is also a challenge due to plant’s high negative environmental impact. Relying on clean energy sources (solar, wind or geothermal) would not completely solve the energy problem. Clean energy will make up only 3 percent of the total demand by 2030. If utility companies are not able to increase energy production, it may be time to look at the other side of the equation and try to trim energy consumption.

Currently in the U.S., there are 4.8 million commercial and 350,000 industrial facilities (Energy Information Administration 2006). Combined annual energy cost for these buildings is over $200 billion (Energy Information Administration 2006). According to the report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), staggering 30 percent of the energy used in operating commercial and industrial facilities is used inefficiently or unnecessarily (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2007). Over $20 billion can be saved annually if energy conservation measures are employed on commercial buildings and industrial facilities.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy report, it is estimated that up to 50 percent of the energy in buildings is lost due to inadequate insulation (U.S. Department of Energy 2010). If all insulation products are properly installed in buildings it will save consumers about 12 quadrillion BTUs annually or “about 42% of the energy that would have been consumed with no insulation in place” (Green and Competitive Report: Energy Conservation Management 1996). The amount that would be saved by properly insulating commercial buildings is more than 50 percent of the expected U.S. energy deficit at 2030. Since commercial buildings are the biggest consumers of energy, utility companies have reason to initiate (subsidize) conservation efforts. On the other hand, commercial buildings could also benefit from energy conservation by cutting operational costs.

It seems that energy conservation and energy savings are the best alternatives to meet expanding energy demands. In order to conserve energy, we have to determine where and how the energy is consumed in our system. The most efficient way to do this is to audit a building’s energy consumption. Energy audit is a set of rules that breaks down the energy consumption in an existing building into components. When we know how and where energy is used, we are able to determine a proper energy saving method for a particular building. Energy saving methods and processes are known as building retrofits.

According to the EPA BASE study (1994-1998), an overwhelming 96 percent of all buildings in the U.S. were built prior to 1991. Only 35 percent of these buildings are under 35 years old. Knowing that energy saving practice did not exist in near past in the construction industry, it is safe to assume that almost 65 percent of U.S. buildings need energy auditing or building retrofits.

As previously mentioned, there are over 5 million commercial buildings in the U.S., 44 percent are privately owned, 44 percent are government owned (city, state and federal) and 15 percent are classified as academics, such as schools, universities, and institutes (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1998).  Knowing that all federal buildings have to achieve a 30 percent reduction in total energy use by 2015 relative to 2005 levels (Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007), the potential market for energy auditing and retrofitting is enormous.  Additionally, the same act, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, mandates a 55 percent reduction in a building’s fossil fuel use by 2010 from 2003 levels, with complete elimination by 2030. Furthermore, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act mandates significant funding be appropriated for renovations to federal buildings. It is approximated that the $400 billion will be spent on major green renovations in the commercial building sector. Additionally, it is forecasted that efficiency retrofits will more than triple in annual revenue to $6.6 billion by 2013.

In order to address the problem of energy conservation, International Energy Agency (IEA) developed Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (ECBCS) program. This program describes energy auditing methodology and lays down a set of rules for energy auditing. According to Annex 11 of ECBCS, there are several steps that the energy auditing process should follow (IEA-ECBCS 1987). In theory, energy assessments are required to identify the most efficient and cost-effective energy conservation methods.

The practice of retrofitting buildings with simple, environmentally friendly technology—better wall insulation, more-efficient boilers, and low emission windows—has been around for years, but there is little research on how much energy these changes actually can save. The problem of implementing retrofitting technologies on existing buildings is associated with high professional labor cost and limited data on savings that building retrofits brings. Recently, engineering programs across U.S. started offering “green” building constructions classes (LEED classes, environmental engineering classes, “green” building management classes and etc). They correctly recognized the need for method that will improve energy conservation at new buildings. However, engineering programs across the country are lagging in developing and offering courses that will address the need for building retrofitting. There are currently 26 ABET accredited construction engineering programs in the U.S. After surveying their course offering for the academic year 2010-2011, we did not find a program that offers an integrated class in energy auditing and building retrofitting.

Currently, there is a need for skilled laborers who are capable of understanding and managing the complete energy assessment process. The objective of this paper is to propose a curriculum for an integrated course in an energy auditing process that would include both academic and practical training.

METHODOLOGY

The best way to enhance student learning is to get students involved in a learning environment where they can learn the theoretical basics of energy auditing and practical applications of a building’s retrofits.  In order to achieve this goal, universities must team up with professional employers to provide off-campus learning opportunities. The biggest advantage of this approach is that students will have the opportunity to test their theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom, as well as in the real working environment.  It is well known that practical experience enhances the understanding of academic concepts.

A.    Tentative Course Plan

The proposed course is aligned with the Sustainable Construction curriculum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction.  This course provides an opportunity for students to gain knowledge on key topics related to the energy assessment of buildings. The topics covered include: energy consumption, building system analysis, grade auditing, thermal assessment, data collection, and building retrofit benefit-cost analysis.  The course will also cover design of energy efficient and “healthy buildings”. Design of buildings for low energy use and optimal indoor air quality. Three lecture hours a week for one semester. Course projects will be incorporated to demonstrate practical application of course knowledge.  Table 1. provides a tentative course plan.

The course plan follows the procedure for energy assessment developed by American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

According to ASHRAE energy auditing process can be divided into four steps: benchmarking, walkthrough, general audit and grade audit (ASHRAE 1997).

During benchmarking, building’s utility bills are analyzed compared with the similar buildings. The walkthrough audit is based on visual verifications and notifications of the building’s installed equipment and operating data. The general audit or real audit is more detailed analysis of the building energy needs and consumption. In this step detailed energy distribution is determined—amount of electricity used for lighting systems, for heating and cooling, and for running various electrical equipment. In this step, quantitative evaluation of energy consumption and energy distribution is determined. A general audit involves detailed surveying of all energy consumers in the building, on-site measurements, and implementation of computer-based models.

The final step in this process is a grade audit. A grade audit involves planning and construction of improvements that fall within the framework of retrofitting a building. During this step, a cost–benefit analysis is conducted in order to determine the best engineering practice for a given project.  Detailed technical and business plans are developed to justify the cost of retrofitting.

Table 1. Tentative Course Plan for Integrated Class in Building Energy Auditing and Building Energy Savings Retrofits

In order to conduct and understand the complete energy auditing procedure, students must receive training and education in interdisciplinary knowledge in thermodynamics, building system operation, construction engineering, and cost analysis. The proposed class outline will allow students to gain multidisciplinary knowledge needed to efficiently conduct energy auditing and retrofitting process.

B.     City Assessment- Case Study

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, does not have a class that covers energy auditing and building retrofitting. However, faculty recognize the need for this deficient profile and have taken action toward this end. In 2010, the City of Omaha received a multimillion-dollar grant from the Department of Energy for energy efficiency improvements on the city buildings.  An objective of the project was to establish baseline energy consumption for city buildings and to study the long-term efficiency of the energy retrofits. The City of Omaha collaborated with University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), College of Engineering and Kiewit Building Group, in order to complete the project. The UNL College of Engineering was included into the project to engage and train UNL engineering students in the process of energy auditing. It was an excellent opportunity for students to learn about energy auditing and for faculty to pilot proposed class curriculum.

Kiewit Building Group served as the project consultant, providing overall project management and energy auditing training for the students. The subject of energy auditing was not part of the curriculum. Over the course of the project, the City of Omaha decided to make small retrofitting projects on each building and to track how retrofitting changes effected the energy consumption for each. These changes included modifications in electricity and gas and water consumption before and after the completion of the retrofitting process. Data obtained would allow the City of Omaha to determine the best energy saving techniques for future improvements.

C.    Energy Auditing Training

Figure 1. Site specific energy auditing training for students was held at City of Omaha Main Maintenance facility

Students were trained in energy auditing and training. Training included theoretical basis of energy auditing (4 weeks), practical on-site visits and data collections (2 weeks), operating energy auditing tools (1 week), and operating energy auditing software Energy Star Portfolio Manager (1 week). The theoretical basis of energy auditing was covered with four 2-hour seminar sessions provided by Kiewit Building Group. Information covered in seminar sessions included the HVAC system in the residential and commercial buildings and fundamentals of energy auditing, thermodynamics and building assessment. The University of Nebraska College of Engineering provided an additional one-hour seminar for training students on the subject of residential energy auditing.  Site-specific theoretical basis of energy auditing and building inspections was covered with four 1-hour sessions provided by the commissioning architectural engineer from Kiewit Building Group. During the theoretical basis of the training, students were introduced to project plans and schedules. After covering theoretical basis of the energy auditing process, two weeks of practical on-site visits were conducted in order to strengthen knowledge of energy auditing process. The total of four on-site visits were made to actual city facilities—the Main Administrative Office Building, Waste Processing Plant, Library, and Fire Station.

Each facility visited required unique energy auditing procedures. Students were advised that the auditing process was to begin by interviewing building manager for each facility. Students were given a list of 50 interview questions to assess the energy use of each building.  Additionally, the interview questions covered the maintenance history and any past or present issues for each facility. Students were given the opportunity to practice with mock interviews with real building managers. After these mock interviews, the students received immediate feedback. Students received recommendations for formulating questions in an appropriate order. They were also informed that the use of improper interviewing techniques could hinder the success of an audit.

D.    Data Collection

After the practical on-site training period, students were sent to collect building survey data for each of the City of Omaha’s ninety-seven facilities. This step required walkthrough energy audit for each building. The City of Omaha’s facilities were divided respectively to six primary types of building spaces—administrative offices, community centers, fire and police stations, libraries, pavilions and caretaker residences, and maintenance and service facilities.

Figure 2. Practical part of the energy auditing training - site visit and data collection at Omaha Waste Treatment Plant

Surveying data that were to be collected were divided up into eight main categories: site, envelope, interior, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, specialty, and programs.  In most cases, the assessments took two visits to document and averaging 4 to 6-hours total.

Additionally, general audit was conducted on three city buildings (library, fire station and public recreation facility). Each building represented the most common type of 97 city facilities. General audit of these buildings were to be used as template for remaining 94 facilities.  General audit was very time consuming and labor intensive. It took four students and commissioning architectural engineer about 4 hours to collect data on one facility.

Students created Energy Star Portfolio for every City facility. The Energy Star Portfolio is an online software that allows you to track and assess energy and water consumption across a number of buildings. It is a very useful energy management tool that compares your building’s energy consumption against theoretical model buildings, which is statistically derived from a national survey conducted by the Energy Information Administration. Students were supplied with gas, electricity, and water consumption data for all of the City of Omaha’s 97 buildings for up to 15 years. Data from the Energy Star Portfolio was used to generate energy usage index (EUI) for each building. The building’s EUI represents energy consumption normalization factors that allow us to compare energy consumption across the buildings.

  DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION

In the move toward sustainability, the need for more energy efficient buildings is an increasingly important topic in the building industry. As that need continues to grow, so does the need for a skilled workforce that can assess, improve, and maintain energy efficient structures.  The Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln hopes to meet that demand through the courses offered to their students.   Through a benchmark study, the EECBG Project with the City of Omaha, the authors were able to explore the possibility of incorporating industry practice into the collegiate learning environment.  Although this case study was not in a classroom setting, we were able to achieve a proof of concept.  In addition, the students gained a wealth of knowledge from the energy professionals involved in the study. Moreover, the project provided a vehicle for implementing energy efficiency into the college curriculum.  The knowledge gained from the case study serves as a foundation for the proposed course presented in this article. The course will include classroom training and on-site training and physical assessment.  A pilot for this course will be implemented into the Fall 2011 schedule of classes, as a special topics course.

REFERENCES

Hay, J. C., Sud, I. s. 1997.  4061 (RP-669) -Evaluation of Proposed ASHRAE Energy Audit Form and Procedures. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Energy Information Administration. 2006. 2003 CBECS Detailed Tables. Building Characteristics Tables for All Buildings (Including Malls), table A1. Energy Information Administration.

Energy Information Administration. 2010. Annual Energy Outlook 2010. Energy Information Administration.

Energy Information Administration. 2006. Expenditures for Sum of Major Fuels for All Buildings 2003. CBECS Detailed Tables. Table C4A. Energy Information Administration.

Energy Conservation Management, Inc. ,Alliance to Save Energy , Barakat & Chamberlin, Inc. 1996.  Green and Competitive – The Energy, Environmental, and Economic Benefits of Fiber Glass and Mineral Wool Insulation Products . North American Insulation Manufactured Association .

U.S. Department of Energy. 2010. Radiant Barrier Attic Fact Sheet. U.S. Department of Energy.

IEA-ECBCS . 1987. Annex 11. IEA Energy Conservation in Buildings & Community Systems

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1998. Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation (BASE) study, 1994-1998. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2007. Energy Star Program. “Useful Facts and Figures.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2007. Energy Star Program. “The ENERGY STAR Challenge: Build a Better World 10% At a Time.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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This case study presents the threat that newly formed glacial lakes pose for mountain dwellers as well as infrastructure down valley. The article discusses efforts under way in Apolobamba National Park to include glacial lakes in their “social monitoring” system in order to include the local population in defining management options for potentially dangerous glacial lakes.

Introduction

Climate change and global warming are already a reality in Bolivia, the impacts of which—glacier retreat, more frequent droughts and inundations—are becoming increasingly prevalent.

There are numerous studies on the rate of glacier retreat, as well as the impact melting glaciers have on urban water supply. However, studies highlighting the impact of climate change on risk in mountain areas are still scarce.

The present article goes to show, on the one hand, the threat that newly formed glacial lakes pose for mountain dwellers as well as infrastructure down valley. On the other hand, the case study presents and discusses efforts under way in Apolobamba National Park to include glacial lakes in their “social monitoring” system in order to include the local population in defining management options for potentially dangerous glacial lakes.

Climate change and (mountain) protected areas

Climate change is a reality in the Bolivian Andes. Temperature, precipitation and humidity have changed considerably over the last 50 years (Vuille et al., 2008). Temperature increase is now about 0.3° C per decade. What is important to notice is that temperature increase is more pronounced at higher altitude, e.g. temperature increase at above 5,000 m.a.s.l. is about double that at altitudes below 2,000 m.a.s.l.

Continuing the emissions pathway for CO2 of the last 10 years (A1FI scenario of the IPCC), global average temperature rise by 2100 will be between 4 and 7° C, compared to pre-industrial times (IPCC, 2007). For Bolivia’s high mountain areas this translates into a local temperature rise of anywhere between 7 and 14 degrees over the same time span.

Considering the impact that the rise in global temperature of 0.8° C over the last 200 years—but mainly over the last half century—has already had on the Andes, this magnitude is beyond imagining.

Mountain protected areas are thus most vulnerable to climate change due to their already fragile ecology and to the above average temperature rise. There is evidence that a warming climate leads to the migration of species, generally in upward or poleward directions. Accelerated climate change is likely to speed up these migrations, and it is unclear which species are able to move fast enough. In the case of upward migration, the hilltops themselves pose restrictions as area is reduced and as there is virtually nowhere to go for those species inhabiting the highest places (Hoffmann, 2010b; Hoffmann et al., 2011).

The Apolobamba National Area for Integrated Management, with its core area above 4,000 m.a.s.l. and peaks going up to 6,000 meters, is one of the few high mountain protected areas in Bolivia and one of the two national parks that harbour a significant glacier area within them.

A different challenge for mountain protected areas arises from the fact that due to the elevation of the freezing line, agriculture is now possible at altitudes that until very recently were only apt for herding thus reducing near natural regions and putting more pressure on mountain ecosystems.

Bolivia’s National Park Service SERNAP

Bolivia’s first national park, Parque Nacional Sajama, was created in 1939. However it was not until the mid-nineties that, in the wake of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and the signing of the Biodiversity Convention, a proper management system for the country’s protected areas was established.

Bolivia’s National Protected Areas Agency SERNAP (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas) was established in 1998. According to its founding statutes, its two main objectives were defined as:

• To conserve the natural and cultural heritage of the protected area and its surroundings; and
• To contribute to socioeconomically sustainable development at local, regional, and national levels (SERNAP, 2007).

It is interesting to note that from the beginning of this century protected areas were conceived as places where people already lived and had the right to continue living. For many years SERNAP´s motto ran “protected areas with people.” This stands in sharp contrast to the original national park idea at the end of the 19^th century, following the Yellowstone model in the US, where people were driven out and kept out in order to preserve “wilderness.”

It is thus not surprising that Bolivia’s Protected Area Agency SERNAP has a long tradition of people’s participation, including local and indigenous communities as well as municipalities, in the planning and management practice of its 22 national protected areas. At the center of this approach stands the active promotion of participatory planning processes, full participation of the main stakeholders, and the realization of joint project with local communities as well as municipalities (Hoffmann, 2007). This has been crucial to raise acceptance of protected areas and SERNAP’s role throughout the country.

ANMIN Apolobamba

The Apolobamba protected area was first declared in 1972 as Ulla Ulla National Reserve, with an area of 240,000 ha and the main aim of protecting the region’s dwindling vicuña population. Recognized as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1977, the area was later (2000) expanded to its present size of 483,743 ha and renamed “Apolobamba National Area of Integrated Nature Management” (Área Nacional de Manejo Integrado Natural – ANMIN).

Its altitudinal range reaches from 800 to more than 6,000 metres, which makes it home to a variety of different landscapes and ecosystems within the park’s boundaries, including puna, páramo, montane forest, inter-andean dry valleys and tropical rainforest (SERNAP, 2006).

The park encompasses almost the complete Apolobamba mountain range, which is the northernmost part of the Eastern branch of the Andean Cordillera in Bolivia, bordering with Peru. The Cordillera de Apolobamba is the main glaciated region in Bolivia, stretching for around 120 km. It lies about 250 km northwest of La Paz and north of Lake Titicaca.

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) – a new threat to mountain people

Due to global warming, Bolivia’s tropical glaciers are retreating at an unprecedented rate (Hoffmann, 2008). Bolivia is home to around 20% of the world’s tropical glaciers, with Peru holding about 70%, Ecuador and Columbia combined 4%, and the rest of the world less than 1%.

As in most regions of the world, accelerated melting of glaciers set in around 1980. At this time Bolivia held 566 km² of glacier area in its cordilleras (Ekkehard Jordan, 1991).

Recent investigations of glacial recession in Bolivia looking at 21 glaciers in the Cordillera Real using photogrammetric measurements established that glaciers had lost 43% of their volume and 48% of their surface area between 1975 and 2006 (Soruco et al., 2009). This data, combined with the reconstruction of glacier recession in the Cordillera Apolobamba based on satellite images performed by Tarquino (2011) leads us to state that glacier loss in the Apolobamba mountain range has been around 50% over the past 35 years.

The melting of mountain glaciers is not only impacting the scenic beauty of Bolivia´s Andean mountain range. It also has important impacts on the hydrological cycle, especially the availability of water during the dry season (April-October) in mountain regions and downstream, that have recently become a focus of investigation and public concern (see Bradley, 2006; Hoffmann, 2009 and 2010a; Soruco et al., 2009).

Little to no attention has been paid so far to risks and dangers associated with the rapid melting of glaciers and permafrost (Hoffmann & Weggenmann, 2011). When glaciers recede a lake is often formed at the tip of the tongue of the glacier, which might grow to considerable size depending on local terrain conditions. These glacial lakes are often dammed by moraines made up of loose material that might yield to the pressure of the water and break, releasing enormous amounts of water downstream.

As glacial lake expert Christian Huggel states: “Generally, glacier floods represent the largest and most extensive glacial hazard, i.e., the hazard with the highest potential for disaster and damage. . . . Glacier floods are triggered by the outburst of water reservoirs in, on, underneath and at the margin of glaciers. . . . Outbursts from moraine-dammed lakes can be triggered by overtopping, piping, slippage on steep slopes or a combination thereof. . . . Bedrock-dammed lakes are commonly considered as safe from failure.” (Huggel, 2004).

The recent forming of glacial lakes in the Andes dates from the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA, 1550-1850), but has increased sharply in the 1980s. With this increase, the risk of dangerous Glacial Lake Outburst Floods has also increased considerably.

This development has not, however, been accompanied by the subsequent rise in awareness by local populations of the Cordillera de Apolobamba. The problem for the local people who would be the most affected is in recognizing the threat posed by glacial lakes consists because it does not fit in with their cultural and historic experience; glacial lakes are a completely new phenomenon and there has not been sufficient time for “learning.”

GLOFs have previously only been reported from Peru (e.g., Huaráz, 1941), the Himalayas and other high mountain regions of the world, but—until very recently—not so from Bolivia.

The Keara GLOF incident

A first documented case of a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood in Bolivia occurred in the Keara watershed in the Cordillera Apolobamba in 2009 (Apaza Ticona, 2009; Hoffmann, 2009). On November 3, 2009 at around 11 a.m. a glacial lake dammed by glacial ice in the mountains way above the small village of Keara in the Municipio of Pelechuco “all of a sudden discharged its contents, after blocks of ice dropped into the lake, provoking a violent outlet of the water,” as the report of field technician Martín Apaza Ticona records (2009). When the swell of water reached Keara Community, it flooded potato fields, drowned farm animals and destroyed bridges as well as 7 km of dirt road running next to the river bed.

Graphic 1: The ice-dammed glacial lake above Keara, Google Earth image.

The breach where the water broke through.

Mud left behind after the swell of water.

People from the community of Keara observing a drowned llama.

People from Keara community observing the glacial lake after the outbreak.

Unfortunately no official report was ever produced, and villagers tried in vain for many weeks to get recognition and compensation from government for the losses suffered.

To avoid something similar happening to other mountain communities in the area following the Keara GLOF incident, the Bolivian Mountain Institute intensified the search for funding to compile an inventory of glacial lakes in the Cordillera Apolobamba and to execute a risk analysis of those lakes considering populations and infrastructure downstream exposed to a possible GLOF.

A comprehensive glacial lake inventory of the Cordillera Apolobamba, the main glaciated region of Bolivia, was finally undertaken by Daniel Weggenmann of Heidelberg in close coordination with the Bolivian Mountain Institute (BMI), the Ecological Institute of La Paz´ UMSA university and the management of Apolobamba protected area. The inventory follows the steps of the methodology established by Christian Huggel of Zurich University (Huggel 2004): use easily available satellite images; start with an overview of all existing lakes; determination of age, size, volume, growth rates, material of dam, and distance to glacier; classify according to risk potential and field visit to selected glacial lakes.

The results of the glacier lake inventory show that the total number of contemporary glacial lakes went up from 174 to 216 in the period from 1986-2008, while total lake area grew by approximately 2.5 km² (Weggenmann, 2011). The study also provides a list of the potentially most dangerous lakes as well as recommendations for further monitoring.

Apolobamba´s monitoring system

The setting up of a participatory monitoring system by Apolobamba´s park management must be seen against the backdrop of the practice of people’s participation in the management of Bolivia’s protected areas, as described above. Whereas traditional conservation monitoring in national parks concentrates on biodiversity features and is done by highly qualified and well-paid experts, often from outside the country, in 2010 ANMIN Apolobamba chose a different path: In order to monitor not only the park’s biodiversity, but also natural resource management by local populations, as well as management efficiency and local acceptance, a “social monitoring” system—or “monitoring by the people of the protected area”—was set up involving park rangers and representatives of local communities, and assisted by a small technical team made up of NGO personnel and scientists from the Ecological Institute of UMSA state university in La Paz. The following elements have been defined as objects of the monitoring: water bodies, glaciers, traditional tubers, fauna, bofedales (Andean peat bogs), climate, conflicts, mining, and knowledge of traditional medicinal plants, rituals and ruins (Flores & Tarquino, 2011).

While a group of researchers was in the area studying potentially dangerous glacial lakes, they first contacted the park guards for their fieldwork and later were able to convince the national park’s manager and the local communities of the usefulness of incorporating the monitoring of glacial lakes as an additional aspect into Apolobamba´s monitoring system.

“Three points for the monitoring of glacial lakes have been established, and the rapid rise of those lakes has been shown, which implies an increase of the risks in the valleys downriver” (Flores & Tarquino, 2011, p. 9; own translation). The following map depicts the three monitoring points that were installed in the Cordillera de Apolobamba to monitor lake levels.

Graphic 2: Location of glacial lake monitoring points in Apolobamba national park

First experiences and tasks ahead

One of the difficulties with this participatory approach to glacial lake monitoring by locals and park rangers is the distance of those lakes from park camps or even roads. Therefore, a constant monitoring requires the extra time and effort that it takes to walk up to the glacial lakes every time. Intervals of two or three months are suggested.

In addition to the measuring of lake levels, integrating photographic documentation of glacial retreat and behaviour of glacial lakes has begun but it remains to be seen whether this effort will be maintained over time. It would provide excellent material for public awareness campaigns about the impacts of climate change and the risks posed by newly formed glacial lakes.

Graphic 3: The photograph on the left shows the establishment of a monitoring point in the glacial lake close to the Cerro Hermoso mine, part of the Chaupi Orco complex in the municipio Pelechuco. The photo on the right shows the establishment of a monitoring point in the glacial lake of Nevado Waracha mountain in the Cololo complex.

Source: Flores & Tarquino, 2011, p. 11

What is most innovative about this “social” or participatory monitoring is the complex institutional set-up, involving actors from different spheres of society from academia, to national government, to local population and NGOs.

Without this multi-actor approach it would probably not have been possible to introduce the monitoring of glacial lakes into the Monitoring Program for Apolobamba. But then, what is at some moment a strength can also turn into a weakness: As key persons from various institutions involved, including the park’s director, have (been) changed during the last year, the continuation of the whole Monitoring Program has come to a halt.

Graphic 4: Showing the institutional set-up of the participatory glacial lake monitoring approach (Elaboration: Dirk Hoffmann)

Later in 2011, especially after the indigenous people´s march from the central lowlands to the seat of government in La Paz in protest to the government´s plan to build a road right through the Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro Securé (TIPNIS), the state agency for protected areas, which had been pressured by government to manifest itself in favour of the road building, went into a deepening credibility and institutional crisis.

It is still not clear whether the new director will put the same effort into making the monitoring system work, but there are signs of hope. As UNESCO has approved the financial means to work on a new zoning proposal for Apolobamba Biosphere Reserve, it seems possible that at the moment of formulating the new management plan glacial lake monitoring might find its way into the official planning matrix as part of the future risk management strategy (Tarquino, 2012).

Much depends on the involvement and interest of local communities, and their capacity to pressure Apolobamba park management and local authorities of Pelechuco, to understand these new challenges posed by recently formed glacial lakes and act upon them accordingly.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Rodrigo Tarquino of the Ecological Institute of UMSA University, La Paz, Bolivia and Daniel Weggenmann of Heidelberg University, Germany for their valuable contributions and companionship during field research.

Note

A longer article “Climate change induced glacier retreat and risk management: Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the Apolobamba mountain range, Bolivia” has been presented by Dirk Hoffmann and Daniel Weggenmann at the international online conference “Climate 2011. Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management” (www.climate2011.net) in November 2011 and is now being prepared for publication with Springer.

References

Apaza Ticona, M. 2009. Reporte preliminar del desastre natural en la comunidad de Keara, 6 noviembre 2009. La Paz: field report (unpublished).

Bradley, R., Vuille, M., Díaz, H. & Vergara, W. 2006. Threats to water supplies in the tropical Andes. Science, 312, 1755-1756.

Flores, P. & Tarquino, R. 2011. Programa de Monitoreo Integral del Área Natural de Manejo Integrado Nacional Apolobamba. Propuesta de Trabajo, technical document prepared for WCS and SERNAP (unpublished).

Hoffmann, D. 2007. The Sajama National Park in Bolivia. In: Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 27, No. 1, 11-14.

Hoffmann, D. 2008. Consecuencias del retroceso glaciar en la Cordillera boliviana. Pirineos, 16, 77-84.

Hoffmann, D. 2009. “Explosión” de laguna glaciar causó serios daños en Apolobamba. Bolivia Agraria p. 7, El Diario, La Paz, April 8, 2010.

Hoffmann, D. 2010a. Cambio Climático y manejo de riesgos en alta montana: Inventario de las lagunas glaciares de la Cordillera Real de Bolivia. In: BECK, S. G., Paniagua, N., López, R. P. & Nagashiro, N. (eds.) Biodiversidad y Ecología en Bolivia – Simposio de los 30 anos del Instituto de Ecología. La Paz: Instituto de Ecología – Universidad Mayor San Andrés.

Hoffmann, D. 2010b. El cambio climático y las áreas protegidas de Bolivia. In: BECK, S. G., Paniagua, N., López, R. P. & Nagashiro, N. (eds.) Biodiversidad y Ecología en Bolivia – Symposio de los 30 anos del Instituto de Ecología. La Paz: Instituto de Ecología – Universidad Mayor San Andrés.

Hoffmann, D., Oetting, I., Arnillas, C. A. & Ulloa, R. 2011. Climate Change and Protected Areas in the Tropical Andes. In: Herzog, S. K., Martínez, R., Joergensen, P. M. & Tiessen, H. (eds.) Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Tropical Andes. Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) Scientific Committee on Problems of the Envrionment (SCOPE).

Hoffmann, D. & Weggenmann, D. (2011). Climate change induced glacier retreat and risk management; Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the Apolobamba mountain range, Bolivia. Paper presented at the online conference “Climate 2011. Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management” (www.climate2011.net), 7-12 November 2011.

Huggel, C. 2004. Assessment of glacial hazards based on remote sensing and GIS modeling, Zürich, Univ. Geographisches Institut.

IPCC 2007. Climate change 2007 the physical science basis; contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC; technical summary Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge [u.a.], Cambridge University Press.

Jordan, E. 1991. Die Gletscher der bolivianischen Anden eine photogrammetrisch-kartographische Bestandsaufnahme der Gletscher Boliviens als Grundlage für klimatische Deutungen und Potential für die wirtschaftliche Nutzung; mit 34 Tabellen von Ekkehard Jordan, Stuttgart, Steiner.

Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (SERNAP). 2006. Apolobamba. Plan de Manejo. Technical paper (unpublished).

Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (SERNAP). 2007. Informe sobre el sistema nacional de áreas protegidas. La Paz: Servivio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas.

Soruco, A., Vincent, C., Francou, B. & Gonzalez, J. F. 2009. Glacier decline between 1963 and 2006 in the Cordillera Real, Bolivia. Geophysical Research Letters, 36.

Tarquino, R. 2011. Estado actual y escenarios futuros del derretimiento glaciar en la Cordillera de Apolobamba y su implicancia para la gestión del Área Natural de Manejo Integrado Nacional Apolobamba. Pérfil de tésis (unpublished).

Tarquino, R. 2012. “Respecto a lo de monitoreo de lagunas glaciales…”, personal communication, January 20, 2012.

Vuille, M., Francou, B., Wagnon, P., Juen, I., Kaser, G., Mark, B. G. & Bradley, R. S. 2008. Climate change and tropical Andean glaciers: Past, present and future. Earth-Science Reviews, 89, 79-96.

Weggenmann, D. 2011. Gletscherseeausbrüche in der Cordillera Apolobamba (Bolivien) – Analyse und Bewertung des Risikopotentials im Rahmen des Klimawandels. Diploma (unpublished), Heidelberg University.

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CASE STUDY

Thailand is facing a serious problem with their reliance on foreign oil imports. With nearly 90% of their crude oil, gasoline, and diesel being imported, the country is searching for ways to improve their national energy security by lowering their demand for foreign oil. Bioethanol from cassava and molasses are two promising technologies that could help Thailand work toward their goal of energy security. However, debate is still on going to determine which feedstock should be chosen to power the country’s bioethanol industry. This teaching case study presents the background and sustainability analysis for both cassava and molasses based bioethanol as well as teaching notes and discussion questions. It is intended for high school seniors or college undergraduates in courses that address sustainability-related issues and technologies.

Abstract

            Thailand is facing a serious problem with their reliance on foreign oil imports. With nearly 90% of their crude oil, gasoline, and diesel being imported, the country is searching for ways to improve their national energy security by lowering their demand for foreign oil. Bioethanol from cassava and molasses are two promising technologies that could help Thailand work toward their goal of energy security. However, debate is still on going to determine which feedstock should be chosen to power the country’s bioethanol industry. This teaching case study presents the background and sustainability analysis for both cassava- and molasses-based bioethanol as well as teaching notes and discussion questions. It is intended for high school seniors or college undergraduates in courses that address sustainability-related issues and technologies.

 

In addition to designing a plan for the production of bioethanol, the Thai Government has set up a plan to increase its affordability through tax incentives and subsidies. Ethanol producers get an excise tax exemption on ethanol of 6.39 Thai Baht [THB]/L ($1 US is approximately 30.41 THB, Feb. 27, 2012), and gasohol refineries are subsidized using the Oil Fund. Therefore, retail prices of E85, fuel derived from 85% ethanol, are 30% lower than E10, and E10 prices are 22-26% lower than CG. The Thai Government also lowered excise taxes on manufacturers of E85 vehicles and lowered import duties for Flex Fuel vehicles, cars capable of running on E85, E10 or CG from 80% to 60%.¹⁵

Feedstocks of Interest

Biofuels are derived from plant or microorganism-based feedstocks. In the case of bioethanol production in Thailand, the primary feedstocks of interest are cassava root and molasses, a by-product of sugar production from sugar cane. Therefore, a full understanding of the bioethanol production system in Thailand requires knowledge of the background and current usage of both cassava and molasses.

Cassava is starch crop classified into either “sweet” or “bitter” varieties. While “sweet” cassava can be directly consumed, the “bitter” is poisonous due to high levels of hydrocyanic acid. Currently there is no industrial production of “sweet” cassava. It is grown only in small scale, single household farms.¹⁶ 

“Bitter” cassava, is what we will refer to as cassava for the rest of the study. It is the second largest industrial crop in Thailand behind only rice and is widely utilized in the starch industry as a sweetener, in the chip and pellet industry, and as animal feed. Both the fresh cassava root and dry chips can be used in the ethanol conversion process, but the chips are preferred as they are easier to store on-site for when roots are not being harvested.^16,17

Cassava is grown year round with minimal inputs. It does not normally require irrigation or control of insects and pests. It is also a very hearty crop, capable of growing in areas where other biofuel crops could not. ^17,18 Also, cassava is available to be processed into bioethanol year round because of the crop’s unbounded time window for planting and harvesting and its ability to be stored in high quantities as dried chips for use during low harvest periods.¹⁸

Thailand is the world’s largest cassava producer and exporter. In 2008, Thailand contributed nearly 70% of the world’s cassava exports from a cultivated area of 1.24 M hectares yielding 18.73 metric tons roots/hectare. (1 hectare = 10,000 m².) ¹⁶

Sugarcane is also a valuable crop in Thailand. As a tropical country located in Southeast Asia, its climate is well suited to sugarcane growth. Cultivation is normally done in non-irrigated areas in the northern areas of Thailand; the northeastern, central, and northern regions of Thailand contribute 38%, 35% and 27% of the total planted area, respectively. It is typically planted either just before or just after the rainy season and must grow for 10-12 months before being harvested. Unlike cassava, sugarcane has a very limited harvest window; it is only available for 4-5 months out of the year, typically December-March.¹⁶

Recently, production has been increasing with increased demand for bioethanol. In 2007, sugarcane yields in Thailand were 59 metric tons/ha (59 mt/ha) with a total production of around 60 million metric tons (Mmt). This supported a sugar production of between 5-6.5 Mmt with exports accounting for nearly 70%, and domestic sugar use consuming the rest.¹⁹ Just one year later in 2008, production had increased to 73.5 Mmt of cane (69.68 mt/ha). In 2008, Thailand was the world’s second largest sugar exporter after Brazil. ¹⁶

Sugarcane can be directly used to create ethanol with a conversion factor between 12.5 and 14.3 kg of sugarcane/L of ethanol. However, current debate on the revenue sharing system for sugarcane profits between farmers and mills has led to only limited sugarcane to ethanol production.¹⁶ Therefore, it is not considered as a feedstock of interest.

Molasses is considered in this study as the second feedstock of interest in Thai bioethanol conversion. It is a byproduct of sugar production from sugarcane that contains around 50% sugars which can be fermented by yeast to ethanol. One mt of sugarcane is capable of producing approximately 106 kg of sugar and 46 kg of molasses. Before being introduced as a bioethanol feedstock, approximately one third of all the molasses produced in Thailand was exported with the other two thirds being used primarily as an additive in animal feed or simply disposed of on-site. After its introduction into ethanol production in 2008, approximately 78% of all the molasses produced in Thailand was used domestically with bioethanol accounting for 37%, animal feed and MSG production using 11%, and the remaining 30% going into liquor production. A typical molasses-to-ethanol conversion rate is 4 kg of molasses/ L ethanol. However, this number can vary based on production practices and sugar content of the molasses. ^16,19

Lastly, it is important to have a basic understanding of the biochemistry involved in the conversion of a feedstock into bioethanol. Molasses is a sugar feedstock. As such, it can be directly fermented into ethanol using yeast enzymes which convert its sugars into alcohol. However, cassava is a starch feedstock, and as such, it requires an additional step, saccharification, which uses enzymes to convert the starch into sugars which can then be fermented.

Sustainability Analysis

Any investigation into sustainability should begin with a definition of sustainability. In 1987, a UN’s Brundtland Commission published a report titled Our Common Future in which they defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” With that definition in mind, this case study breaks down its sustainability analysis into three areas: economic sustainability (whether a process can make money and how it compares to other competing processes), environmental sustainability (the impact of the process on the environment), and social sustainability (the influence of a process on society).

This study will begin with an investigation of the social impacts of bioethanol production in Thailand and then detail the economic and environmental impacts.

Social Sustainability

In the development of bioethanol production from food or animal feed crops (in this case cassava and molasses), the “food versus fuel” debate arises as a prominent discussion of social sustainability. The debate can be shaped as follows. “To what extent should arable land and water that could be used to produce food instead be used to produce bioethanol?” To assess the social aspects of sustainability in bioethanol production, this study will address the food versus fuel debate by comparing the land and water use of both cassava and molasses.

In addition to investigating land and water use, there are other aspects of social sustainability to be considered with bioethanol. Other commonly mentioned advantages of bioethanol use include reductions in foreign oil dependence and fossil fuel consumption over CG. This study investigates all four criteria in the social sustainability of bioethanol production. Additionally, this section will include a brief background and valuable information about the life cycle analysis method and case studies chosen for comparison in this study.

-Land and Water Use

The Thai government has outlined development guidelines for both cassava and molasses that seek to meet their long term goal of 9 ML of bioethanol/day without increasing the 2008 plantation areas for either cassava or molasses. They are attempting to entirely compensate for increased demand by increasing crop yields per hectare and not by increasing the land area devoted to production. Those 2008 planted areas are 1.24 M ha for cassava and 1.05 M ha for sugarcane.¹⁶ For comparison, Thailand’s total arable land area in 2008 was listed as 15.2 M ha.²⁰

Although the Thai government is attempting to hold land use constant while increasing bioethanol production, research has shown it may not be possible. Silalertruksa et al. have shown that without the addition of direct sugarcane to bioethanol production, Thailand will be forced to increase their cassava and sugarcane planted areas. ¹⁶ Therefore, it is worth investigating which crop requires the least land to produce ethanol.

Figure 1 lists the land and water use of cassava and molasses. The information listed for molasses is calculated based on growing sugarcane to create bioethanol from molasses and sugar. An allocation ratio must be used to account for the amount of the total land and water used by the sugarcane that should be associated with the molasses bioethanol production. Since the two products of interest in sugarcane farming are sugar and molasses, the allocation ratio is set between sugar and molasses. It is generally accepted that the allocation ratio can be set either through analysis of the energy content of the two primary products or through comparing their economic value.  In 2008, Nguyen et al. defined the allocation ratio for molasses based on economic value as 0.12.²¹ In 2009, Silalertruksa and Gheewala defined the molasses allocation ratio based on the energy content of the sugar and molasses as 0.23.²² In this study we will use a value of 0.18, the average of the two values, as the allocation value for molasses when looking at its land and water use.

Comparison of the land and water use for cassava and molasses shows that bioethanol produced from molasses requires less land and less water than bioethanol derived from cassava. However, it is important to remember that cassava is a very hardy crop and can be planted in areas where sugarcane and other food crops cannot. In other words, it can be planted and harvested while not directly competing with food production.

Figure 1. Land and Water Use of Cassava and Molasses19,23

Figure 2. Petroleum Use of Cassava and Molasses-Based E10 (% reduction listed with CE10 and ME10).

Remember that CE10 and ME10 are still composed of 90% CG. As such, their life cycle environmental impacts include the petroleum drilling and refining associated with 90% CG. The E10 to CG conversion rate of 0.989 is set based on fuel economy data taken from driving a Toyota 1.6L/2000 Camry. Although ethanol contains less energy per unit volume than gasoline, ethanol burns more efficiently in vehicles than CG. Therefore, the ratio is not set entirely on the energy content of ethanol in the E10. Analysis on CR, CD, and M _AVE is done on pure ethanol production but does not include final combustion in a vehicle. The 0.65 conversion ratio for pure ethanol and CG is set based on the energy content of the fuel and does not account for improved combustion of ethanol because pure ethanol vehicles aren’t widely produced. As such, the CR, CD, and M_AVE values might overestimate the amount of ethanol required and therefore lead to overestimates of their environmental impacts.

Table 3 shows that both studies reveal the potential for GWP reduction compared to CG. However, the GWP is closely linked to coal use as a primary power source. As such, in the Silalertruksa et al. study where the cassava plant burned coal, its GWP is higher than that of molasses, but in the Nguyen et al. studies where the molasses plant burned coal, its GWP is worse than that of cassava. Reducing or eliminating coal use in power production for either cassava or molasses bioethanol could bring GWP under that of CG.

Acidification is likewise tied to coal use due to its sulfur content; if the molasses plant uses coal instead of the cassava plant, it will produce higher acidification and vice versa.  However, it can be seen that regardless of the process energy source used, bioethanol is responsible for more acidification than CG. This is due in part to the fertilizers used during cultivation of cassava and sugarcane.

Nutrient enrichment is also related to fertilizer use, but unlike acidification, one option always stands out regardless of process energy source; cassava is better than molasses in terms of nutrient enrichment. In fact, CE10 is shown to be better than CG. This is due to the more complete combustion of ethanol versus CG. However, the savings from more complete combustion will be overtaken by the cost of expanded fertilizer use as bioethanol content increases in the fuel. Cassava’s advantage over molasses is twofold: Cassava requires less fertilizer, while leftover sugarcane trash is open-burned in the fields for soil remediation after the sugarcane harvest, releasing harmful air emissions.

Cassava bioethanol is also better in terms of photo-oxidation. As a matter of fact, the value of 1.23 for CD shows that increasing cassava bioethanol content in fuel could reduce levels of photo-oxidative materials under those for CG. The molasses rating suffers from cane trash open-burning.

Economic Sustainability

Economic sustainability is often defined as the ability for a product to produce profit; in the case of two products capable of producing profit, the one that produces more profit is more economically sustainable. For bioethanol production, the question is simple. Is bioethanol in any form, E10, E20, or E85 cheaper to produce than CG? If so, then it will compete favorably in the fuel market. If it is not, then CG will continue to hold its market share.

While the question is straightforward, the answer is not. There are multiple ways to define the cost of a product. Obviously, there is the base cost of production; for bioethanol and CG this is known as the ex-refinery price. This is the cost that has the most direct impact on the retail price of fuel. Sorapipatana and Yoosin investigated the retail cost of CG from 2002-2005, compared it to the cost of 1 L of CG equivalent bioethanol from cassava, and saw that when the CG price hit its maximum of 20.86 Thai Baht [THB]/Liter, bioethanol was cheaper to produce than CG. However, the average price of CG during that 4 year span was 11.50 THB/Liter, well below the average bioethanol price of 18.15 THB/Liter.³⁰

Another way to look at the cost of a product is Full Cost Accounting (FCA). FCA relies on a technique known as Total Society Cost (TSC). TSC is defined as the sum of the actual production cost of a product (its ex-refinery price) plus the external cost on the environment and human health of air pollutants and fossil oil use associated with the product. An example would be acid rain production from the NO_x and SO_x emissions of a coal-fired power plant. TSC would calculate the damage caused by that acid rain and add it onto the production cost of the electricity.

Nguyen et al. investigated the TSC of E10 compared to CG in 2008. In the study, air emissions (CO_2­, CH₄, N₂0, CO, NO₂, SO₂, VOCs [Volatile Organic Compounds], and PM₁₀ [Particulate 10 Micros and smaller]) and fossil oil use were assigned an external damage cost per kilogram. Then the total mass released, or in the case of fossil fuel, consumed, of each of these criteria was multiplied by their cost per mass and added to the ex-refinery price to calculate the TSC. The results of this are given in Figure 3.

 

Figure 3. Total Societal Cost of CG, CE10, and ME10 (THB/FU*) 21,27 * FU = Distance traveled on full tank of CG for 2000 1.6L Toyota Camry

Assuming $1 U.S. = 30.41 THB, the TSC per FU of CG, CE10, and ME10 are $44.21, $44.28, and $45.11, respectively. This study shows that the TSC of E10 from either cassava or molasses in 2008 was comparable to that of CG. Also, note that the ex-refinery price was also very close to that of CG at $28.73, CE10 at $29.70, and ME10 at $29.68. Sorapipatana et al. pointed out that as the price of CG continues to rise, ethanol should rise at a slower rate due to its reductions in fossil fuel usage and therefore become cheaper to produce than gasoline. As such, given the rising cost of fuel, bioethanol from either cassava or molasses should become more fiscally sustainable compared to CG.

Teaching Notes

Conclusion

Attempting to make a decision on the best choice of feedstock for bioethanol production in Thailand is complicated. Molasses uses less land and water than cassava, but cassava can be grown in areas other food crops cannot. Molasses reduces oil imports more than cassava and is therefore better in terms of national energy security, but cassava is better in terms of the environment with its advantages in nutrient enrichment and lowered photo-oxidation. As is the case with many sustainability issues, the method of weighting each of the dimensions of sustainability may determine which choice is ultimately judged as the better.

-Instructor  Objectives

1) Allow the students to weight the respective pros and cons of molasses and cassava and debate amongst themselves what they feel are the most important criteria.

2) Familiarize students with the basic concepts of sustainability and the connections between background, social sustainability, environmental sustainability, and economic sustainability.

3) Develop the students’ understanding of sustainability as a global issue involving the entire world and everyone in it by looking at a case outside the U.S.

-Uses of the Case

This case is intended for high school seniors or undergraduates enrolled in courses that address sustainability-related issues and technologies. However, it could be used along with more detailed research in upper level undergraduate or graduate classes.

One possible use for this case study is to have the students examine the information in the case and then allow them to break off into three teams: 1) pro cassava; 2) pro molasses; and 3) honest brokers/decision makers. As such, they can be allowed to communicate all the important information while working through the decision process.

It would also be a good idea to take some time to discuss the international nature of sustainability by looking at the impact of global oil prices on Thailand’s decision, and touch on the possible impacts of reduced cassava and molasses exports from increased bioethanol production.

A series of discussion questions and possible answers has been provided to help generate discussion and/or evaluate reading comprehension of the study.

-Discussion Questions and Answers

1. What are the two primary feedstocks being considered for biofuels production in Thailand?

Cassava and molasses from sugarcane

2. What was Thailand’s response to the first worldwide oil crisis in the 1970’s?

They implemented the Oil Fund which placed a tax on fuel that was then used to subsidize the price of fuel when market fluctuations caused it to rise significantly.

3. Why is Thailand interested in developing production of biofuels?

Before their biofuels program, Thailand was importing nearly 90% of their crude oil. Therefore, they were susceptible to price fluctuations in the market and wanted to develop biofuel production to begin domestically controlling their automotive fuel market. This should allow them to have more control over crude oil price fluctuations.

4. How would demand for domestic biofuel production change if oil reserves were not located in the Middle East?

While the political unrest in the Middle East has obviously affected global oil supply, contributed to the desire for domestic auto fuel production, and increased the rate of development in the last decade, global supplies would be limited regardless of their location and there would still be desire for domestic automotive fuel production.

5. What were the three strategies the Thai Government implemented to address their oil import problem in 2003?

Increase renewable fuel and utilization efficiency, secure alternative oil sources, and increase the value added of energy sources.

6. What are the advantages to molasses for biofuels production?

It uses less petroleum than cassava per volume of ethanol produced which favors national energy security. It also uses less land and water per liter of ethanol produced which should minimize impacts on other agricultural development. It is also the more established technology with much more experience in its development.

7. What are the advantages of cassava for biofuels production?

The production of cassava is responsible for fewer air emissions per volume of ethanol produced, making it more environmentally sustainable. Also, while it uses more water than molasses, it is more flexible in the areas which it can be planted making it more suitable for a larger possible planting area. Finally, it does not need to be rotated with other crops, as sugarcane does, which should allow for more consistent supply.

8. Do you agree with the concept of full cost accounting? Why or why not? Should the consumer price be the only determination in Economic sustainability? Should external impacts be assigned a dollar amount?

Full cost accounting is not perfect. It obviously relies on the conversion of the economic impacts of external releases into total society costs. This requires some inherent assumptions to be made which can be debated. However, it is a powerful tool that allows direct comparison to be made between environmental and economic sustainability. As such, many people find it to be a valuable tool. It is not perfect though, and some people feel that it over simplifies the issues of environmental and human health impacts. These people argue that the external impacts should be considered separately.

9. Which should carry more weight, environmental impacts or reducing dependence on foreign oil for national security? Why?

Answers will vary among the students. Probably the most common answer is that it should be somewhat balanced and depend on the individual situation. For this study, cassava provides reduced environmental impacts while molasses further reduces foreign oil dependence.  This might be a great opportunity to observe which students feel one way versus another. The instructor could then place those students who feel very strongly one way in the appropriate pro molasses or pro cassava group.

10. In the US, corn use for biofuel production has caused a rise in food prices. Should edible crops and farmland that could be used for food production be utilized for automotive fuel production? Why or why not?

There will probably be two opinions that dominate this discussion. On one hand, food prices are directly linked to world hunger and an increase in food price will drive up the number of malnourished people. However, there are benefits to biofuel production as have been mentioned throughout the case study. The students should be allowed to debate the merits of both arguments. Once again, the most common answer will probably be to try and strike a balance between biofuel production and food prices.

11. Biofuels cannot completely replace gasoline for automotive transportation. There isn’t enough land available to do it. With that in mind, is it a good idea for governments and industries worldwide to be investing so much time and money into biofuel development? Should they be focused on development of other alternatives? Why or why not?

Conversion of sugars and starches to biofuel is an existing technology that can be implemented very quickly. Biofuels can be viewed as a means of extending petroleum reserves to allow more time to develop the technologies that will ultimately meet our demand for automotive fuel. The extent to which biofuels will extend petroleum reserves is as yet unknown with any degree of confidence.  However, due to the mature state of the technology, it is the leading current technology for a petroleum replacement.

12. Discuss which aspect of the biofuel industry you feel will drive it to maximum development i.e. supply of ethanol for fuel or production of vehicles capable of running on high concentrations of ethanol ex.E85?

It is a bit of a balancing act. Without the availability of fuel, E85 vehicles will not make a significant impact in the market, but without vehicles to run on large amounts of ethanol, it will probably continue to be used as an additive and not a primary automotive fuel. In Thailand’s case, the government has decided to support both sides with significant tax incentives. They realize that one cannot occur without the other.

For more information on Thailand’s automotive tax structure and its impact on alternative fuel vehicles, consult Goedecke et al.³¹

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by National Science Foundation Grant No.DGE0801470, “Sustainable Technology through Advanced Interdisciplinary Research”(STAIR), awarded to the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Also, thanks go out to all the members of the spring 2011 offering of the University of Tennessee course, Staircase II, for their valuable input into the case study.

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There is much discussion in sustainability education about the urgent need for a wholesale paradigm shift and much debate about the role of incremental, grassroots change in societal transformation.  Eason and Heroux describe a creative and pragmatic project that addresses behavior change through an incremental approach.  Their case study provides a provocative example of how a grassroots effort to change energy consumption can have growing implications for campuses’ climate impact through the viral nature of student culture.  Their “Green’s List” is a fine and replicable model for the role of celebration in community transformation. 

INTRODUCTION

“Beyond simply adding a few classes on environmental issues and sustainability, a growing cadre of individuals and organizations concerned about the fate of our ecological and social structures are calling for a fundamental rethinking of how institutions of higher education educate students, conduct research, interact with local communities and ecosystems, operate campuses, and provide a model for other institutions. Institutions of higher education clearly have the ability to be leaders in sustainable thought and practice” (Shriberg, 2004). But how does a university go about this?  From global climate change to rising energy prices and the search for alternative energies, environmental education must be clearly modeled for students in order for them to incorporate and apply what they have learned as they move beyond their university experience and into their chosen careers and lives. How is environmental education made relevant for our students? Dr. David Orr said it best: “All education is environmental education. By what is included or excluded we teach students that they are part of or apart from the natural world. To teach economics, for example, without reference to the laws of thermodynamics or those of ecology is to teach a fundamentally important ecological lesson: that physics and ecology have nothing to do with the economy. That just happens to be dead wrong. The same is true throughout all of the curriculum[1] ” (Orr, 1996, p.12).  The challenge, of course, is to motivate and inspire students to realize that even though we face tremendous challenges, actually doing something about the issues mentioned above is possible even if it is on a smaller scale.

The University of Maine Farmington’s (UMF) Sustainable Campus Coalition (SCC) is an organization comprised of students, faculty and staff that facilitates environmental activism and student civic engagement [UMF SCC,http://sustainablecampus.umf.maine.edu ]. The organization was created as part of the university’s commitment to building a sustainable future and was highly supported by the administration. When UMF president Theo Kalikow signed the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007, our pledge to achieve carbon neutrality was consistent with long-held values at the college and with our mission, which commits us to educate students to be environmental stewards. In addition, our Environmental Sustainability Vision Statement (see below) had already set us on a path towards educating the campus and community and modeling best practices in our own use of energy and resources.

UMF’s Green Vision Statement: “Sustainable practices will be an integral part of our campus management and operations, in building and renovating, in reducing pollution and waste, in using appropriate energy resources and materials, and in protecting and incorporating the native environment in our campus spaces. Indoor and outdoor environments should be healthful and aesthetically pleasing. Committing to environmental responsibility means that we will also set goals for ourselves and monitor our progress towards them.

The mission of the SCC has broadened considerably since it began in 2002 to include public education, collaborations with community organizations, municipalities and schools, assessment and mitigation planning associated with greenhouse gas emissions, improvement of recycling on campus, development of a campus organic garden and orchard, encouragement of local food and institutional composting, and reduction of automobile idling. This article will describe an SCC project involving the creation and implementation of the UMF’s Green’s List; a certification program that motivates everyone on campus to work towards more sustainable habits.

DEVELOPMENT

The idea to create the Green’s List came about while developing UMF’s Green Vision Statement. UMF has three United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings and is committed to all new construction being LEED certified [USGBC LEED Program,http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19].  However, like most universities, UMF has many old buildings and the idea at the foundation of this project was determining how to make these old buildings more sustainable.  In addition to certification for new construction, the USGBC also has a LEED certification program for existing buildings. [USGBC LEED Certification for Existing Buildings,http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=221 ].  The thought of having our oldest residence hall become LEED certified was the beginning of the Green’s List development.

The first steps involved talking to our facilities management director and looking inside our residence halls.  Facilities staff mentioned that there were few things that could be done to improve the function of the buildings beyond what was already accomplished.  New energy efficient lighting and windows had already been installed in the buildings and the only way to achieve any other significant improvements was to replace the hot water or heating systems, which would be prohibitively expensive.  Trying to obtain LEED certification, while useful for publicity, was not deemed to be worth the costs.  Upon visiting the residence halls it was clear that there wasn’t much outside of the students’ rooms that could be changed.  The greatest source of energy use, and therefore the greatest place to make an impact, was inside the individual rooms.   The plan was then to come up with our own certification process, modeling it after the USGBC’s LEED ranking (platinum, gold, and silver) to encourage sustainable habits by the students living in the residence halls.

The certification idea was presented to the SCC in hopes of getting students involved, since they are the ones living in the residence halls and could facilitate the greatest change.  Additionally, Grace Eason offered the proposal as an opportunity for students in her Introductory Environmental Science class who are required to do a class project, including a service learning option.  Two students from her class adopted the project and were charged with the task of looking around their rooms and determining where energy was being used.  Some examples included, coffee makers, refrigerators, gaming systems, and lighting.  The next step was to group those items and develop a scoring system based on best practices.

At the end of the semester the students developed a Green Certified Checklist based on 10 categories with variable points per category.  They tried their simple checklist in several rooms and presented their results to their class.  The following semester two paid student workers from the SCC began work on the project.   The students were motivated to participate because they felt the project would eventually become something in which they could take great pride, and they realized the potential that it had for improving UMF.

The first accomplishment of the students was to change the name from Green Dorm Certification to “Green’s List” (modified from Dean’s List) which was catchy and something that would be easily remembered by students.  The theme was to recognize someone’s rating on a sustainability level rather than an academic level.  We met with these students and worked out our next plan.  One issue that needed to be solved was having a simple rubric to distinguish between rooms that had good practices and those that needed work.  Also, the process needed to be simple for the SCC students conducting the certification and to have clear steps for students in the residence halls to improve their scores. As the SCC students began going door-to-door, they learned more and more about how to better certify rooms and how to make their efforts more efficient.  Eventually, the students just kept scores on small slips of paper and gave a copy to the residents.

As the certification process continued the Green’s List was revised based on student experiences in the residence halls. It was not our goal to discourage the use of any item or reward students who abandoned technology.  For example, in the original version students could only earn full points if they did not have a gaming system.  Our goal was not to teach that the only way to be as green as possible was to avoid technology.   In order to reflect our aim to promote best practices, the rubric was changed to award full points for “All systems plugged into a power strip and power strip is shut off when not in use, or all systems unplugged. Another example of changes made during development was to the heating category.  Students have little control over the heating of their rooms as the systems are very old and hard to control.  Some parts of the residence halls overheat, leading students to open their windows when the heat is on.  It was decided that a more sustainable choice in such cases was to contact facilities management to make them aware of the temperature and investigate what could be done to mitigate the situation.   The heating section of the checklist was changed to allow students to still earn a point for “Leaves windows open for a long period of time while the heat is on but notifies Facilities.”   While it was still a bad habit to open the window, the checklist could be used as a teaching tool so that students would feel that progress was being made toward more sustainable habits.

The final change was to divide some categories, such as lighting, in order to separate technology from habits, making the list slightly longer in order to increase the number of total points and provide for greater separation between the certified groups The Checklist (Figure 1) has a maximum score of 48 points.  Students obtain Green status, the highest rating, by earning a minimum of 42 points.  Gold and Silver are achieved by earning 36-41 and 30-35 points, respectively.  Bronze certification was awarded to students below this level.

Implementation/challenges

The first challenge was actually getting into the residence halls. There is a “no soliciting” policy at UMF, which prevented the SCC students from going door-to-door. To address this challenge, they posted sign-up sheets in the residence halls for students wishing to have their rooms certified. This proved to be unsuccessful[2] ; they had very few students actually volunteer their rooms. Permission was needed from the administration to grant an exception to the solicitation policy so that students could be surveyed in their rooms.  The second challenge was getting students to listen and to be positive about the process (many were afraid to be judged). The SCC students worked very hard on clearly stating the purpose of their visit and made it a fun experience. They started to create door decorations to acknowledge certification levels for the rooms and students in the residence halls started to become competitive with each other regarding “who is greener?” A third challenge was collecting scores accurately and keeping track of them. Initially scores were on paper and then an online scoring instrument was used. Early on it was typical that students performing the certification [3] saved only the final score.  LimeSurvey version 1.82 was used to generate a computer[4] -based checklist that could be used by students as they certified each room.  The data for each question were stored on the university computer network.  In addition to the questions in the checklist, the computer based survey gathered residence hall, room number and person conducting the survey for metadata.   Lastly, it was also difficult to get a significant number of rooms completed with only two SCC students being involved in this project, so increasing the number of volunteers was the key for success.  Our initial process involved attempting to score every residence hall twice during the fall semester. This goal was difficult to achieve due to time constraints and the lack of student volunteers. We addressed this challenge by first determining how many students would be able to fully commit to this project and then we scaled back the number of residence halls that needed to be certified. This enabled SCC students to visit the same residence halls twice in a semester. During the fall semester we had four student volunteers who certified two residence halls. Currently we have two experienced students training new students to use the online instrument and to minimize the subjectivity of interpreting the checklist.  Our intent is to continually have experienced students train new students, typically underclassmen, who will be capable of sustaining the program.

Preliminary Data:

Data were gathered from over 100 rooms in the fall of 2010 using a prototype of the checklist (11 categories, 44 points possible).  The rooms were recertified near the end of the semester using the same checklist. Table 1 shows the results for two residence halls using the prototype checklist.  In both cases there was an improvement in the overall score.  Over two thirds of the rooms showed improvement, while 16 percent of the rooms showed no change and 16 percent showed a decrease in their scores.

Table 1.  Green’s List results for Fall Semester based on the original checklist.  First score indicates the initial ranking determined at the middle of the semester.  The 2nd score indicates averages based on the same rooms being rechecked later in the semester.

Table 2 shows results for individual scores from the computer[5] -based survey (12 categories, 48 maximum points).  The increases seen in the previous work were repeated in these results.  In all cases overall improvement of 5-6 percent was seen from the initial certification.  Analysis of data for individual categories shows large improvement in some areas.  Both the Game/Stereo and Trash categories improved by 14%.   The practice of using of surge protectors to reduce standby consumption was strongly advocated by the students during the initial certification and some rooms were given free surge protectors at that time.  The improvement in the Trash category can be attributed to a collaborative effort between the SCC and facilities management to restrengthen recycling efforts in the residence halls.  While the Lighting category only showed a 5% increase from earlier certification, all rooms were certified to “uses minimum amount of lighting necessary and turns off all lights when not in use” earning the highest score possible for that category.

Both Laundry and Heating showed an overall decrease in scores.  As mentioned earlier, students have little to no control of the heat and the scores can be influenced by outdoor temperatures.  On warm days the heat frequently remains on resulting in more students opening their windows to find relief from the heat.  Since the second certification was taken later in the spring semester, there was a greater likelihood that a room would earn a lower score.

As expected the Light Hardware, Appliances, and Refrigerator categories showed little improvement.  These three categories are least linked to student habits that can be easily changed; i.e., there was little chance for them to change appliances in their rooms during the semester.  However, these data are being used to help inform residence hall policies and practices for incoming students.  Policies that limit to one the number of refrigerators allowed and advising incoming students to purchase energy star rated appliances are examples of two initiatives at UMF resulting in part from this work.

Table 2.  Results of modified Green’s List for Purrington Hall, University of Maine at Farmington.  Average scores for individual categories are shown from initial and subsequent certification.  (A higher overall score was possible compared to previous versions)

a See Figure 1 for category detail

Future Directions

The SCC continues to implement the Green’s List and interpret the data to improve the tool.  Increasing the visibility of the project is a continuing endeavor.  Having more visible signage for each room and promoting the students who excel at sustainable habits to the wider campus audience are key efforts.  Another key future direction is promoting the adoption of the Green’s List at other institutions.  The two SCC students most involved in the project provided five suggestions for implementation at other institutions.

1.  Have your student workers/volunteers get to know your campus and tailor the checklist for your own institution.  Use the checklist as a starting point and determine how each category relates to your students on-campus lifestyle habits.

2.  Develop a training program that includes enough students to allow the program to succeed.  Students should certify a few rooms as a test run during the student training process and agree upon objective standards.

3.  Keep things simple; for example, start with one residence hall and attempt to add more as student workers/volunteers increase.

4.  Have your student workers/volunteers connect with the students living in the residence halls and offer practical advice to those students that are looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

5.   Be sure your student workers/volunteers know what resources are available in your area and the inexpensive, simple ways that students can live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle even in college and beyond.

Conclusions

Despite numerous challenges, we feel that this project has been very successful on multiple levels. First, students who worked on the project became deeply involved in how the campus operates, and they felt that they were truly contributing to the campus community. Second, as faculty members who have been supervising our SCC students, we were impressed with their level of commitment and we learned a tremendous amount regarding what it takes to keep our students motivated and focused on the project goals.  Third, data gathered from the checklist have allowed us to make informed decisions about residence hall policy and provide a platform to discuss sustainable habits with the students.  Lastly, as we continue to refine this project we look forward to further integrating our sustainability efforts into the UMF curricular framework through a variety of campus civic engagement initiatives.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the UMF Sustainable Campus Coalition and the following SCC students who worked very hard on this project; Hannah Abbott, Zellie Werner, Rachel Fritschy, and Jourdan Merritt.

References

[1] Shriberg, M. (2004). Sustainability in U.S. Higher Education: Organizational factors influencing campus environmental performance and leadership. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.

[2] Orr, D. (1996). What is education for? Six myths about the foundations of modern education, and six new principles to replace them. The Learning Revolution, (27), 52.

[3] Sustainable Campus Coalition, “The SCC.” Sustainable Campus Coalition, 2009.http://sustainablecampus.umf.maine.edu/

[4] U.S. Green Building Council, (USGBC), http://www.usgbc.org[6] /

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Decent life depends on nature’s provision of stable resources. In this report I explore cultural efforts embedded within nature preservation and environmental education among the indigenous Baganda and how these can be emulated to inform modern environment conservation programmes. Accordingly, environmental conservation in Buganda was guided by clearly streamlined gender roles and cultural values through spirituality and the clan system which defined the ethical relationships between human culture and the environment. The key challenges towards this include gender inequality and the associated stereotypes, the political climate in the country, and modern religions. Successful mitigations should essentially hinge on integrating indigenous conservation methods in formal school curriculum as well as undertaking sensitization and empowerment campaigns geared towards nature preservation.

"Debarking a ficus tree to make bark cloth-Narozali Masaka, Uganda. Photo by Joseph Kisekka"

1.0 Introduction

Bugandais the largest kingdom in the Republicof Ugandawith 4,126,370 people (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2005 p12). These people are socially organized in fifty four patriarchal clans (ebika). The cultural head of the Baganda is the Kabaka (king). The Kabaka is assisted by the Bataka (chiefs) and the lukiiko (parliament) to govern his subjects (see appendix 1). The Baganda trace their biological descent through their paternal lineage. The livelihoods of ancient Baganda appreciated and worked within nature’s limits. Lubowa (2006) contends that the Baganda aimed at fair sharing of the benefits and costs of use of natural resources. There was environmental conservation among the different communities and interest groups, including both rich and poor, and between their generation and those of the future. This report presupposes that revitalization of Baganda cultural heritage in nature conservation would significantly enhance ecological sustainability.

1.1 Background

The study involved consulting opinion leaders on nature preservation methods, as well as related literature review. Besides the availability of undocumented oral tradition, the one-on-one consultations were particularly helpful in acquiring information concerning indigenous environment management methods among the Baganda. The study further explored the importance of culture in environment conservation. It was carried out on the assumption that survival of people depended on sustainable harnessing of nature and clearly streamlining gender roles and cultural values. The other assumption was that Baganda spirituality and the modern conservation initiatives represented contrasting approaches to ecological sustainability. Lastly, spirituality was part and parcel of the lifestyles of the people, interwoven in the kingdom’s socio-economic realities.

2.0 Definition of key terms

2.1 Gender

Gender refers to social constructs: behaviour, activities, responsibilities, capabilities, expectations and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women. In light of this, Njogu and Mazrui (2009) contend that the gender roles assigned to men and women today create, reinforce, and perpetuate relationships of male dominance and female subordination. Therefore, any meaningful discussion or debate on gender ought to represent aspects of equality and equity. InBugandaculture, gender roles were clearly streamlined: men were authoritative, taught leadership skills, were expected to be responsible for their families’ well-being and also took the final decisions in the home (Ekisaakaate, 2009). Women, on the other hand, were considered the bearers of indigenous culture and were care-givers, counselors, and responsible for the day-today management of the home (Graham, 1999; Ekisaakaate, 2009). These roles were generally complementary and at times mutually undertaken. Often men farmed alongside women and also shared some household tasks. Women played advisory roles in respect to kingdom affairs. On the other hand, young girls and boys underwent separate cultural grooming to equip them with relevant survival skills.

2.2 Culture and values

Culture is the knowledge and values shared by a particular society. Geertz (1973, p.44), sees culture as “a set of control mechanisms, plans, recipes, rules and instruments for the governing of behaviour.” On the other hand, values are our standards and principles for judging worth (Halstead, 1996). This notion is echoed by Shaver and Strong (1976) who reiterate that values are the criteria by which we judge things. Among the Baganda, clans play a pivotal role in the passing on of culture and tradition to the succeeding generations. Thus, the fear of letting down, not only the immediate family but the whole clan is a very important motivation encouraging the individual Baganda to respect their culture (Kyazze, 2002).

2.3 Environmental Education

Environmental education is a learning process that increases people’s knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges (UNESCO, Tbilisi Declaration, 1978). For environmental education to be meaningful, it should enable people to gain an understanding of how individual actions on values and participation affect the environment. In Buganda, informal environmental education embraced awareness and sensitivity to issues of nature preservation, dissemination of knowledge in environment conservation via stories, riddles, songs, proverbs and taboos, as well as through participation in sustainable resource use and other eco-friendly activities.

3.0 The Baganda spirituality in context

The Baganda believed in a supreme God (Katonda), who was assisted by deities (Balubaale), in the propagation of spirituality and nature conservation (Matovu,1995). To them, spirituality respected nature and the needs of future generations. Hunting was regulated by Ddungu deity, who discouraged hunting of young as well as pregnant animals. Fishermen sought blessings from Mukasa before they went fishing; luck was accorded to those who caught mature fish. Women consulted Nagadya, guardian of crops and harvest, for luck in their agricultural activities. Bush burning was strictly forbidden and punishable by the deity.  Even with the presence of Christianity and Islam, the Baganda continue to remain closely attached to their belief system, though somewhat loosely. In his discussion about ancestors inAfrica, John Lukwata (2003, pp. 8-9) observes that,

“…ancestors are believed to have continued influence over the living members of their immediate kinship unit. Their influence can be positive or negative depending on the conduct of the living. They are believed to be the proprietors of the land, and are responsible for promoting the fertility of beings and that of the earth and the growth of crops.”

This is also echoed by Mulambuzi (1997, pp. 75-76), who contends that many Baganda continue to believe in their ancestors even when they convert to religions of the White like Christianity; ancestors defend them from death, diseases, accidents and show interest in what they do and even make them succeed in their endeavors. Mulambuzi further reiterates that, for the Baganda, God may be there, but He is not as close to them as the ancestors, whom they can turn to whenever there is a crisis.

4.0 Culture and environment conservation among the Baganda

4.1 The indigenous education system and environment

The Ancient Baganda cosmology promoted values that supported conservation and discouraged values and ethics incompatible with sustainable ways of life (Lubowa, 2009). This oral tradition was passed on from generation to generation through strict instruction of the young by the old using stories, taboos, riddles, slogans, tales, poetry, commentaries, proverbs, sayings, and songs with the intent to teach conservation of the environment (Osei-Amakye, 1993). Njogu (2006) observes that story-telling was a woman’s genre used to interweave experiences and share these with communities. He contends that revival of story-telling and oral traditional mythology could contribute immensely in the empowerment of women. In this regard, education institutions ought to give girls and boys equal opportunities to respond to oral questions in a bid to equip them with essential skills needed to articulate their positions and interpretation of the world, without necessarily waiting for prompts from males.

4.2 Nature preservation among the Baganda

4.2.1 The role of totems in nature preservation

The totemic system of the Baganda depicts a strong ethical connection between human beings and nature. Each clan (ekika) has a totem (omuziro), which could be an animal, insect or plant, and it is forbidden to eat one’s totem, the mother’s and grandmother’s. This ethical stand thus places a responsibility on each clan member to promote ecological sustainability through protection of totems against harm and destruction. Marriage between people of the same clan is a taboo and prohibited. The reason for this is to prevent spread of hereditary diseases (such as sickle cell anemia), an aspect of preservation of life. Secondly, marrying from other clans is intended to promote harmony and togetherness among the different clans of the kingdom. The totemic system is one of the few surviving and respected cultural practices in the kingdom.

4.2.2 Agro ecology among the Baganda

InBuganda, women were the most efficient custodians of the diversity of food species in their gardens. Greater access to and control over a wide range of crops would help them provide for their families, a virtue required for preservation of biodiversity (Rea, 1995).

The Baganda practiced mixed farming where organic manure in form of plant remains, cow dung and urine, and chicken droppings was applied to gardens to improve soil fertility. Compost pits were dug for proper disposal of rubbish and refuse (Ssozi, 2007). This decomposed manure was applied to gardens to improve their fertility. Trees were planted in gardens to provide shade for the plants, to act as wind breaks, and also to demarcate people’s farmlands and homes. Using shifting cultivation, gardens where rested for a particular period so as to regain their fertility. Reviving organic agriculture would help conserve water, mitigate climate change, and ensure sustained biodiversity (IFORM, 2009).

4.2.3 The Baganda sustainable practices in resource use

There were places with special healing power that were regarded as sacred in the kingdom. These included forests, rivers, bushes and swamps. There were certain tree species that were not supposed to be cut down as well as animal species that were not supposed to be killed. For example, I grew up knowing that if one killed a lizard (omunya), he or she would not go to heaven. This was communicated in one of the popular traditional songs. Each village had a sacred groove or a small forest dedicated to ancestral spirits (misambwa). As Sozi (2007) rightly points out, these sacred forests and grooves were a source of herbs and it was an abomination to fetch firewood from them. Similarly, the kings’ houses were constructed using timber from tree species of kirundu, enzingu, ensalaganyi and namukago (Kaggwa, 2005). Therefore, it was incumbent upon chiefs to mobilize people to plant these tree species for use during construction. In a country where the cultural leaders have been rendered powerless, it would be good to empower them to champion the conservation of the earth’s vitality and diversity as was the case in the pre-independence times.

The Baganda respected the sacredness of life by showing utmost care for fellow humans, plants and animals. Mbiti (1990, p.106) underscored the importance of belief in community among traditional Africans arguing that, in an African context, the individual does not and cannot exist alone. He accordingly concluded that an individual can only say: ‘I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am’. The Baganda believed in life after death, and so it was a requirement to plant trees at burial sites. It was believed that these trees were resting places for the departed relatives who assumed the mizimu (spiritual) form; failure to adhere to this cultural practice would annoy the mizimu, which ultimately destabilized the peace of their families. Due to the influence of ‘modernity’, this cultural practice is being ignored as people are buried under concrete graves, supposedly as a status symbol. The clearing of trees around burial sites as well as construction of concrete graves destroys the natural environment of the area, thus the need to integrate contemporary burial rites with the traditional cultural practices.

The Baganda believed in sustainable use of non-renewable resources. Blacksmiths recycled unwanted iron items into other forms in a bid to control depletion of the resource. Similarly, sustainable use of clay was observed by the Baganda. No one was ever allowed to break a clay product even after a quarrel or during war (Lubowa, 2009). However, in the event that a pot broke, the pieces would be remixed with fresh clay and reused, or they would be used for mixing an herbal medicine known as emmumbwa.

The Baganda bark cloth industry was another manifestation of sustainable resource use. Bark cloth (though scantly done now) is made from the bark of a tree Ficus natalensis, (mutuba), which belongs to the Family commonly referred to as fig trees (Serrato, et al, 2004). Due to the benefits from mutuba (wrapping the dead for burial instead of wooden coffins, provision of firewood, manure from falling old leaves, craft products such as mats, hats, bags, book covers, and also shades in banana and coffee plantations, besides clothing the people), king Ssemakokiro decreed that massive planting of mituba trees in the entire kingdom, then, should be compulsory and this became a significant landmark in nature rehabilitation and sustainability. Several harvests could be made from each tree as long as debarking was properly done. After debarking, the stem was wrapped in banana leaves to prevent it from drying up, a process known as okusabika (wrapping), which enabled re-growth of a new bark (NAFORI, 2009) (see appendix 2). So, revitalization of the bark cloth industry would rid the country of polythene and polestar materials that are causing serious environmental damage.

6.0 Challenges facing the Baganda Culture in nature conservation

6.1 Country’s political climate

Although the central government recognizes the existence of traditional leaders, the latter are prohibited from exercising administrative powers as well as commenting on any political issue (2010, Uganda Cultural Leaders Bill). Since environmental concerns have political connotations, these highly respected traditional leaders remain very far in significantly mobilizing their subjects for such. It is interesting, however, when the government announced a plan to lease some of the country’s forest reserves to private investors: leasing part of Mabira forest (the largest equatorial forest inEast Africa) for a sugar cane plantation in 2007; the Kabaka of Buganda spearheaded the campaign to avert this otherwise unpopular plan. He instead offered over 7100 hectares of his own land near this forest, but the proposal was ignored by both the central government and the private developers (Nalugo, 2007).  In 2006 the Solicitor General of Uganda approved the giveaway of over 3,000 hectares of naturalBugandaforests in Kalangala district to Bidco Oil Company (Alweny, 2006). Furthermore, with the endorsement of the Cultural Leaders Bill in January 2011, the contribution of these leaders to meaningful development initiatives, such as nature protection, appears to have been rendered inadequate.

6.2 Gender inequality and stereotypes

Despite accrued environmental benefits relating gender roles, in most of ruralBugandawomen do not have property rights and may not inherit property at the death of their husbands and fathers. Even in situations where the deceased husband did not have a son, the heir will either be the deceased’s brother or the deceased’s brother’s son. Agostino (2010) contends that women are unable to mitigate and adapt to the problems caused by climate change because they have limited access to resources and services. Much asUganda’s constitution provides for equal rights to family property for husband and wife, the cultural norms together with high illiteracy levels among women renders this provision ineffective. This situation is further exacerbated by the presentation of women and girls as subordinates occupying traditional roles of child care, nursing and midwifery, cottage industry and market trading in contrast to their male counterparts, who are portrayed in glamorous senior roles. This claim is also echoed by the Human Development Report of 2007, wherein the largest percentage of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa are women who face gender inequalities such as lack of access to land, credit and training, limited participation in decision making, and more dependence on natural resources and greater caring responsibilities. These existing gender inequalities in the kingdom make worse many of the consequences of climate change.

6.3 Modern religions (Christianity and Islam)                                            

The spread of Christianity and Islam inBugandachanged peoples’ perception about themselves and the environment, resulting in a unification of culture. As a result of this, the identity and traditions of the Baganda have greatly changed. In my view, the belief system of the Baganda was more than just a religion: it was spirituality that affected every activity and their way of life. This was also observed by Mbiti (1990). However, this appears to be contrary to the contemporary religious outlook that considers cultural practices, such as veneration of sacred places and bark cloth manufacturing, among others, as satanic.

7.0 Conclusion

Development which is not grounded in past values becomes irrelevant for the present generations. Once this is manifested, it baffles future direction and sustainability. Thus, development policies, such as those on environment and nature preservation in Buganda, as well as elsewhere, must strive to consolidate what was good in the past to mutually interact with present ideals, if the future is to remain meaningful.

8.0 The way forward

8.1 Sensitization and empowerment

The government ofUgandais advised to reorient its attitude on roles of cultural leaders and institutions, conceiving them as partners in development because their contribution will only be meaningful if they are fully empowered in actions leading to sustainable development, such as environment conservation and climate change mitigation. Second, parents should be encouraged to learn traditional practices that show positive human qualities of environmental conservation and thereafter pass them onto children. The challenge here would be that since the young generation has been born in the computer age, their attention and appreciation of indigenous knowledge is bound to be minimal. In light of this, oral tradition could be repackaged and passed on in form of motion pictures, music, dance, drama and radio presentations that are appealing to young people.

8.2 Integrating indigenous conservation methods in formal school curriculum

There is need to integrate indigenous environment conservation methods in the school curricula across all levels. Indigenous nature and environment conservation methods should be reflected in students’ wildlife and environment clubs as well as in activities of student unions. There should be deliberate efforts directed towards integrating indigenous environment conservation methods in school course units or developing new programmes that champion indigenous environment education.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

The Ganda Ancestry

A clan (ekika) consists of a hierarchy of sub-groups, as shown in the figure below. Each is a collection of several masiga (singular, ssiga); each ssiga is a collection of mituba (singular mutuba); and each mutuba is a collection of nyiriri (singular, lunyiriri). The heads of the various groups in the clan hierarchy are called abataka (singular, omutaka).

Source: http://www.gandaancestry.com

The Baganda social fabric was knit around the clans, and sewn together by certain customs and traditions that were supposed to ensure the welfare and security of the social order (Kasozi, 2006).

APPENDIX 2

Muganda man Making Bark Cloth

A craftsman debarks a mutuba tree for bark cloth making.

A debarked tree covered with banana leaves to allow regeneration of the bark

A craftsman making bark cloth.

Source: Uganda National Commission for UNESCO

References

Alweny, S. (2006). Solicitor General Okays Kalangala forests giveaway in The Daily Monitor. The Monitor Publications,Kampala

Agostino, A. (2010). Gender equality, climate change and education for sustainability. Beyond Access: Gender, Education and Development (24) February 2010

Dower, N. (1997) ‘Sustainable development: some ethical issues’, The Journal of Contemporary Health, 6, pp.57-60. Institute for Health,LiverpoolJohnMooresUniversity.

Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Culture: Selected Essays.New York, Basic Books.

Graham-Brown, S. (1999) ‘Marginal groups and education’, Chapter 5 in Education in the Developing World: Conflict and crisis, pp. 50-63. Longman Group UK Ltd.

Ekisaakaate (2009) Reconciling Traditonal and Modern Gender Values. CCFU,Kampala

IFORM (2009) Environmental Benefits of Organic Agriculture Positive Benefits for Society and for Nature Available: http://www.ifoam.org/growing_organic/1_arguments_for_oa/environmental_benefits/environmental_benefits_main_page.html  Accessed: 20^th March 2011

Halstead, J.M. (1996) Extract from ‘Values and values education in schools’, Chapter 1 in Halstead, J.M. and Taylor,M.J (eds) Values and Values in Education, pp. 5-8 and 12-14. The Falmer Press.

Kaggwa, A (2005) The Customs of Baganda. New Era Printers and Stationers,Kampala

Kasozi, A.B.K. (1981) ‘The Impact of Islam on Ganda Culture, 1844-1894’ in Journal of Religion in Africa. Vol. 12, Fasc. 2.

Lukwata, J. (2003) Integrated African Liturgy. Eldoret: AMECEA Gaba.

Matovu, K. N. (1995) ‘Environmental Conservation through Cultural practices and language use’ in Uganda: A Century of Existence. Fountain Publishers,Kampala.

Mbiti, J. (1990). African Religions and Philosophy. Second Edition.London:

Heinemann.

Mulambuzi, F. X. (1997) Beliefs in Ancestral Spirits: Interpreting Contemporary attitudes of the Ganda to the Ancestors. Unpublished MA Dissertation,University ofNatal.

Nafori Report (2009) Revitalisation of Barkcloth Making. Uganda National Commission for UNESCO. Available: http://www.unesco-uganda.ug Accessed: 28^th February 2011

Nalugo, M. (2007) ‘Mabira Cutting Starts’ in The Daily Monitor. The Monitor Publications,Kampal

Njogu, K and Orchardson-Mazrui, E (2006) Gender inequality and women’s rights in the Great Lakes: Can culture contribute to women’s empowerment? UNESCO

Osei-Amakye, S. (1993) Sacred Grooves: the forgotten traditional botanical gardens in tropical Africa, pp. 53-57.Ghana: Environmental Protection Council

Phillips, A. (1999) ‘Democracy and equality’, Chapter 1 in Which Equality Matters?, pp 1-19 and 134-135, Polity Press.

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Graduate students enrolled in an education research course in Guam that the author taught during the spring 2010 semester participated in this “green” course project. Those students who were not school teachers, who worked for private companies or government agencies, focused their projects on green communities, workplaces, or households. Students conducted their projects based on inquiry-based learning, and this sustainability study reported in the current paper itself derives from an inquiry-based approach. The results from this study demonstrated that daily curricular activities at universities and schools provide an important way to support environmentally responsible living. Implementing green course projects similar to the one described here is one of many ways in which university teachers can incorporate “sustainability” into their curricula.

We began as a mineral. We emerged into plant life and into the animal state, and then

 into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except

in early spring when we slightly recall being green again.

–Rumi

Introduction

Almost daily reminders of vanishing polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and horrific weather patterns give us every reason to wonder if we are doing enough to assure a sustainable future on this planet (Johnston, 2009). Sustainability “represents an interconnectedness of factors and force —environmental, economic, and social—that require new and more sophisticated analyses, teachings, and interventions” (Timpson et al., 2006, p. 9.). And yet, sustainability “requires integrating the knowledge base of individual disciplines to create a holistic program that brings together the economic, social, and environmental understanding, practices, and policies of a globally and environmentally connected world” (Berry, 2006, p. 103).

“Safeguarding the environment ranks high on political and social surveys” (Marschall, 2006, p. 12); nevertheless, “a yawning gap exists between good intentions and reality. Although Americans express strong support for reducing air and ground pollution, few give up their cars or recycle their AA batteries instead of throwing them in the trash” (p. 12). In terms of changing habits and thinking green, the following passage by Joachim Marschall, a psychology student and freelance science writer in Germany, is intriguing as well as worth reading:

The theory of planned behavior assumes that we carefully consider pros and cons, which may be true in novel situations such as moving to a new city. . . .The decision to leave the lights on as we walk out of a room or to check the recycling symbol on a plastic container instead of just throwing it away may rarely involve conscious consideration. (p. 13)

“The most important role of universities,” according to Joyce Berry (2009), the Dean of Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, “is to provide the programmatic leadership that will educate tomorrow’s environmental leaders. . . .Only by teaching sustainability as a broad-based, and outward-focused leadership endeavor will we be able to attain our ultimate goal of a better, more sustainable, and just world” (p. 104). “All parts of the university are critical in helping to create transformative change in the individual and collective mindset. Everything that happens at a university and every impact, positive and negative, of university activities shapes the knowledge, skills, and values of the students” (Cortese, 2006, p. xi). In order to achieve the educational experience in which all students are aligned with the principles of sustainability, Anthony Cortese, the president of Second Nature, wrote:

Higher education will form partnership with local and regional communities to help make them healthy, socially vibrant, economically secure, and environmentally sustainable as an integral part of higher education’s mission and the student experience. . . . If higher education does not lead the sustainability effort in society, who will? (p. xiv)

“If higher education does not . . . who will?” It is such a strong message! Timpson et al. (2006) support Cortese’s point: “The university is a microcosm of the larger community. . . its daily activities are an important demonstration of ways to achieve environmentally responsible living and to reinforce desired values and behaviors in the whole community. These activities provide unparalleled opportunities for teaching, research, and learning” (p. xiv).

Background

In 2008, the University of Guam announced its Green Initiative. The Initiative will take place at three levels. The first level involves education to promote habit changes among students, faculty, and staff, in the direction of greener campus life. The second level provides opportunities for the University and its surrounding community actively to engage in responsible management of resources and waste products through the procurement of locally produced and recycled goods, and the disposal of goods through recycling. The third level engages the local community, private, and governmental organizations in obtaining resources for the development of alternative energy systems that are the best fit for the environment of Guam and Micronesia.

Tim Beatley (2009), a professor of sustainable communities, notes: “The curriculum to follow challenges students to overcome the passivity of our times and it gives them the knowledge and tools to become the kinds of ‘ecological’ citizens we need more than ever today. I am looking forward to seeing in my lifetime the changing awareness. . .” (p. xiv). As a faculty member, I feel the same way, and look forward to seeing the changing awareness among students. Beatley’s words provided me with motivation to conduct this study. I asked myself the following: “How can I incorporate sustainable practices into teaching about sustainability?”

Inquiry-Based Learning Approach

“An old adage states: Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand. The last part of this statement is the essence of inquire-based learning. . . . Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding” (Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2004, p. 1). Students probably learn best by doing; and, students themselves are responsible for their own learning. Lim (2004) defined the inquiry-based learning process, which involves: asking (articulating problems); planning (designing strategies within a certain time frame); exploring (exploring resources for solving problems); constructing (synthesizing resources and providing solutions); and reflecting (discussing the implications for further enhancement).

This sustainability study was carried out based on these five stages: STAGE 1: Through a review of the literature and personal communications, approaches to be used in the current study were identified; STAGE 2: A ‘green lesson’ project was added as one of the course assignments. The course syllabus articulated the content of this project, emphasizing the 3Rs (reduce whenever possible, reuse as often as possible, and recycle as much as possible); STAGE 3: Promoting awareness among students regarding environmental issues and the sustainability ethic, the project was explained on the first day of class; STAGE 4: The project consisted of a lesson plan (based on the subject the participants were teaching), and an actual report (how the 3Rs were adopted in the subject); and STAGE 5: This stage allowed me to analyze this study, answering two questions: “What knowledge have I gained in incorporating sustainability into the curriculum?” And “how does it benefit students, teachers, the University, and the community?”

Case Description

In an inquiry-based research design for this study, participants were graduate students in an introductory research course that I taught in the spring 2010 semester. They developed a green lesson plan, focusing on the 3Rs, conducted the lesson, and then reported the actual lesson.

STAGE 1: December 2009 – January 2010

In STAGE 1, I developed the format to be used in a green lesson plan, and the format of an actual lesson report, for students. By reviewing the literature and related readings, I enhanced my understanding of sustainable higher education activities, which eventually would facilitate my students’ experiences in the course. Sustainability is a complex concept, one of many that “defy easy definition or simple response, yet demand attention for our collective well-being” (Timpson et al., 2006, p. xv). I realized that educating and raising awareness among students may become the “first” step of my sustainability study, which might be a journey of one thousand miles.

STAGE 2: January – February, 2010

Green Lesson Plan

Emphasizing the 3Rs, the format of a lesson plan, below, was outlined for students. Students, who were not school teachers, focused their projects on green workplaces or green communities.

A sample lesson plan, below, was by Student A. At the beginning of the semester, students were asked to fill out a student information form, including an item asking their future goals.

Student A wrote: “Professionally, I want to be a business professor someday.  Personally, I want fulfillment in life and to experience the real meaning of happiness.”

STUDENT SAMPLE

1. Subject: Business Elective/Career Exploration; Grade 10 (30 students)
2. Learning Objectives: Students will learn: why the world of work is changing; why every job requires job-specific and transferable skills; the importance of product innovation through recycling, reducing, and reusing; and how to make better decisions.
3. Materials/Media: Local newspapers, magazines, and dictionaries of occupational titles; resources or media will be helpful in students’ career decision-making.

4     & 5.   Lesson Description and Procedures:

Day 1: Discussion: The World of Work (PowerPoint slides). On the first day, students will understand the chapter lesson through discussion. They will review examples of successful products that involve the 3Rs, through PowerPoint presentations.

Day 2-5: Group project: Students will be in groups of 4-5. Each group will choose a company that exists in Guam and choose a leader; the leader will delegate tasks to the members and will report to inform the teacher about the status of the group work.

Day 6: Group project presentation: All of the members in each group are required to present, and each group must submit its final written answers to the given questions.

Day 7: Journal: Discuss the importance of the 3Rs in the world of work. Students will summarize their group work—thus strategies they have created for their chosen company.

6. Assessment/Evaluation: Their progress will be reviewed through discussions, journals, and presentations to evaluate their understanding of environmental issues.

In STAGE 2, my students fulfilled three important goals. First, they defined sustainability in their own words. Certainly sustainability means different things for different students. And yet, the following definition by a student may be representative: “Environmental sustainability is what we must continuously support in our surroundings, so that we can prevent issues in the future and to maintain our living today.” Second, they completed a questionnaire (note that the questionnaire results were not included here) revealing that they are highly motivated to practice sustainability in the workplace. Third, although only one sample lesson plan was included here, each of the 18 students enrolled in the course developed his or her project plan.

STAGE 3: March – April, 2010

Midpoint Project Assessment

Students wrote their progress reports based on six questions. Their progress was monitored with reviews of their written reports. The following is a progress report by Student B.

STUDENT SAMPLE

1.   Describe the goal of your project. The goal is to have high school students understand the environmental effects of littering and to take part in reducing litter. They will implement an anti-litter campaign and will encourage others to dispose of their litter properly.

2.  What steps have been taken to meet the goals of the project? Students are mid-way through the project and have discussed the effects of littering. An initial survey has been conducted. They will conduct another survey and compare the results from two surveys.   

3.   What part of the project do you like the most? What I enjoy most is having students create posters and flyers for the anti-litter campaign. This part of the project requires students to think critically in order to convey a message that will impact others’ behaviors.

4.   What part of the project do you like the least? What I like least is that it focuses only on waste reduction. The project could incorporate the 3Rs. The lesson can cover methods to effectively reduce waste, and learning more about recycling or reusing items.

5.   How does the project relate to environmental issues or sustainability education? It helps students promote behavior in support of a sustainable living. By creating an anti-litter campaign, they will develop an appreciation for the environment and natural resources.

6.   Is your project successful so far? How do you know? Yes. I have seen students make an effort to dispose of their litter properly, encouraging other students to do the same.

In STAGE 3, my students participated in several activities, including the following. First, they worked on their midpoint project self-assessment. At this stage, two students dropped the course, but all of the remaining 16 students assessed the development, rate of progress, and final products of their projects based on their project goals. Second, they conducted one green interview. Their interviews revealed that many people are now seriously thinking about sustainable living: for example, by educating people on green behavior; by disposing of waste properly; by driving a car only minimally; and by reducing power consumption.

STAGE 4: May 2010

Good classroom teachers use project-based learning as a supplement to their regular course of instruction (Kraft, 2005). Project-based learning and inquiry-based learning are related, in terms of searching for answers to the problems: students make decisions within a prescribed framework, design the process for reaching a solution, are responsible for accessing and managing the information they gather, and regularly reflect on what they are doing. Kraft adds: “Inquiry in education should be about a greater understanding of the world in which they live, learn, communicate, and work” (p. 7). Student projects in this course provide an example of such understanding. Students completed their final reports based on the format given below.

Final Reports

STAGE 4 is the highlight of the five stages. Two final projects (edited for brevity and condensed) by Student B and Student C were included here (see Exhibit A and Exhibit B). In this stage, my students fulfilled an important goal: writing a final project report. They worked on different topics but shared the same question: “How can we make a difference for the environment through education?”  Inquiry-based learning—which is rooted in the scientific method of investigating phenomena in a structured and methodical manner—makes use of this research framework: problem statement, data collection, data analysis, and conclusion.

STAGE 5: May –June 2010

My students were encouraged to reflect. Their reflections served as a way to retrace the steps that led to their conclusions. Reflection also allowed me to analyze my experiences to modify past knowledge based on new knowledge of green issues and research methods. I would like to reflect upon this sustainability study by answering each of my own questions below.

1. 1.      What was the goal of my sustainability study?

Incorporating sustainability into the curriculum of a graduate research course, the goal of my study was to guide students toward completion of one green project during the semester.

1. 2.      How did I select the study?

Going green is everyone’s business today. I hoped that if I could become a positive influence on my graduate students, they in turn could become a positive influence on their students, by demonstrating the 3Rs as they integrating sustainability into teaching.

1. 3.      Where did I find my resources?

Through the literature review, I came up an idea of developing green lessons that school teachers can adopt and use to demonstrate environmental principles in their classrooms. Personal communication with my colleagues also helped me to keep this study going.

1. 4.      Who was my audience?

The audience is not limited to the educational community given that it goes beyond a discussion of integrating sustainability into the curriculum. The goal of this study is to appeal to sorts of individuals with a strong interest in environmental issues and green communities.

STAGE 5 focused on reflection, which is an important component for improving future study on similar projects. Reflection further serves to reinforce the method, so that students can repeat the process in any problem-solving situation. They indicated two types of opinions in reflections on their completed projects. One is that by enhancing their knowledge of environmental issues and a sustainability ethic, they have realized that teaching sustainability is their own task as teachers, educators, and community members. The other is that they have learned the research process, so they can apply the skills of research methodology to future assignments in any courses when they promote inquiry- or project-based learning. This study was tempered with creative thinking and innovative approaches. I hoped that such a combination could maintain or increase motivation, and stimulate creativity in students’ projects. Teaching gives direction and purpose to our research endeavors while simultaneously, research ensures that our teaching is continuously updated and improved. Accordingly, teaching this assignment and guiding students’ projects also gave direction and purpose to my research endeavors.

Conclusion

There are seven steps toward sustainability identified by James and Lahti(cited in Hembd & Silberstein, 2011). The first step is finding the fire souls, which are community citizens who have a burning interest in sustainable development. In this study, ‘fire souls’ were graduate students in this course. The second step is raising awareness. I created with students a common understanding of what sustainability means, and assigned them to design their projects based on guided steps, and to implement their projects. The third step involves official endorsement of sustainability operating principles. This study was supported by the University’s Green Initiative. The fourth step involves the implementers. Student projects were monitored through the progress reports, class discussions, and personal electronic and oral communications. The fifth step applies the sustainability framework. Students in the course realized that the behavior of their K-12 students or their coworkers can be changed by implementing the process with a shared “sustainability” language. The sixth step involves whole plan endorsement. Under the proper leadership, students are able to participate in sustainable lessons or other activities and trust the same rules. The seventh step keeps it going. We all work together continuously toward the 3Rs.

I established two questions at the beginning of this sustainability work. The first question was: “What knowledge have I gained in incorporating sustainability into the curriculum?”  The answers include: I have learned that teaching for sustainability is an ongoing business, and probably there is no ending as long as people live on this planet. It is viewed that one important role of universities is to provide leadership that will educate tomorrow’s environmental leaders to bring together the economic, social, and environmental understanding. The second question was: “How does it benefit students, teachers, and the community?”  The answers include: Results from this study will be presented at a suitable forum. This will be done with a view to seeking guidance on the future direction of the work from persons with valued interest and expertise in the field. Missions of universities focus on teaching, research, and community service. This study involved all three of these missions—and thus, students, teachers, and the community will benefit from learning the results of this application of green principles to coursework.

Author Notes

This sustainability work was supported by a Going Green grand from the University of Guam. The author bears full responsibility for all conclusions reported in the current paper, including those drawn from student projects. Graduate students’ projects were included with permission.

References

American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual. Washington, DC: Author.

Beatley, T. (2009). Introduction: From hope to practice, or educating for Eden. In H. Wiland & D. Bell, Going to green (pp. xiii-xiv). White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Berry, J. (2006). Forward by Joyce Berry. In W. M. Timpson et al., 147 practical tips for teaching sustainability (pp. 103-104). Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.

Cortese, A. (2006). Forward by Anthony Cortese. In W. M. Timpson et al., 147 practical tips for teaching sustainability (pp. xi-xiv). Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.

Educational Broadcasting Corporation. (2004). Concept to classroom. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html

Hembd, J., & Silberstein, J. (2011). Sustainable communities. In J. W. Robinson & G. P. Green (Eds.), Introduction to community development (pp. 261-277). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Johnston, H. J. (2009). Research brief: “Green” school programs. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from http://www.pincipalspartnership.com

Kraft, N. (2005). Criteria for authentic project-based learning. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from heep://www.rmcdenver.com/useguide/pbl.htm

Lim, B-R. (2004). Challenges and issues in designing inquiry on the Web. British Educational Communications and Technology, 35(5), 627-643.

Marschall, J. (2006, April/May). Thinking green. Scientific American Mind (pp. 12-13).

Rumi (Jelaluddin). (2005). The essential Rumi (C. Barks, Trsns.).New York: HarperCollins.

Timpson, W. M., et al. (2006). 147 practical tips for teaching sustainability: Connecting the environment, the economy, and society. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.

Exhibit A

A Report by a Secondary Education Teacher

Reducing Litter on School Campuses

Purpose

By promoting the concept of “going green” in our schools and the importance of the 3Rs, teachers can develop positive behaviors and attitudes in students that will contribute to the preservation of the earth. The purpose of this project was to examine the effects of an anti-litter campaign on the amount of litter present on a school campus.

Literature Review

Litter is aesthetically unpleasant and has detrimental effects on the environment. Littering is not only harmful to people and animals but also causes damage to our waterways and costs money to clean up: 94% of people consider littering to be a major environmental problem (“Litter,” 2003). Tackling the issue of littering should begin with education. Teachers can educate students about the effects of littering and the various ways to prevent and reduce it.

Hatch Elementary School in Chicago is just one of many schools that teach students and parents about zero-waste concepts. The School has set up a composting station for uneaten food scraps and has placed trash bins around the campus for recyclable/non-recyclable items. The School is working towards purchasing reusable items for students to use for lunch (e.g., reusable trays and silverware). In line with the School’s efforts, the teachers have learned to tie the zero-waste concept into science and environmental lessons (“Students Save,” 2010).

In Long Beach, California, over 70 public and private schools have green programs that incorporate recycling and litter reduction into the classrooms. These schools’ efforts have helped to lower the city’s total amount of waste and divert 69% of material from the waste stream to recycling and conservation programs. Because the district requires environmental education to be incorporated into the curriculum at all grade levels, the city’s Environmental Services Bureau provides schoolteachers with recycling bins. Parents and teachers have grouped together to create their own recycling and litter reduction programs in an effort to reach out to the community (Peters, 2010).

Implementing a “green” program would be extremely beneficial for our schools in Guam and should be a goal that educators work towards. Instead of waiting for such a program to be implemented, teachers can begin taking smaller steps to educate students on environmental issues and the importance of going green. Like the teachers at Hatch Elementary School, teachers in Guam can tie environmental concepts into their lessons and have students participate in activities that promote environmental awareness. Such lessons can include teaching students to turn rubbish into a resource by recycling and reusing items. Teachers can also educate students about the negative effects of litter and have them implement an anti-litter campaign on campus (“Curriculum & Lesson Plans,” n. d.).

Method

Forty-five students at Simon Sanchez High School volunteered to participate in this project. All participants were students (from grades 9 through 12) in a fine arts class. For this project, the following materials were used: a chalkboard and chalk, paper, pen/pencil, trash bags, gloves, poster boards, markers, glue, scissors, and glitter. The project began by asking the students to define “littering.” After receiving several responses, the students were led in a discussion on the reasons people litter and the effects of littering. Following the discussion, students were divided into small groups (nine groups of five). One person in each group was chosen to be the recorder; the rest of the group members would be responsible for collecting litter around the campus and reporting the type of litter collected to the recorder. The recorder needed a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper to keep a log of the type of litter (e.g., plastic, paper, and aluminum) and the amount collected. The students were given trash bags and gloves and were led around the campus. They were given approximately 25 minutes to collect trash. After collecting litter, each group presented their findings to the class and the data was recorded. Then students participated in developing an anti-litter campaign. Each group was given two poster boards, markers, scissors, glue, and glitter. On each poster board students presented a message that emphasized the importance of proper litter disposal. Students placed the posters all around the school campus. After three weeks, the litter collection activity was repeated. Students were in the same groups and were given the same amount of time to complete the activity. Students then compared their overall findings with the previous findings. They discussed the implications of their findings.

Results

Students divided the litter into nine categories: plastic, paper, aluminum, glass, metal, Styrofoam, rubber, cigarette butts, and other (rope, socks, rags, pencils, etc.). The results of the litter collection before and after the anti-litter campaign are presented in Table 1. A comparison of the data revealed, as predicted, an overall decrease in the amount of litter collected after three weeks of the anti-litter campaign being implemented (a difference of 495 items).

Table 1. Results of the litter collection before and after the anti-litter campaign

Summary and Conclusion

As predicted, the total amount of litter collected before the implementation of the anti-litter campaign was greater than the amount of litter collected three weeks after. The number of items collected in each category, with the exception of glass, decreased after the anti-litter campaign was employed. Perhaps, by allowing more time for the anti-litter campaign to take effect, there might have been a decrease in the amount of glass items collected.  By promoting the concept of going green in our schools and teaching the importance of the 3Rs, we can develop positive behaviors and attitudes in our students that will contribute to the preservation of the earth.

This project focused on waste reduction and sought to address the environmental issue of littering. It helped students to develop a better understanding of the environmental hazards of littering and to promote behavior in support of a sustainable environment. By examining the amount of litter on campus and creating an anti-litter campaign, high school students in this project developed an appreciation for the environment and natural resources. The students also exercised proper litter disposal while encouraging other students to do the same. By taking the time to educate students about environmental issues like littering, and incorporating environmental awareness into lessons, teachers can begin to make a difference and eventually change the world.

References

Curriculum & lesson plans. (n.d.). Waste wise. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from

http://www.noosariver.com.au/wastewise/resources_and_ links.html#curriculum

Litter. (2003). Stone Circle, 4(9). Retrieved May 6, 2010, from http://www.praguepost.cz/PPEF/ 09SC030219.pdf

Peters, S. (2010). Going green is popular at Long Beach schools. Long Beach Press – Telegram. Retrieved May 6,

2010, from http://www.presstelegram.com/news /ci_14671383

Students save the environment…one scrap at a time. (2010). Curriculum Review, 49(5), 6-7.

Exhibit B

A Report by a Police Officer

Going Paperless in the Guam Police Department

Purpose

This project focused on adopting and implementing policies and procedures for going green within the Guam Police Department. I have seen the vast amounts of paper the Department uses daily. It made me wonder how much actual paper the department consumed, and how the use of a “shared drive” could save the Department’s money.

Literature Review

What is a shared drive? According to Lowe’s (2005), a shared drive is known as a network drive in which people within a network can create and store items electronically. The items range from Word Spreadsheets, reports, records, and almost all documents that are created on a computer. People may wonder what the difference between a network drive and a computer drive is. Lowe explains that all computers come with a drive that allows for storage.

According to a resource article from id2 communications (2005), the average American uses over 748 pounds of paper per year. Employees at American financial businesses, for instance, generate about two pounds of paper per day and per person. This same article further exposed that despite the technology of today in the age of computers, the paperless office, once predicted as a result of information technology, has not transpired. Industry analysts estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper. The last sentence proved to be right for the Police Department. We have a shared drive, yet we continue to keep records of our reports on paper.

Method

As it was only my unit of five detectives that were contributing to this project, I made it a point to gather the monthly reports and tabulations from the other four units consisting of the other detectives whom were not a part of this project. All statistical data from the monthly reports submitted by other units was then used to compare how much paper was actually being consumed by the Detective Unit from the months of January to April, 2010.

On top of initiating the project with my unit, I reviewed our department’s budget for the current fiscal year.

I conducted interviews with the Department’s Administrative Services Officer (who was responsible for dispersing and managing the funds of the Department’s fiscal year budget), and with the Officer-In-Charge of the Supply Unit (who was responsible for the procurement and disbursement of supplies). The data that were gathered from these interviews made me have a better understanding of how much of the Department’s budget for the fiscal year was geared towards the purchasing of supplies and how many payments for supplies went strictly towards paper.

Results and Discussion

On March 4, 2010, the Department’s Administrative Services Officer explained that the Department received $25 Million dollars for Fiscal Year 2010. The first priority in the budget is the funding of personnel salaries, which accounted for $16 million dollars. The remaining $11 Million dollars from the budget was spread throughout the rest of the Department. Out of this $11 million dollars, approximately $10,000 was appropriated to the Supply Unit of the Department. The Supply Unit is responsible for the purchasing various supplies such as pens, folders, staplers, and paper. The Officer concluded that “paper” was one of the most costly supplies that the Supply Unit purchases. On March 5, 2010, I conducted an interview with the Officer-In-Charge of the Supply Unit, who verified:

1)       The Supply Unit was allotted $10,000 to purchase supplies for the Department, explaining that out of that $10,000, $7,600 was spent to purchase 200 cases of paper, with each case costing $38. These 200 cases of paper are broken down and dispersed throughout various sections of the Department.

2)       Each section and division averages about 5 to 10 cases of paper.

3)       The Records and Identification uses the highest amount of paper (80 cases of paper), followed by the Patrol Division (40 cases of paper), and the Administration and Detective Divisions which average 20 cases.

4)       Each case of paper contains 500 sheets. The Department consumes 100,000 sheets of paper per year.

The Detectives Section alone does use 10,000 sheets of paper, or 10%, of the Department’s yearly paper consumption average. This means that the Detective Section uses $7,600 per year to be supplied with paper.

Having these numbers actually in place, I wanted to see how the experiment of my unit going paperless would have an effect on the use of paper. I then proceeded to study all the monthly reports submitted by each unit of the Detective Section that had statistics on the amount of paper that was used to print police reports and administrative documents.

• January 31-February 28, 2010: The Detective Section consumed 1,484 sheets of paper for police reports and administrative documents; 396 sheets of paper were used by my unit alone.
• March 1-April 3, 2010: The Detective Section consumed 3,365 sheets of paper for police reports and administrative documents; 20 sheets of paper were used by my unit alone. By using the shared drive, my unit consumed 376 less sheets of paper for this month in comparison with the previous months.
• April 4 to – April 28, 2010: The Detective Section consumed 1,201 sheets of paper. My unit used no paper.

The experiment that I conducted with my unit proved that the use of the shared drive to send and store documents had saved paper tremendously. On April 29, 2010, these monthly statistics were brought to light during a supervisors’ meeting, convincing our Bureau Chief to implement a policy for the Detective Section to go paperless using the shared drive. At this point, the entire Detective Section has gone almost completely paperless in their operations. We are not completely paperless, as on occasion paper is still used to correspond with outside agencies and businesses. But our numbers regarding paper consumption have drastically decreased within the past months due to the shared drive. Should the Department go completely paperless, $7,600 could be saved—annually.

Conclusion

I realized that most of the people, who opposed the idea of my project, were intimidated by their lack of training in the use of the shared drive system. Moreover, most of them were just stuck in their old ways of doing things. Given the success of this project, other divisions within the Department are experimenting with going paperless, and will soon fully convert to using the shared drive system. The most important thing that I learned from this project was that although changes do not happen overnight, a few people can certainly make a difference.

References

id2 Communications. (2005).Facts about paper and paper waste. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from http://www.id2.ca/downloads/eco-design-paper-facts.pdf

Lowe, D. (2005). Networking for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing.

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In a world of changing climate and environmental degradation, architects play a key role in the pursuit of sustainability. In this article, Karen Kensek offers digital tools that will provide up and coming architects with the necessary skills and knowledge to produce sustainable building designs.

Abstract

Climate change, water scarcity, and environmental degradation are issues that should be addressed by architects.  For this to be possible, architects must have the knowledge and skill to create innovate designs, predict their performance, use constructive feedback to make adjustments, and construct buildings properly.  Although far from perfect, there are many digital tools to help architects and their consultants do this. The profession has also seen a growing use of digital models, especially in the form of building information models (BIM).  BIM has many attributes that make it useful for the architecture/engineering/construction profession, especially its inherent nature as a 3d virtualization that can be used to exchange information with other software.  As BIM is a growing part of the architecture profession, learning its use is imperative by students on the path to becoming architects.  It is also possible to encode pertinent data in the BIM and export the information to simulation programs to create predictions for future energy usage, CO2 emissions, daylight availability, water usage, natural ventilation, and other analytic models.  Students who are learning about BIM have the opportunity to examine its usefulness as a framework for sustainable design.  This paper describes assignments in two BIM courses that lay down groundwork for acceptance of BIM’s role in enabling sustainable design. It demonstrates that classes can provide an opportunity to prepare future architects for the environmental challenges that await them even when the major subject matter of the course is mainly focused on other topics.  Eventually, BIM, like CAD, will diffuse into the design studio and the profession, negating the need for its specific teaching.  Perhaps, classes like these will encourage stealthy diffusion of simulation based methods that help to predict the performance of buildings in the hope of producing more sustainable architectural designs.

Introduction

If one accepts the premise that sustainable design is a moral imperative, then it is critical that architecture courses are infused with knowledge that allows students to design environmentally friendly buildings.  This applies to all the courses that students take, although the depth of instruction about sustainable design and emphasis would vary amongst them.  This paper describes how the instructor has taken two building information modeling (BIM) courses and added a sub-theme of performance-based simulation into some of the assignments.  These courses are electives (one undergraduate, the other graduate) that focus on BIM:  2d/3d coordination, parametrics, and interoperability.  It is with the latter two topics, parametrics and interoperability, where issues of sustainable design have been inserted into the courses’ agenda.

Fortunately, BIM is very well suited in some regards for the inclusion of sustainable design calculations.  Although one could add other topics into a BIM course, such as construction or facilities management or even office management and legal issues, interoperability issues associated with the 3d model are well exemplified by simulation programs.  In addition to the discussions associated with file types, open standards, and the 3d model as a database, one can reinforce environmental concepts of energy consumption, day lighting, and the uncertainness of the results while providing instruction in software that students may later use with their studio design projects.

Figure 1: Revit rendering assignment; the Paletz Moi House by Kenneth E. Hobgood Architects was used for many assignments by Jae Yong Suk, student, Spring 2011

Types of Assignments

Although this paper focuses for the most part on the sustainable design assignments, they were only a partial percentage of the work completed by the students in these classes.  For example, in the graduate course (spring 2011), there were ten homework assignments and a final project. The ten assignment topics were the following (unless otherwise listed, the primary software program used was Revit Architecture):  conceptual parametric modeling (Vasari), whole building energy modeling (Vasari), introduction to families, parametric families, adaptive components (Revit and Vasari), BIM overview, 2d/3d coordination, rendering and animation, phasing, clash detection and construction sequencing (Revit and Navisworks), and performative BIM (Vasari, Weather Tool, Revit, Ecotect, Revit MEP, Green Building Studio, and 3ds Max Design demonstrated in class).  The final project was called, “BIM in the Profession.” Student teams interviewed architects about the role of BIM in the office.  Although some students asked the firms about the how they integrated BIM and sustainable design, most students concentrated on other issues.  In spring 2011, about 20 percent of the assignments and the final project had to do with topics of sustainable design and how they related to BIM.  This method compliments courses that focus primarily on the integration of computation tools including day lighting analysis within the design studio (Oezener et al. 2010) and courses that use BIM and sustainable design tools for analytical inquiry during the design process (Lin 2010).

Three types of assignments were tried over many years:  BIM plus simulation software, BIM workshops, and parametric components for sustainable design. The first type consisting of exporting the BIM into other software (for example, to calculate heating and cooling loads, daylight potential, or CO2 footprint) was the easiest to implement but was also the one most prone to inaccurate results.  The exact results could not be trusted, as the students generally did not have the proper academic background yet to understand, for example, how to create a correct energy model that would accurately predict the heating and cooling loads.  The BIM was extremely useful for providing geometric and links to location-based information and weather data, but the nuances of occupancy, HVAC, zoning, and material definitions were lacking.  These would come later in other classes.  The instructor’s underlying intent was not to teach sustainable design—these courses are specifically about building information modeling – but to provide another layer of support for the cause of sustainable design by showing students that BIM could help them use analysis tools more easily.

Three important lessons were learned by the students:  it is possible to use BIM with simulation software; don’t believe the absolute values that the computer calculates; and relative results are often more useful than a singular answer. As the students changed building orientations and watched as the heating and cooling loads reacted, they could gain some confidence in their strategies even if the absolute numbers were judged unreliable. Although design was not a part of these assignments, other professors have described their experiences in courses where simulation results provided feedback for a new design. This was demonstrated in one example, shading devices and window lighting “shovels” (Techel and Nassar 2007).

The second type of assignment required students to write about a way they thought that BIM could be used with another software program and then to create a set of directions for that specific example.  This was done only with the graduate students as it was thought that they would have the necessary architecture background to come up with interesting workshops. The inspiration for this was a series of sustainable design exercises that Autodesk had produced (Autodesk 2010). The student results ranged from uninspired to good.  The biggest hurdle the students faced was actually writing clearly so that other students could benefit from the knowledge that they had gained.

The previous two methods focused primarily on the characteristic of BIM to be interoperable with other software programs.  On the BIM side, it was found that “interoperability” was still cumbersome at best. In fact, often, despite the hype that BIM is not just 3d CAD, in many cases the 3d model (just like a CAD model) was the only feature of the building information model that was exported to the simulation programs. Only the geometric data was exported.  This harkens back to at least 25 years ago (there are probably older examples). Replace the words “Computer-Aided Drafting” with “Building Information Modeling” in the paragraph below from 1987 to see that some of the same challenges still remain.

“During the architectural design process it is helpful to get the energy analysis at various steps.  Using the knowledge obtained from energy analysis programs, a design can be improved during the next step. … To promote such analytical design process, there is a need to develop interfaces between energy analysis systems and Computer-Aided Drafting packages to get the energy analysis using the drawing files.”  (Jog 1987:1)

The third type of assignment challenged the students to produce parametrically driven architectural components for sustainable design. Unfortunately, although the assignment was fun and the students learned a lot about how to create parametric components, we ended up with relatively trivial results.  A major problem was that the students did not know both the software and the formulas in building science well enough to create complex solutions.  Customization, scripting, and programming direct connections between software programs would be an excellent advanced course, and there are architecture firms that are producing wonderful examples of this (Guttman 2011).

Student Examples

Three different types of student assignments and two other student examples will be discussed.  These include BIM plus simulation software, BIM workshops for sustainable design, parametric components for sustainable design, other tools, and a thesis project on the intersection of BIM and sustainable design.

BIM plus simulation software

Many different simulation programs have been tried over the years including IES <VE>, Ecotect, 3ds Max Design, Revit MEP, and Green Building Studio. A pre-release version of Project Vasari was also used (and later, a full version of Vasari).  The intent of Vasari was to have the students consider conceptual massing studies as an appropriate place to start preliminary energy simulations rather than wait until their designs had been fully developed.

Figure 2: Project Vasari poster and larger details, Aaron Malmedal, student, Spring 2011

Figure 3: Ectotect shadow range and daylight factor, Jae Yong Suk, student, Spring 2011; Saba Shaykh, student, Spring 2011

Figure 4: Revit MEP heating and cooling loads summary and gbXML export to Green Building Studio, Andrea Martinez, student, Spring 2

Figure 5: partial results in Green Building Studio, Andrea Martinez, student, Spring 201

Figure 6: IES, 2030 Challenge, Kolleen Kmiec, student, Spring 2009

Building Information MOdels (BIM) workshops for sustainable design

This assignment came out in fall 2007 and has not been repeated more recently, although many of the same software programs are still being taught. The students were asked to select one topic area that they had explored in the previous assignment. The intent was to demonstrate that a BIM program could be used either alone or with other programs to inform the architectural design process and provide methods of evaluating alternatives.  To accomplish this, the students created an example, listed the steps to do an analysis, redesigned the original building, ran the simulation again, and then wrote a workshop explaining the process.  Many different types of workshops were submitted: “modeling an array of solar panels and estimating the produced energy” (Bassam), “modeling the impacts of design changes on solar gain” (Buntine), “solar access analysis for new building design” (Chen), “perform a visual analysis of the areas of a building that have access to natural ventilation” (Eng), “sustainable window design exercise: LEED day lighting” (Hill), “determine appropriate building material, model it correctly, and orient it, such that it minimizes building heating and cooling loads” (Kumar), “determining the best location for solar panels on a roof” (Loghmani), “determine the daylight level within the building with its original design and then redesign the building by adding extra windows and skylight if necessary” (Ng), “trying different options of planting and seeing their differing impact-shadow and screening–on the design” (Quinn), “how Revit can help you complete some of the LEED points, more specifically ‘Site Selection Credit 4.1 – Alternative Transportation, Public Transportation Access’ of LEED” (Rossi), “determine the amount of tree and buildings coverage on a site and track the amount of shade provided throughout the day” (Scales), “designing a roof or other shading device that allows for proper day lighting based on the season” (Smolyanskiy), “using and showing sustainable materials in building”  (Wang), “understand the basic principles of passive shading, why it is important, and to use BIM models to identify which design can be most effective per building exposure.” (Eguchi).

In some cases, the descriptions of the goals of the workshops were overly optimistic based upon the homework actually turned in.  “Determine exterior glazing type for a building” by Shih-Hsin Eve Lin (Fall 2007) is a good example of the intent and execution of the assignment.

Figure 7: beginning of workshop and calculating heating and cooling loads in Revit MEP, Shih-Hsin Eve Lin, student, Fall 2007

Figure 8: preliminary daylighting analysis and comparing daylight illuminance for different window types, Shih-Hsin Eve Lin, student, Fall 2007

Parametric components for sustainable design

A hallmark of BIM programs is the ability to associate data with 3d parametric objects (Kensek 2009).  These are examples of student derived “sustainable” components.

Figure 9: Wind turbine and solar hybrid with parameters, Kenneth Griffin, student, Spring 2009, and PV panel and parametric properties, Xiaochang Xu, student, Spring 2010

Figure 10: low flow water fixture, parametric date, and plumbing fixture schedule, Ryan Hansanuwat, student, Spring 2009

Other tools

Other software programs, chosen for their ease of use, were shown in the classes over the years. These were not directly related to BIM but were useful for understanding basic concepts like solar path diagrams, psychometric charts, and weather data.

Figure 11: sun altitude-azimuth chart and Climate Consultant, psychrometric chart, author; Kolleen Kmiec, student, Spring 2009

Figure 12: Weather Tool, wind and weekly temperature, Kolleen Kmiec, student, Spring 2009; Saba Shaykh, student, Spring 2011

Figure 13: using HEED for energy calculations; although excellent for early studies of energy usage, unfortunately, it currently will not import or export BIM files, author

Thesis project on the intersection of BIM and sustainable design

Typically, Master of Building Science thesis topics focus on structures, environmental controls, materials, or sustainable design.  For example, recent research topics have included the following: “biomimetic design of the building envelope:  biological climate adaptations and thermal controls in the Sonoran desert” (Wiebe 2009),  “solar thermal cooling and heating:  a year-round thermal comfort strategy using a hybrid solar absorption chiller and hydronic heating system”  (Kirchoff 2010), and “using kinetic facades to increase energy efficiency and building performance in office buildings (Hansanuwat 2010).

Xin Stan Zhao’s thesis investigated methods to demonstrate that a BIM is an effective means for predicting and documenting a building’s potential LEED score by evaluating its potential to be used in each of the LEED NC 2009 categories: interoperability with third party software, scheduling and parameters within the software, and the use of specialized components directly inside the BIM.  It was his hypothesis that although it is not a requirement to use a BIM for evaluating LEED credits, it may be easier than other methods, and the BIM could also be used for more rigorous testing of sustainable design solutions (Kensek and Zhao 2011).

Figure 14: chart showing application of 3 types of methods of BIM for LEED; example of each method, Xin Stan Zhao, student, Spring 2011

Conclusion

Building information modeling can provide a framework for teaching sustainable design issues, especially for novices, as it often allows for interoperability between building performance software programs and 3d models.  It is also being used in the profession for design green architecture (Krygiel and Nies 2008).  Currently there are numerous annoying technical difficulties and stumbling blocks, but if students are creating these 3d models anyway, there is no excuse for them not to start at least preliminary analysis of their projects as soon possible in the design process.  The inclusion of these programs into the BIM courses is to encourage the students to become familiar with the tools, mentally synthesize their properties with information from building science courses taken previously and future coursework, and apply what they have learned. Recently the author has also been incorporating a short introduction to conceptual energy modeling into a required professional practice course for graduate and undergraduate students. The profession needs architects who understand the criticality of sustainable design, are competent with using software to predict building performance, and who create innovative, beautiful buildings that not only do little harm but also give back to the environment.  Every instructor can help achieve this goal.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my students for working through my endless homework assignments!  I am especially heartened when I see the students take the use of BIM to other classes (for example, in a class that concentrates on energy flows in buildings) and have used the simulation programs that I have showed them for analyzing their studio projects.  A preliminary poster on this subject was also presented in 2009 at ACSA (Kensek, 2009).  The thumbnail image is by Fenty Muliadi, (student, Spring 2011), Revit sun path diagram and Ecotect daylight factor.

References and Endnotes

Autodesk (2010).  This following is a link to a more recent version of the Autodesk Sustainable Design Curriculum; this link does not imply an endorsement; like many design curricula it has its own set of opportunities and problems.  http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=content_box_layout_view&layout_id=24

Guttman, M. (2011).  “Application Programming for Computational Design; A Case Study on Driving Revit from Ecotect,” Extreme BIM Symposium, USC, July 8, 2011. Guttman demonstrated the use of custom applications using Revit, the Revit API, Excel, and Ectotect for studying shading and solar insolation.  This is just example of many tools being developed in architecture firms.

Jog, B. (1987). “An Interface Between CAD and Energy Analysis System, Integrating Computers into the Architectural Curriculum,” ACADIA Conference Proceedings, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1987, pp. 87-94.

Kensek, Karen. “Sustainable Parametric Objects.” AUGI | AEC Edge, http://augiaecedge.com/Current/default.htm, pp.31 – 35, Fall 2009.

Kensek, Karen. “BIM + :  exploring the potentials of building information modeling for achieving sustainable design.”  ACSA 2009, Portland, Oregon, March 26th-28th, 2009.  Poster session.

Kensek, Karen and Xin Stan Zhao. “Using Building Information Modeling as a Tool for LEED Score Calculations,” BESS 2011 (Building Enclosure Sustainability Symposium – Integrating Design & Building Practices), Pomona, CA, April 2011.

Krygiel, E. and Nies, B. (2008).  Green BIM:  Successful Sustainable Design with Building Information Modeling.  The students were assigned to read “Chapter 2: Building Information Modeling,” pp. 26 – 52 and “Chapter 6: Sustainable BIM:  Building Systems,” pp. 165-208.

Lin, J. (2010).  “Design for Quantitative and Qualitative Performance: A Pedagogical Approach for Integrating Environmental Analysis into the Early Stages of the Design Process,”  Re.Building:  2010 ACSA Proceedings (Goodwin + Kinnard, editors), New Orleans, Lousiana, 2010, pp. 189 – 196. An interesting discussion of a class where “analytic inquiry [was used] as a means to evaluate design.”

Oezener, 0., Farias, F., Haliburton, J., Clayton, M. (2010). “Illuminating the Design: incorporation of natural lighting analyses in the design studio using BIM,” FUTURE CITIES, 28th eCAADe Conference Proceedings, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, September 15-18, 2010, pp. 493-498.  BIM was especially useful in the studio described as it provided a method for making design decisions and then receiving relatively rapid feedback.

Techel, F., K. Nassar (2007). “Teaching Building Information Modeling (BIM) from a Sustainability Design Perspective,” Em‘body’ing Virtual Architecture: The Third International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2007), 28-30 November 2007, Alexandria, Egypt, pp. 635-650.  This is just one of many excellent examples where professors are using BIM as the framework for sustainable design studies.

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Environmental sustainability cannot be separated from social justice.  Christina Selby presents a compelling case study of sustainability work grounded in cultural democracy, or processes that involve all groups in community decision-making.  In the Youth Allies for Sustainability Leadership Program, young residents of Santa Fe, New Mexico, address ecological integrity through intercultural healing, relationship-building, and advocacy.  Selby grounds her case in the broader theoretical work of eco-justice and transformative education.  She highlights the urgent need to further integrate the defense of cultural integrity with the protection and restoration of ecological balance and economic vitality.  This case study is a shining model for such integration. 

OVERVIEW

Cultural anthropologist Richard Kurin (2000) describes globalization as “the worldwide spread of a homogenized, commercial, mass culture at the expense of most local and regional cultures” (pg. 4).  As multinational corporations spread Western consumer cultural, economic, and linguistic systems across the world, local cultures are threatened. These globalizing forces assign more value, status, and influence to Western consumer culture and then to local, place-based and indigenous cultures. Kurin refers to this form of social dominance as “cultural gray-out.” Cultural gray-out effectively decreases the resilience of human communities by eliminating both biological and cultural diversity.

Today we are becoming aware of how important diversity is to our survival, and how cultural diversity is directly linked to our ability to sustain biological diversity. As Rebecca Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci (2011) highlight in their book EcoJustice Education, there is an important relationship among cultural diversity, linguistic diversity, and biodiversity so that if one of these is threatened the others are as well. Cultures maintain viability by protecting and passing on knowledge via their shared language. “As we lose linguistic diversity, we also lose specific cultural knowledge about how to live in specific bioregions, what species live there, what grows well, what rainfall levels demand, what nutrients naturally occur in the soil and what it needs and on and on. Such a loss threatens the biodiversity of a region that in turn damages the human community’s survivability” (pg.27). Of the more than 6,700 languages spoken in the world today, half are in danger of disappearing before the century ends (Wurm, 2001). Cultural and biological diversity are two sides of the same coin and make up our living, evolving library of how to live sustainably on this planet.  We are burning the books in the library by homogenizing the cultural, economic, and linguistic systems that communities depend upon to maintain complex knowledge about the life in a particular bioregion.

Equally important to achieving sustainability are decision-making processes and relationships between diverse cultures. When cultural diversity exists, cultures have the opportunity to share knowledge and practices, interacting with each other to co-create solutions to problems where none appeared before. Yet, culture[1] is heavily influenced by historical, social, political, and economic conditions that define who holds the power and decision-making authority within society. Social systems have inherent arrangements of dominance and injustice that create privilege for some, at the expense of others, based on cultural differences such as race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and other differentiation (Howard, 1999; Johnson, 2006). Privileges flow to some whether or not they have earned it, and likewise penalties and inequalities flow to other groups through no fault of their own. These systems of privilege create “a yawning divide in levels of income, wealth, dignity, safety, health and quality of life” (Johnson, 2006) and define who is included or excluded from decision-making processes.

In addition, these systems of privilege are being expanded around the world through globalization. Martusewicz, Edmundson, and Lupinacci (2011) state, “If our decision-making practices do not take account of a particular groups’ needs because they are excluded from our believed realm of responsibility, we not only commit injustice, we inevitably undermine the diversity that is the strength of our community. No matter if we’re talking about cultural diversity or biodiversity, putting any of these groups in the margins or defining them as less deserving of care and reciprocity, is harmful to the whole community of life.” Globalization is setting up a hierarchy valuing Western consumer culture over all others.

Recognizing the impact of global economic development on biological and human communities, the World Commission on Environment and Development published Our Common Future in 1987. This report that introduced the concept of sustainable development, better known as sustainability, defining sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”  Sustainability is achieved through a balance between social, economic, and environmental factors.

Building on the Our Common Future, the Earth Summit[2] convened in 1992, birthing the field of Sustainability Education. Simply put, Sustainability Education began as a way to prepare students with the skills and knowledge necessary to live sustainably, and built its pedagogy upon the same three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development – social equity, environment, and economics. Awareness of sustainability began to spread and is now becoming mainstream in many countries.

Today, nearly twenty years later, is sustainability a victim of its own success? Sustainability has come to mean many things to many people – everything from solar panels, biodiesel fuel, and seed saving to increasing park land, shopping at local stores, and as a way of thinking about community development. Sustainability Education has certainly been successful in developing a mainstream awareness about “going green”, but nearly two decades later we need to ask ourselves if Sustainability Education is reinforcing a dominant western view of how to live sustainably on this planet. Are we missing an understanding of the importance of cultural diversity and democratic processes in our mission to achieve global sustainability?

THE FOURTH PILLAR AND SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION

In 2003, UNESCO proposed that educational approaches to sustainability take into account the experiences of indigenous cultures and minorities and both acknowledge and facilitate their important contributions to the process of sustainable development. “Cultural diversity presupposes the existence of a process of exchanges, open to renewal and innovation but also committed to tradition, and does not aim at the preservation of a static set of behaviors, values and expressions” (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO, 2003). As globalization’s diminishing effects on cultural diversity become more apparent, the acknowledgement and recognition of how various cultures and living systems contribute to, are excluded from, resist, or are affected by development, sustainable or otherwise, must become an increasingly central concept in Sustainability Education.

Cultural democracy is a system whereby citizens encourage and create a process for all cultures to participate equally in decision-making. The practice of cultural democracy allows societies to address issues of power, the reality of uneven and inequitable inclusion of cultures in the democratic process, the effect of power dynamics on how cultures relate to each other, and how communities are able to participate in the shaping of their own futures (Akinyela, 1997).

The newly emerging field of EcoJustice Education links cultural diversity, democracy and sustainability. In the introduction to EcoJustice Education, the authors (2011) argue that “the purpose of public education must be to develop citizens who can actively work toward a democratic and sustainable society, one that values cultural diversity for what it offers to community problem-solving and for the essential role that biodiversity plays in the very possibility of living systems. Such a citizenry requires a developed eco-ethical consciousness, people who recognize the importance of protecting their local communities’ health and welfare, while understanding the ways larger social, political, and economic systems function historically to degrade the social and ecological relationships necessary for life.” He continues, saying that EcoJustice Education “helps teachers understand how to interpret unsustainable and unjust ways of living, too often reproduced in schools. We look closely at how social inequalities like racism or sexism are connected to the harm being done to local and global ecosystems by the same underlying logic of domination. And emphasizing our commitment to the local, to the power of diverse and democratic communities.” Stephen Sterling, a thought leader in the field of Sustainability Education, [3] acknowledges the limitations of conventional Sustainability Education with his assertion that the field, in its current state, is marginalized by the dominant mainstream culture.

To move past this cultural “green-out” of Sustainability Education, a fourth pillar of culture must be added to the standard narrative of Sustainability Education as we know it today. In doing so, culture more fully supports the foundation of social equity, economic and environment by linking democracy, sustainability and cultural and biological diversity. By expanding the definition of Sustainability Education to include cultural diversity as the fourth pillar, we automatically include biological diversity in democratic practices that are key to sustainability in human systems. This fourth pillar of culture encompasses the study of globalization, colonization, oppression and systems of privilege and their impact on cultural and biological diversity, providing insight into cross-cultural relations and decision-making processes.

Without this fourth pillar, we are at risk of perpetuating the same cultural gray-out that Kurin describes as a consequence of globalization. A dynamic that threatens to promote and reify only the dominant culture’s perspective on practices on sustainable living and development while excluding the majority and diversity of perspectives. Sustainability Education must ask students to grapple with all manner of diversity questions, on both individual and collective levels, including query into cultural identity, how to preserve or transform sustainable/unsustainable cultural practices, where cultures meet and collide in the political, economic, and social realms, how living systems can be represented in our decision-making processes, and how to collectively decide what should be preserved, for whom and for how long.

This is especially important in New Mexico, a “minority majority” state where Native, Hispanic, and Anglo communities continue to struggle with the legacy and impact of colonization and systems of privilege on our collective ability to achieve equity, build relationships and work together across cultures to solve some of our community’s most pressing problems. Santa Fe, New Mexico is an excellent laboratory to realize the fourth pillar of culture in Sustainability Education, since despite having a minority majority, the Western consumer white culture still dominates.

This is the work that Earth Care was created to tackle — to show how a fourth pillar of culture counters cultural gray-out and the unsustainable green-out of sustainability education. Through our work we have engaged diverse groups of young people in preserving and revitalizing our community and environment in a way that honors the sustainable views and practices of individual cultures.

As a result of ten years of implementing Sustainability Education in various settings – with public, private and charter K-12 schools, in out-of-school youth leadership programs, and teacher trainings, the following case study on Earth Care’s Youth Allies for Sustainability Leadership Program (Youth Allies) serves as an exemplary success of this pillar’s integration into an educational model by embedding cultural diversity into the very fabric of the program rather than viewing it as a discrete goal to accomplish in and of itself.

CULTURE AND ECOJUSTICE EMBEDDED IN YOUTH ALLIES’ CURRICULUM AND STRUCTURE

Youth Allies is an example of a successful Earth Care program that incorporates the fourth pillar. The program works towards ecological wellbeing while healing and bridging cross-cultural relationships needed for communities to effectively engage in sustainable community development. At the same time, the program supports young people in successfully engaging these issues with real life, practical programming that they create and run.

Originally Earth Care relied on the three pillars of economic, environment, social equity in all of its programming and later attempted to add culture to the mix. Over the past decade, programmatic successes and failures clearly showed us that simply adding on a study of culture and cultural diversity did not work because it frequently fell off the list of priorities. Earth Care, under the visionary leadership of Youth Allies Program Director Bianca Sopoci-Belknap and in collaboration with the Santa Fe Mountain Center, started the out-of-school Youth Allies Program in 2006 as a way to engage local youth in the process of leadership and change-making. Culture was embedded into the program from its inception. Guided by the question: “How can we empower youth to rebuild the cultural and ecological fabric of the community?” we recruited diverse groups of youth and explored their cultural identities and communities as the foundation of the program.

Through the first year of the program we began to align ourselves with the then emerging field of EcoJustice Education that took this concept we already had in place and transformed it to new levels. For example, the EcoJustice educational approach places equal importance on working with students to preserve cultural commons (such as languages and methods for growing and preparing food) as well as ecological commons. As a result our fourth pillar methodology evolved to include the EcoJustice educational approach, and we now refer to the fourth pillar of culture as EcoJustice.

Structure of the Program

Youth Allies serves youth ages 13 to 19 from Santa Fe and surrounding Pueblos. We specifically target for diversity so that the leaders of tomorrow will be able to work across cultural lines and engage in cross-cultural conflict resolution and relationship building. The majority of the young people we serve are from underserved backgrounds – minority ethnic communities and low-income families – because these youth are disproportionately impacted by community issues and underrepresented in decision-making processes. The demographic breakdown of the approximately 450 youth served through the training program since 2006 to date is as follows:

The Youth Allies has a multi-level structure for training, organizing, and civic engagement. Thirty-five youth are accepted each year to participate in a nine-month intensive training called the Leadership Training Institute, gaining skills in cross-cultural relationship building, leadership, organizing, and social, economic, environmental and cultural sustainability. The next level of the Youth Allies Program is the Organizing Program that delves deeper into the theory and practice of social change. This program is open to 10 youth per year who have already received training and experience through the Leadership Training Institute. Participants explore their personal areas of passion and develop community improvement projects that utilize their strengths and interests, apply what they have learned, and address key areas of sustainable community development and global justice. Organizers, as the youth are titled, receive intensive mentorship and a stipend for college upon successful completion of this program that typically lasts a year. The community projects they design and lead fall under five areas: Food and Health, Climate Action, Art and Social Change, Footprint Reduction, and Global Justice. All projects include service-learning days and peer education activities that are open to the greater youth community.

Along with the youth participants that are trained in the Leadership Institute and Organizing Program, Youth Allies engages an additional 500 youth and community members through the youth-led community projects every year. This additional group is comprised of parents, students, activists, and peers of the youth in the program. The goal of the program is to counteract the cultural gray-out in the dominant narrative that leads to unsustainable decision-making in ecological, societal, cultural, and economic realms. The Youth Allies Program has shown that diversity is the antidote to cultural gray-out as hundreds of youth from many different backgrounds are now engaging in local decision-making processes, charting a course away from the numbing globalizing forces that impact their lives. Instead, these students are fully participating in preserving and transforming their environment and their communities while owning an authentic sense of self and cultural preservation/adaptation that will reverberate in untold directions.

Examples of Programmatic Success in Incorporating EcoJustice as a Pillar

We have realized that incorporating EcoJustice as a pillar requires building culturally diverse coalitions and collaborations throughout the systems we seek to influence in order to best support the positive development of youth and the sustainable development of communities. The program collaborates with over 20 local entities, each representing unique and diverse populations, issues, and cultures in our community.

We facilitate cultural healing and relationship building by recruiting for racial equity and diversity within the program in order to be able to cultivate cross-cultural alliances and a local movement for social justice. At a recent opening youth camp we brought together the Youth Allies with the Santa Fe Mountain Center’s Gay Straight Alliance program. After a day of training in anti-oppression, (de)colonization, and cultural competency, one youth participant stated, “we are family now, we will support each other’s causes and issues.”

As an example of a youth project under the Climate Action category on a recent cold December night in Santa Fe, 250 youth under thirty years of age dressed in black and marched across town carrying coffins and wearing gas masks to a State building to support the Carbon Cap (legislation) that the New Mexico governor currently seeks to reverse. To protest sweatshops in a proactive way, two Organizers are leading twenty of their peers in weekly “Do-It-Yourself” workshops in jewelry making, sewing, and other similar skills as part of the Footprint Reduction category. These are just two of the myriad of student created and led community projects that have resulted from the Youth Allies Program.

In addition to the individual community projects, students and staff of the Youth Allies Sustainability Program developed two avenues to bring EcoJustice to local government and educational decision-making forums. Both the community projects and these decision-making vehicles serve as on-going evidence for the success of incorporating the EcoJustice educational model in Sustainability Education.

For instance, there is now a nine-person Youth Advisory Board that works alongside the Mayor-appointed City of Santa Fe Sustainability Commission. Graduates from the program help inspire and implement the Sustainable Santa Fe Plan to reduce our community’s carbon footprint. Also, the Youth Board engages additional youth in civic engagement trainings and campaigns that address critical community needs focused on sustainable community development.

The Eco-Schools Student Coalition was created and is led by one of the Youth Allies Organizers, and is comprised of one student representative from each of the middle and high schools in Santa Fe. The Coalition’s mission is to green the Santa Fe school district and integrate sustainability education into the curriculum. The group conducts peer education on sustainability, ongoing eco-school assessments, and leads one campaign per year across the district in collaboration with the Sustainability Education Task Force and School Board.

In summary, the Youth Allies for Sustainability for Leadership Program takes Sustainability Education to a whole new level of inclusion, ability to affect community building and counter globalizing forces. Building upon the core principle foundations of social equity, economics, and environment, this program demonstrates the evolution of Sustainability Education to its next higher form through embedding culture and diversity within the very fabric of the program. For those seeking to increase the participation of diverse groups in building healthy, just and sustainable communities and counter the loss of our living library on how to live sustainably on this planet, this vital and influential model of Sustainability Education may provide an excellent guide.

(Youth Allies Program Manual: 2010)

(Youth Allies Program Manual: 2010)

References

Akinyela, M.M. (1997). Culture and power in practice: Cultural democracy and the family support movement, Best practice: Project commissioned paper III. Family Resource Coalition of America. ED 423055.

EcoJustice Education. (n.d.). EcoJustice Education. November, 8 2011,

www.ecojusticeeducation.org.

Howard, G.R. (1999). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multiracial schools.

New York: Teachers College Press.

Johnson, A.G. (2006). Privilege, power and difference (Second Edition). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Kurin, R. (2000). Pursuing cultural democracy. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian

Folklife Festival Program.

Martusewicz, R., Edmundson, J., Lupinacci, J. (2011). EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse, Democratic, and Sustainable Communities. New York: Rutledge.

World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development. http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I

UNESCO. (n.d.). Sustainable development: An evolving concept. April 20, 2005,

http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30363&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

UNESCO. (2003). Ensuring sustainable development through cultural diversity. April 20, 2005,

http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1219&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

Sopoci-Belknap, B. (2010). Earth Care Youth Allies Program Manual. Earth Care. Santa Fe, NM. www.youthalliesnetwork.org or www.earthcarenm.org

Sterling, S. (2001). Sustainable education: Re-visioning learning and change. Schumacher briefings. Bristol, U.K.: Schumacher CREATE Environment Center.

Wurm, Stephen. (2001). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. UNESCO.

[1] Culture here is defined as the practices, beliefs, traditions, moral norms that give the people a common sense of identity and way of understanding their relationship to the environment and to each other.

[2] In 1992, more than 100 heads of state met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the first international Earth Summit convened to address urgent problems of environmental protection and socio-economic development. The assembled leaders endorsed the Rio Declaration, and adopted Agenda 21, a 300 page plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century.

[3] Stephen Sterling is a professor at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. He is the author of, among many other works, Sustainable Education: Re-visioning Learning and Change and Good Earthkeeping: Education, Training and Awareness for a Sustainable Future.

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In this deep review of, Pramod Prajuli takes us to the bio-cultural landscapes in the heart of the high Andes and Amazon of Peru where he so elegantly explains, based on the book, how the true understanding, and regeneration, of this landscape requires acceptance of a profoundly different, non-technical, non-reductionist, and non-“Western” mindset. The esay illustrates residue of enchanted bio-cultural patrimony, as it still survives and thrives in the Peruvian highlands as well as in the High Amazon.  The core message of the book is to show that this patrimony is not a one-way street where the humans enact on nature but rather a two-way street where nature also enacts upon members of human species. 

A chacra (cultivated field) comes into being through the actions of the sun, the moon, the soil, the constellations, the winds, the waters, the seeds, the plants, the insects, the birds, the tools, other animals, the actions of humans and so forth.

(Frederique Apffel-Marglin, Subversive Spiritualities, 2011)

The light of mind must flow into and marry with the light of nature to bring forth a world.

(Arthur Zajonc, Catching the Light, 1993)

I am pleased to present a review essay around another book by a prolific author Frederique Apffel-Marglin on Andean and Amazonian rituals and spirituality.  One of the core themes of the book is bio-cultural patrimony and bio-cultural regeneration as it is still alive and thrives in some parts of the highlands as well as the High Amazon of Peru.  This is the second major work by the author on the Andean cosmovision.  Many of these themes were introduced in an edited volume some fifteen years ago, entitled, The Spirit of Regeneration (Zed, 1998).  The Andes and the High Amazon has been an area of interest for the author since the early 1990s when she started collaborating work with PRATEC (Andean Project for Peasant Technologies, visit: www.pratecnet.org) 1993. Since 2009, the author has also founded a non-profit organization called Sachamama (www.centrosachamama.org) which is engaged in regenerating the spiritual life of the local indigenous group in this High Amazonian locality. The Center is deeply embedded in the agricentric, pachacentric, and forest-centric lifeways of the people there.  Almost half of each year, the author lives in the Lamas region in the Peruvian High Amazon, overseeing Sachamama organization. The author also directs a summer study abroad accredited program for undergraduates from US Colleges and Universities through an arrangement with the study abroad organization Living Routes and accreditation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. (www.livingroutes.org/peru) . Just as her scholarship has spread between the interrogation of European thought and explaining the ritualistic and performative world of India and indigenous Peru, the author now actually lives in those two worlds.

I have personally known the author for some two decades now.  I also visited the Peruvian Highlands for a few weeks in 1996 under the author’s and PRATEC’s invitation. It is my pleasure to share some of my reflections on the content and the spirit of the book in hand.

The book is a tour de force of the Peruvian indigenous universe, but not at the simple level of an anthropology or ethnography of these indigenous peoples. While the author calls this a “reverse anthropology,” for me it is a duet between the Peruvian indigenous world and the institutions of science, modernity, development, and the neoliberal frameworks of free markets.  The heart of this book is about illuminating Andean/Amazonian indigenous life and bio-cultural patrimony, while the narrative engages in the parallel discourse about those who the author calls “modern cosmopolitans.” Heirs to the scientific revolution and enlightenment, modern cosmopolitans are lonely, miserable urban dwellers who are deprived of the accompaniment of the other-than- human beings in our earthly journey. Using the lens from a living and enchanted world of indigenous Peru where every aspect of the world is alive and communicates to each other, the author likens the modern cosmopolitans as “abandoned children”, who have become miserably detached from the other-than-human world or beings, such as spirits, deities, demons and so forth. Woven into this story, a reader gets a good tour of the birth and evolution of scientific discourses and methods.

Among the founders of the scientific enterprise, the author picks on the Robert Boyle’s experiments with the air-pump, as symptomatic of reductionist scientific thinking. The author points out that Cartesian-Boylian-Newtonian frameworks heralded the separation between the physical and the metaphysical, mind and matter, culture and nature:

Francis Bacon, an alchemist and natural philosopher, had already advocated the use of instruments to question nature. But by taking these instruments for questioning nature out of the study of the alchemist into the public laboratory, Boyle effectively removed the experimenter from the equation. No longer was the manipulation of matter also a refinement of the philosopher’s soul. The divide between the human observer and questioner of nature and the non-human world was thereby operationalized. Broadly, then, Boyle applied three technologies: first, the material one, namely the use of machine, the air pump, to produce facts; second, a social one, namely the kinds of people the modest witnesses could or could not be; and third, a literary one, that made known the findings to non-witnesses, or the style of writing which today we call the objective style. The goal of all three technologies was to establish a method that would be a perfect “mirror of nature” bypassing men’s unreliable and trouble-making opinions and senses. Through this method certain knowledge could be established in a manner that totally separated it from the religious and political spheres where conflict raged. …The fields of knowledge were thus fragmented in the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, a new method that gave birth to the sundering of life and knowledge (P.84).

Several Peruvian institutions or organizations described in this book (fair trade cooperative, school of agronomy, state-sponsored feminism, irrigation, harvest) are about interrogation of the separation between matter and spirit, physical and metaphysical, and the sundering of life and knowledge in the European thought tradition. It is also about the assessment of whether and how this mindset has affected the designs and operatives in Peru in the realm of free trade, developmentalist feminism, agriculture, forestry, and water. The book successfully brings the stories from the in-between spaces in the Peruvian indigenous worlds where this magic spell has worked and where it has not.  Echoing Bruno Latour’s assertion that “We have Never been Modern,” this book shows how modernity is incompatible with the indigenous worldviews where the so–called physical matter and spiritual matters are not exclusive of each other. We get glimpses of the author’s observations and conversation with indigenous farmers as well as with Peruvian intellectuals.

The book takes us to the heart of the cosmovisions of Peruvian indigenous peoples where the rocks and trees have agency and are in communication with the other earthly beings including humans. In this universe, humans are mere members of what they call a space called pacha. Inhabitants of the pacha-–including the rocks, the waters, the sun, the moon, and the stars, as well as the plants, the animals and the people—are alive and communicate or converse with the human inhabitants through a multiplicity of signs (P.71). Pacha is not the whole world but one particular location. All—human beings, non-human entities as well as other-than-human beings (nature, deities and spirits, known as huacas, wamani or apus, and humans) are members of the same family, a single community. As members, all are alive and are in communication. Nurturing and being nurtured from each other is the thread that binds them together.  This mutual nurturing and nurturance (crianza in Spanish) has made and continues the deep-rooted bio-cultural patrimony in indigenous Peru.

The subtitle of the book, “How Rituals Enact the World” comes to effect in the intersection of nature, deities, and the humans. Rituals enact that world of mutual nurturing. The author provides ethnographic details of this mutual act of nurturing through the festival of the annual cleaning of the irrigation canals (chap 5), to the harvest ritual at the top of the mountain (chap 7).  In chapter 6, the Euro-centric teaching of agronomy in Peru is interrogated through the voice of Marcela Machaca, her sister, Magdalena, and their brother Gilberto. The two sisters went through the agronomic studies in a Peruvian university but did not find their own voice, or the experience of growing up in one of the most biologically diverse fields of the pacha or the chacra (cultivated fields).  None of the agronomic texts ever mentioned, or recognized that people in indigenous Peru had their own form of agriculture.  What was in Marcela and Magdalena’s ground and cosmos was relegated to the realm of culture, a backward-looking superstitious world of spirits and shamans.  These views were not admissible in the realm of science of agronomy and agriculture.  When the reviewer met Marcela and Magdalena in the spring of 1996, they had already abandoned the so-called scientific agronomy and had begun to regenerate Andean ways of life and community.  Through the courses with PRATEC (the subject of the book, The Spirit of Regeneration) both sisters were already reconnecting with and regenerating the agricentric community that they were born into.

In the same thread of interrogating the discourse and institutions of modernity, in chapter 8, Bolivian educator, Loyda Sanchez and the author expose the Bolivian state and its developmentalist and state-led feminist missionizing.  One of the paradoxes of such feminism model is that it seeks to create individual female citizens. In the Andean context, such a discursive move is at once creative and destructive.  Like what is happening in the realms of monoculture agriculture, or forestry, or growing of coffee for fair trade, the female individual citizen emerges from the destruction of the umbilical cord to her community and her relational world within it. Behind state’s goal of transforming comuneras into individual citizens, the authors depict the State agenda of controlling population growth (P. 132). Just as the other-than-human world is depicted simply as “resources” to be managed, exploited, and used by the human economy, a female body is brought under the purview of state statistics. Women are considered a population of concern whose fertility and reproduction rate need to be regulated and managed.

A new lens to look at women’s body and being and gender relations in the Andes within the wider context of comuneras’ membership among the pacha and chacra is called for. European acceptance of the biological female body is questioned as a violation of the Andean female, who is immersed in the body of the pachamama as well as her community of nurturance.  For example, in the Andean cosmos, waters within the body of the couple having children and the waters of the pachamama (mother earth) are the same, they are porous, open, fluid, and in a continuum.  Having children is considered a gift from the pachamama and a gift that is given back to pachamama’s circular flow of water. Tragedy is unfolding because this view is now subjugated under the new gaze where women are considered as hosting a unitary biological body.  Such a view of the modern biological, universal body is a product of the 17th century Cartesian separation between res extensa and res cogitans. A biological body was created as a new kind of object, a discrete, isolated, objectified, and material body, separated from the realms of nature, the semiotic, and the sacred (P. 132).

Continuing this theme further and deeper, chapter 10 describes the institution of fair trade as it functions in the Oro Verde (Green Gold) Fair Trade Coffee Cooperative in the community of Lamas in the Peruvian High Amazon. Although the author recognizes that Fair Trade is currently the only defense against Free Trade and helps the poorest farmers, its logic and logistics of operation does not value the symbolic and the spiritual aspects of the people there.  In agriculture and agronomy, wilderness preserves (chaps 2 and 10), fair trade Northern centralized management (chap 10) or a certain type of feminism (chaps 7, 8), the author finds the same imprint of the separation of matter from spirit, culture from nature, and human species from other-than and non-human species.  This book acknowledges that loss of bio-cultural patrimony while searching to recover that loss through bio-cultural regeneration.  The accounts and evidence from indigenous Peru as depicted in this book are mixed at best because the Catholic Christianity has already compromised most of the outer layers of these practices. But the soul of biocultural patrimony still survives and, in many ways, is thriving through the work of a new generation of educators and community healers such as Marcela Macheca, Loyda Sanchez, Julio Valladolid Rivera, and others.  Among many, I will highlight some glimpse of the biocultural patrimony and bio-cultural regeneration as depicted around water, forest, and agriculture.

Chapter 5 details an annual event called Yarqa Aspiy (canal cleaning day) in the community of Quispillacta on September 7th. After long winter months, September 7th heralds the season of corn planting in the Quechua speaking zone. What is happening and how it is done is an evidence of the bio-cultural patrimony in the Peruvian Highlands.  While canal cleaning is about the flow of water, it is also about nurturing the feelings of the comuneros and comuneras (some 5,000 people) so that the community remains together. Water is one of the mediums through which biocultural community is regenerated, annually.  But the deities also have to be involved; forests and plants also have to be involved. Thus all people involved wear their best new clothes that day. They decorate their hats with the wild matawayta flowers, which are brought from the high mountains or Puna, located some 4,800 meters high.  It takes a specially designated person two days on horse simply to reach the sacred flowers.  These flowers are the spirits of the water and they sacralize the whole ritual (P.79).  What does a flower from a far-away, and a high mountain place have to do with the flow of water downstream? The book tries to answer that very question.

Yet, despite the continuity of the ritual something is already lost in the deep sense of the Andean participants such as Marcela, and her brother Gilberto.  As the canal was cemented some years ago, there has been loss in the bio-cultural patrimony that emanates in the life of water and its flow. Due to the cemented lining of the canal, water is deprived of the accompaniment with the plants:

Respecting and nurturing water means that its ways of traveling are intimately known.  At the place where the water is diverted to the irrigation channels, the stream is surrounded by lush vegetation, in fact the whole stream is thus surrounded.  These plants are the water’s companions, its familiars. The water and the plants have an affinity with each other, and the ancient earthen channels are made lovingly, respectfully, so that the water would not feel abandoned by its companion plants and will travel happily.  …The water has its own needs and requirements, and has an integrity, which must be respected (P.89).

The book illustrates residue of enchanted bio-cultural patrimony, as it still survives and thrives in the Peruvian highlands as well as in the High Amazon.  The core message of the book is to show that this patrimony is not a one-way street where the humans enact on nature but rather a two-way street where nature also enacts upon members of human species. That is why humans have to perform rituals to ask permission to sow, harvest, store, or prepare the soil. Indigenous Peruvians, the book documents in convincing detail, transcend absolute time and space or nature and culture (chap 9).  Nature, deities or humans cannot be represented but all nurture the pacha through ritual performativity. This world could be considered, “pachacentrico,” says one of the founders of PRATEC, Julio Valladolid Rivera.

In chapter 7, we get a deeper view of the gender relations, which are intertwined with the pachamama, the soil, fertility, waters, and such. A conversation the author had with a young women, Eli Chambi illuminates this.  This is also the seed of the discomfort, Andean women have with the reproductive science and institutions as discussed in chapter 8 above:

The Chacra (cultivated field) is sort of a sacred place and women who enter the chacras must be fertile, otherwise you can harm its generative power. It is as I told you about this ritual of Ispallas. The T’alla is pachamama and like her she is pregnant from around January to March. And all other women are Ispallas, the root crops.  The men are mucho’s, grains. That is because grains grow outside the earth. You will see in the ritual, women call each other, Ispalla. The women are the ones who select the seeds, they are the ones who can touch the phina, the storage place, where the harvest is kept.  They are the ones who plant the seeds. They say that women’s hands are not like the men’s hands and they can do all that. Men are not supposed to touch the phina. But if the women are altered, the chacra suffers (P.118).

Further interpretation is offered in these words:

In the Andean world, under certain ritual context, a person can be a plant, a seed, an animal, a mountain, and any number of other things; the notion of the person is radically non-essentialist.  Within the person, nest in potentia numberless other forms of life, for it is understood that everything in the pacha is alive, not just humans, animals, and plants. These other forms of life—whether seeds, constellations, or animals –can manifest themselves under the proper ritual circumstances. One such circumstance is the festival of Ispalla. … During this ritual women become seeds of root crops. Such fluidity extends to gender, and under certain circumstances, a woman can be a man and vice versa (P. 145).

The nuances of the inter-weaving terms and meanings are beyond the scope of this review essay. However, what seems apparent to me is that the particular bio-geography of the Andes and of the High Amazon has nurtured a unique tradition of a bio-cultural patrimony.  Known as the “vertical archipelagoes,” this sloping terrain is home to at least 3,700 types of potatoes, interspersed between the wild and domesticated. Lying close to the equator, the country of Peru extends from sea to Amazon jungles and to the Andean mountains, where millions of people eke their living through agricultural subsistence above 10,000 or even 14,000 feet above the sea level.  The Inca civilization was built by negotiating the mountain slopes of more than sixty-five degrees from the horizontal. In many places, the distance between the Pacific shore and the tallest mountain is less than fifty or seventy miles. Within this rapid rise, a traveler can pass through 20 of the world’s 34 types of environments, and four-fifth of world’s climates (Mann, 2005:67). The Agro-ecological and cultural landscape for the rituals described in this book are found on these slopes where the range of potatoes in a single Andean field, exceeds the diversity of nine-tenth of the potatoes planted in the entire United States.  This is the heart of bio-cultural diversity, bio-cultural patrimony, and bio-cultural regeneration.

The Art of Bio-cultural Regeneration

What then entails bio-cultural regeneration? While critiquing the reductionism approach to Fair Trade (chap 10), the author proposes a bio-cultural regeneration that includes the spirit world.

Fair trade deprives itself of what surely would amount to drawing on another powerful tool to achieve the regeneration of the forest. Shamanism enables one to experience directly—and thus to understand—how the humans, the non-humans, and the other-than-humans are entangled.  The regeneration of the biocultural heritage of this region means the simultaneous regeneration of the shamanism and of the forest with its other-than-human plant spirits.  Ignoring the nexus between shamanism, the forest, and plant spirits is all the more regrettable since it could be easily achieved given that it does not at all compete with the pursuit of subsistence or cash crop agriculture. The two pursuits have not always coincided but are conjoined in the person of the shaman him/herself who is always an agriculturist (P. 194-95).

Such a view needs to be appreciated within an indigenous context where there is no fence between the wild and the domestic, or the forest and the farm. Indigenous peasants collect as many wild tubers from from the forest as they do grains and potatoes from the chacra.  At the same time, the shaman cultivates their own shamanic garden in the middle of the forest from where certain plants are harvested for medicinal and healing purposes. Yet when species interact, it is not necessarily to evolve into a next stage of evolution but to make livable common worlds, both within and between worlds (P. 159).

Indigenous Peruvians live in a world without  perspective, or a need for representations such as alphabet, writing, or a map. As illustrated by Robert Boyle’s air-pump experiment above, perspective allowed humans to represent the world in terms of measurements, diagrams and of course, paintings. But on the pacha, an oral and aural world, all speak, and do not need representation.

Epilogue

Performing the Lessons Learned, the author talks about how she has started a new experiment through the non-profit organization Sachamama (www.centrosachamama.org). Through this organization, she intends to engage herself and a team in the task of bio-cultural regeneration. Founded firmly on the long and deep tradition of bio-cultural patrimony of the Andean-Amazonian heritage, any activity such as re-creating the terra preta de indio (black soil of the Indians), or the bio-char is done with scientific accuracy as well as giving proper ritual and gifts to the deities, forests, and waters.  Through ritualized actions, efforts are made to express gratitude to pachamama (mother earth), and sachamama (mother forest).  The goal is to strike an intimate balance between meeting the needs of deities and of the non-human worlds and meeting the livelihood needs of one of the poorest people in economic terms.

I urge readers of this essay to pay attention to and witness whether and how will this experiment survive and thrive.  If this effort bears fruit, this will be one of the rare illustrations of bio-cultural patrimony and bio-cultural regeneration.

Select References

Apffel-Marglin, Frederique (with PRATEC) eds. (1998). The Spirit of Regeneration: The Andean Culture Confronts Western Notions of Development. London: Zed.

Duden, Barbara. (1991). The Women Beneath the Skin. Boston: Harvard University Press. (translated by Thomas Dunlap).

Hogan, Linda. (1995). Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World.  New York: W.W. Norton.

Marglin, Steve, A. (2008). The Dismal Science: How Thinking like an Economists Undermines Community. Harvard University Press.

Mann, Charles. (2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Alfred A. Knopp.

Mann, Charles. (2011). 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created.  New York: Alfred A. Knopp.

Shapin, Steven and Schaffer, Simon. (1985).  Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and Exeperimental Life. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Zajonc, Arthur. (1993). Catching the Light: The Intertwined History of Light and Mind. New York: Bantam Books.

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In this succinct and informative review, Shelby Gull Laird provides a good overview and solid recommendation for the comprehensive package of sustainability education K-12 curricular materials about geography—from a local to a global level—available from the UK Geography Association.

The Geographical Association in the UK has published several different volumes focusing on environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) and connecting these concepts through a geography lens for classroom teachers.  The first is a curriculum guide titled Caring for our world by Fran Martin and Paula Owens, designed for teachers working with students of ages four through eight.  It covers introductory concepts of ESD and sustainability at the beginning of the guide and is fully illustrated with vivid and modern images.  The guide is written for, uses resources from and provides correlations to national standards for the United Kingdom, but the remainder of the materials should prove useful to the global early elementary (primary) school teacher seeking ideas on how to explore sustainability concepts with young children in a school setting in a positive way.  Lesson titles in the guide include Growing schools, Food and farming, Forest school, School grounds, Sustainable energy and Travelling to school.  The lessons are not so much lessons in the traditional sense of a lesson plan, but provide examples of student outcomes and schools already working on similar projects at their own schools and what elementary students might be expected to learn through similar experiences.  The guide provides specific case studies and examples of outdoor classrooms and student work created as a result of student experiences learning in an outdoor environment in schools throughout the UK.  The guide excels in providing elementary teachers with a solid introduction to ESD and is appropriate for the age group.

The Geographical Association has also published a more comprehensive and detailed set of curriculum guides for teachers of older students.  The resource seems best for high school (secondary) students (ages 13-17) but may be useful for younger or older students as the situation allows.  Discussion during lessons requires a broad sense of global awareness and cultural sensitivity that may be more apparent in older students.  The GCSE Geography Teachers’ Toolkit consists of six different volumes by multiple authors focusing on unique aspects of sustainability education.   Three volumes are reviewed here including: Is the Future Sussed? by John Widdowson, Going Global? by Catherine Owen and For Richer and Poorer? by Paula Cooper.  Probably the greatest advantage to these materials is the online resource availability.  Each lesson has all the slides, images and handouts for students available online for teachers to print out.  All that is needed for access is the code provided in the front cover of each guide.  Each curriculum guide has ten lessons per book that could work consecutively or individually depending on the desire of the teacher.  Teachers are provided with everything they need to complete the lessons plus links to additional resources, a glossary at the end of the curriculum guide and comprehensive correlations to education standards in the United Kingdom.  Again, many of the resources are quite specific to the United Kingdom, but would be relevant for student audiences worldwide.  Correlation to local educational standards would be required for use in locations outside the UK with a bit of a re-write of some of the specifics.

Each curriculum guide covers a different topic.  Lessons in the first book, Is the Future Sussed? cover sustainable urban living.  Focused on cities and specifically British cities, students explore the concept of sustainability and what that means in terms of urban areas and communities.  Two lessons even focus on the 2012 Olympic Games.  The second book, Going Global? covers the interconnectedness of our world.  Geography and economics play heavily into this curriculum guide, which includes lessons on trade and discussions of three separate countries as case studies, the UK, China and Kenya.  The third book of the six part series, For Richer and Poorer? includes a discussion of uneven development, specifically between the developed and developing world.  The first lesson includes extended discussion of student perceptions of rich and poor.  Using images to evoke emotional responses from students is both powerful and clever but requires a strong, unbiased teacher to lead in discussion.  This activity sets up the rest of the lessons from this curriculum guide.  Overall these materials are comprehensive and a smart buy for any teacher of social studies, science or geography looking to expand their lessons with a more in depth discussion of sustainable development.  Even though the lessons are UK-based and correlated, some of the materials focus on more global issues and could provide a unique perspective to students and teachers in other countries.

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In this concise and useful review, Tina Evans brings forth the high points of Douthwaite and Fallon’s comprehensive book about economic collapse, especially featuring those aspects of the book that might contribute to courses on sustainability and peak oil..

As a sustainability educator focused on energy issues in society, on instability of the globalized growth economy, and on the fundamental mismatch between that economy and the realization of sustainability, I have for some years followed the work of Douthwaite and Feasta (the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability), an organization he co-founded in Ireland. Douthwaite’s works The Ecology of Money, The Growth Illusion, and “Why Localisation is Essential for Sustainability” have become standard fare in my sustainability-oriented courses, and the work of Feasta informs my approach to understanding and teaching sustainability. I was, therefore, thrilled to see the publication of Fleeing Vesuvius, a work that brings together in one thematically organized volume the ideas of many Feasta members and likeminded theorists and practitioners.

Editors Richard Douthwaite and Gillian Fallon have coalesced analyses and practical strategies aimed at 1) awakening people to the converging crises of energy resource depletion, climate change, and economic instability and 2) offering practical advice on how individuals, communities, and policy makers might begin to address multiple facets of the sustainability challenge as it unfolds within a context of potential economic and environmental collapse.

Fleeing Vesuvius is an effective guide to understanding the converging crises we face and to engaging in effective action to mitigate the potentially devastating socio-ecological effects of these crises. The book both articulates and builds upon the following premises: 1) that the era of peak oil production is here, meaning that industrial society is about to undergo a major transition from an economic system that requires economic growth in order to avoid collapse to an economic system within which net energy available to drive economic activity continually declines; 2) that climate change will alter the preconditions for ecological systems as they are today and, thereby, alter human systems that are embedded within and dependent upon the natural world; and 3) that, in a context of net energy decline and climate change, the growth economy upon which most of us rely to obtain the necessities of life and pursue personal fulfillment is likely to become increasingly unstable and, at some point, to collapse. Using this overarching context as a springboard, the authors of Fleeing Vesuvius elucidate pathways for sustainability-oriented action. Their insightful, creative, and practical ideas can inspire readers to take much needed individual and collective action in an effort to build more resilient societies.

The articles that comprise “Part I: Energy Availability” effectively build the case that peak oil and, even more importantly, peak net energy are now or will soon be upon us and that declines in energy availability are likely to trigger an eventual collapse of the money system as well as the globalized growth economy. Part I serves as a launching point for much of the rest of the book which addresses what we might do to live more sustainably and to build socio-ecological resiliency.

Contributors to “Part II: Innovation in Business, Money and Finance” highlight first why money as we currently know it is likely to lose much of its value as available net energy declines and why the monetary system itself is vulnerable to collapse within this context. These authors then discuss alternate means of creating and using debt-free money to finance economic activity and taxation strategies that promote economic stability.  They stress the importance of localizing economic activity to achieve resilience in provision of basic necessities.

“Part II: New Ways of Using the Land” continues the focus on localization of economic activity as a means to achieve efficiencies and socio-ecological resilience. Nutritional resilience stemming from a balance of available minerals in the soil, an almost entirely overlooked aspect of socio-ecological health and resilience, is discussed in some depth, as are practices of agricultural land use that can make the land function as a carbon sink rather than a carbon source.

Contributors to “Part IV: Dealing with Climate Change” discuss the future of climate policy at the international level. The climate aspects of “Cap and Share,” a proposal developed by Feasta as a means to address climate change, peak oil, and economic disparity and instability, are effectively outlined here.

“Part V: Changing the Way We Live” and “Part VI: Changing the Way We Think” offer important insights into how we might organize, conceptualize, and experience life in a post-peak-oil and perhaps post-collapse world. The contributors also focus on how individuals and communities might cultivate hope and motivate sustainability-oriented social change.

“Part VII: Ideas for Action” is comprised of advice offered by each of the volume’s contributors regarding risk management and planning for the future with regard to one’s family, community, and country.

Fleeing Vesuvius captures the thoughts and advice of a wide range of prominent sustainability-oriented thinkers and activists. It offers insightful social and economic analysis in addition to well-developed proposals for practical action. As a course text for upper division undergraduates and graduate students, Fleeing Vesuvius offers an excellent springboard for discussion and further investigation of the issues and strategies it introduces. Students of sustainability should be introduced to peak oil and economic instability as central aspects of the sustainability crisis, and Fleeing Vesuvius offers sustainability educators a vehicle for doing so. The book also offers readers an introduction to the work of Feasta, a highly innovative organization focusing on the economic aspects of sustainability.

I recommend Fleeing Vesuvius as an important exploration of the economic aspects of the sustainability challenges we face and as a thought piece for generating discussion among students and faculty members regarding sustainability-oriented strategies we might pursue in an effort to make our families, communities, and nations more resilient to the challenges of peak oil, climate change, and economic instability. Sustainability educators teaching various disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses will likely want to pick and choose particular articles to use as course texts or accompaniments. Much of the content of Fleeing Vesuvius is available online via the Feasta website: http://fleeingvesuvius.org/contents/.

References:

Douthwaite, R. (1999). The ecology of money. Schumacher Briefing no. 4. Totnes, Devon, England: Green Books. Also available online: http://fleeingvesuvius.org/contents/.

Douthwaite, R. (1999). The growth illusion: How economic growth has enriched the few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society.

Douthwaite, R. (2004). Why localisation is essential for sustainability. In Douthwaite, R., & Jopling, J. (Eds.), Growth the Celtic Cancer. FEASTA Review, No. 2, 114-124. Available online: http://www.feasta.org/documents/review2/douthwaite.pdf.

Feasta. (2008, May). Cap & share: A fair way to cut greenhouse emissions [Electronic version]. Dublin, Ireland: FEASTA. Retrieved December 31, 2008, from http://www.feasta.org/documents/energy/Cap-and-Share-May08.pdf

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 In this insightful review, Tina Evans makes the case for Hall and Klitgaards’ work as going beyond more superficial ecological economic analysis into a deeper realm of biophysical economics where human economies do not just depend on a natural resource base, but are part of it.  She is impressed by how thoroughly the book delves into the many theoretical and interdisciplinary aspects of biophysical economics, while engaging the reader and presenting a coherent common theme throughout.

Energy and the Wealth of Nations is a centrally important book for sustainability educators, upper division and graduate students, and members of the general public who are interested in understanding and addressing some of the fundamental challenges to socio-ecological sustainability. Hall and Klitgaard address head on what many sustainability educators and practitioners would argue is the central underlying challenge to living more sustainably: the contradiction between 1) how industrial society conceptualizes and operates the globalized growth economy and 2) the natural limits of the biophysical world.

Others have addressed this contradiction from diverse perspectives:  M. King Hubbert who first developed the theory of peak oil production; sustainability-oriented economist Richard Douthwaite who analyzed systems of money creation and use in his groundbreaking work The Ecology of Money and  who challenged the notion of economic growth as an unmitigated good in The Growth Illusion; Meadows, Randers, and Meadows, authors of The Limits to Growth and its updated editions; and well-known economist Herman Daly who advocates for a steady state economy. But Hall and Klitgaard offer us something new and of critical importance as we move into an era of increasingly evident limits to economic growth. They offer us a well-researched and well-written work that addresses how we might rethink the foundational assumptions and tools of the field of economics itself. They develop the foundations for a field of “biophysical economics” as a melding of the social sciences and biophysical sciences that can guide economic decision making in societies challenged by natural limits on all fronts: limits to land, soil fertility, ocean fisheries, pollution sinks, and – most importantly in their analysis – to net energy available to drive modern societies.

Hall and Klitgaard propose that economics, if it is to serve us well beyond the era of fossil-fuel-fed economic growth, must be grounded by scientific understanding of how the natural world actually works. They argue that the formulas and other analytical tools used to guide and justify policy in the economic realm give the appearance of economics as a science while these tools leave much to be desired in terms of approximating how individuals and societies behave and how the natural world (the source of all the energy and material needed for economic activity) actually works. Energy serves as the most important case in point with regard to highlighting omissions from the field of economics. Hall and Klitgaard effectively argue 1) that we are likely approaching limits to net energy available from fossil fuels and other energy sources and technologies and 2) that economics, as it has developed historically as a social science, has proven incapable of analyzing the role of energy in economies and of offering insights about how we might proceed in a post peak energy world.

Hall and Klitgaard appropriately situate their thorough interdisciplinary analyses both historically and culturally by tracing the development of economics as a discipline and by analyzing how economic thought has influenced political policy and practice over time, with particular emphasis on the U.S. in the post-World-War-II era. The authors also do an excellent job of helping the reader understand important theoretical approaches and technical practices of the field of economics. Throughout their historical and theoretical/methodological analysis of the field, the authors call for grounding economics within a scientific understanding of the natural world and human societies.  That grounding, they argue, transforms economics from a field based on unproven theories that function as ideology to a field which can inform decision making as we confront many converging crises of sustainability.

Hall and Klitgaard also discuss conceptual material drawn from multiple fields that is essential to framing the field of biophysical economics. They provide their readers with accessible and useful discussion of scientific concepts and practices that form the foundation for the field as a whole. They also discuss how mathematical analysis has been applied and misapplied in economic analysis and argue for its limited application within biophysical economics.

Perhaps most importantly, Hall and Klitgaard offer a well-developed analysis of peak oil and the emerging, critical challenge of net energy decline within industrial economies that have been designed to function in a context of limitless economic growth. They also highlight environmental challenges to energy capture and production. The analysis the authors provide regarding the energy challenges we face is among the most clear, accessible, concise, and well-supported I have seen. This cogent analysis alone is an excellent contribution to the sustainability literature.

While a single work cannot do everything, these authors cover an impressive breadth of alternative economic analyses without sacrificing depth. A thoroughgoing analysis of how money is created through debt appears be beyond the scope of the authors’ central purpose: laying the foundations of the field of biophysical economics.  For courses in which it is important for students to have a clear understanding of the destabilizing aspects of structural debt and how the practice of creating money through interest-bearing loans makes ever-growing debt a structural feature of modern economies, I recommend Richard Douthwaite’s The Ecology of Money and the film Money as Debt as supplemental texts to Energy and the Wealth of Nations.

Faculty and students from multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds will find Energy and the Wealth of Nations to be a highly accessible, informative, well-argued, well-supported, insightful, and important read. Textual material is supplemented by many graphical representations of concepts and data and by useful photographs, making this work accessible to readers with diverse learning styles. I highly recommend this book principally as a course text but also as a relevant book for anyone interested in sustainability. It is both engaging and thorough — a combination that can be difficult to achieve.

References:

Douthwaite, R. (1999). The ecology of money. Schumacher Briefing no. 4. Totnes, Devon, England: Green Books. Available online: http://fleeingvesuvius.org/contents/.

Douthwaite, R. (1999). The growth illusion: How economic growth has enriched the few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society.

Grignon, P. (Creator/Producer). (2006). Money as debt [Motion Picture]. Moonfire Studio/Lifeboat News. Retrieved February 26, 2012 from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5352106773770802849

Meadows, Donella, Randers, J., & Meadows, Dennis (1972). The limits to growth: A report for the Club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. New York: Universe Books.

Meadows, Donella, Randers, J., & Meadows, Dennis (1992). Beyond the limits: Confronting global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green.

Meadows, Donella, Randers, J., & Meadows, Dennis (2004). Limits to growth: The 30-year update. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.

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The landscape of any farm is the owner’s portrait of himself.

-Aldo Leopold

With regard to management of working lands (private lands engaged in the production of food and fiber), sustainability requires the ability to produce what is necessary for survival today, while understanding the complex relationships within which management of resources must be accomplished to preserve them intact or improved for the future.  Generations on the Land: A Conservation Legacy, authored by Texas journalist and writer Joe Nick Patoski, describes some of the skills, motivations, and reasoning behind the progressive land management practiced by eight winners of the Sand County Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award.  Each chapter is a vignette illustrating the difficult and challenging work of six ranching families, a family forestry operation, and a family of vintners.

While well written and interesting, if you are looking for a discussion and analysis of the deeper complex relationships between ecology, production, and economics you will not find it here.  This book is not a deep read, and it is not meant to be; this is storytelling.  As such it simply mentions a few of the many agro-economic and ecologic realities that fundamentally drive land management decisions.

On occasion the narrative touches on deeper insights.  For instance, the loss of jobs and profit margins experienced by local agriculture (silvaculture in this case) as a consequence of downward price pressures is related to global markets unsustainably overharvesting resources:

Terry Peters had witnessed dramatic changes in silvaculture in the thirty five years he had been working these woods. Logging used to be the dominant lifestyle of the region, defined by rugged men wielding axes…and sawmills around almost every bend of the river… But as wood processing evolved into a global industry, the wood workforce in Wisconsin and across the United States declined rapidly.  Hanging on in a business where the competition included Brazilian eucalyptus plantations owned by American paper companies, massive logging operations in New Zealand, and clear-cut operations in China, required creative thinking (pp. 44, 45).

The book’s real value is found in what is revealed and implied through the stories told by the working families in their own words.  One of the important insights repeated in several of the chapters is a contrast to the view accepted by many farmers and ranchers that regulation and environmentalists are the main threat to ranch viability.  The reality of past abuse resulting in degraded lands is cited as most often to blame:

…dad sat on the BLM grazing board…We understood the West was overgrazed…Those were hard times back in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s…For (dad) the light went on when President Roosevelt signed the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934.  The act held liable every individual party that held a federal grazing permit.  Before the act was signed, stockraisers could graze public lands to the point of destroying grasses… (pp. 8, 9).

Decisions to restore degraded lands and to manage within ecologic limits are for the most part enlightened self interest and practical business decisions made to enhance productivity.  In addition to greater management options and revenue sources resulting from more productive lands and functioning ecosystems, the skills acquired accomplishing this work are increasingly marketable for those willing to look for opportunities beyond their own fences:

If you can convert to organic, your quality goes way up and…you can command a higher price…We burned this year just out of the need to burn…went the extra mile and received official burn training and certification…secured a $1 million insurance policy to do business as a Conservation Fire Team…consulting and burning for hire all over West and Central Texas (pp. 102, 103).

In addition to acknowledging that restoration has to be accomplished, another hopeful message from these families is the realization that bigger and more isn’t necessarily better.  “‘Some people see the land in terms of dollars and wealth’, Teddi Coleman said.  ‘We think you can’t put a price on that water, that field.  We live in what I call rustic elegance.  We don’t have frills, but we have all this natural elegance around us’” (p.63).

By constantly highlighting the true nature of this important work, the author accurately supplies credit where credit is due.  For although ranchers, loggers, and farmers relish the ideal of their perceived independence and self-reliance, these stories reveal the partnerships that are essential for restoring working lands.  Restoration is complex, costly, and time consuming.  Accessing correct information for a particular practice and understanding the latest techniques as they may apply to a specific need takes experience.  The work is costly and labor intensive.  Mistakes often make things worse than before the project began.  Fortunately there are many federal and state programs offering technical and cost share assistance.  Private conservation organizations also work to help landowners achieve their restoration goals and are also able to supply volunteers and low cost labor.  This is good public policy in practice, which until recently enjoyed bi-partisan political support.  Maybe the horrific and costly fires this past summer will remind more short sighted politicians about being “penny-wise and pound foolish.”

In addition to celebrating the accomplishments of the families that are its subject, this short enticing book also helps as a bridge across the political and cultural gaps between working families and those of us who, while not daily working land for a living, share common interest in healthy sustainable food-systems and ecosystems. It touches on complex issues in a way that offers a non-threatening opening for ranchers and non-ranchers to talk and think about the management of working lands.  This in essence is at the heart of applied sustainability education.

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Abstract: By its nature and scope, the concept of sustainability is a challenge to traditional education. Where most academic institutions still value and promote narrowly conceived fields of expertise, sustainability requires a comprehensive, wide-angle approach to problem definitions as

well as solutions. This challenge highlights the need for a bold reassessment of a number of epistemic assumptions; one of them being the validity of the Baconian-Cartesian reductionism at the core of the scientific method. This paper presents a novel, non-reductionist approach to understanding and teaching sustainability grounded in an analogy from the systems philosophy of Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677). This approach is an alternative that transcends the traditional dichotomy between reductionism and holism in their various forms. I discuss how Spinoza’s approach to parts and wholes can be applied to a transdisciplinary, systems-based sustainability education addressing systems of varying size and complexity. A multitude of systems theories and methodologies have failed in the role as widely accepted and used meta-languages that effectively transcend disciplinary confines. As applied in this paper, Spinoza’s philosophy can effectively be used as such a discipline-transcending facilitator of understanding. To my knowledge, Spinoza’s fundamental contributions to the philosophy of systems and transdisciplinarity presented in this paper have not been recognized in the literature, including the research on Soft Systems Methodology and other “constructivist” systems approaches.

Full PDF:  Hansson2012

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SCHOLARLY FEATURE

A systems theory approach to sustainability in five contexts—social/cultural, economic, environmental, technical, and individual—is a realistic and useful approach to researching and teaching sustainability in the university.  As a springboard for social change, the university needs to develop values-based sustainability content for classes across disciplines, and especially address the careful assessment and evaluation of both human and technical factors for solving sustainability problems.

Full PDF: PappasJSE2012

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As institutions of higher education continue to embrace sustainability as a guiding principle, administrators, campus sustainability leaders, and researchers in the field struggle to present a holistic picture of the changes necessary for complete organizational change. While resources available for decision-makers typically focus on individual case studies on specific concepts, few have worked to address the field as a whole. This paper aims to address sustainability within the frames conceived by Bolman and Deal in their seminal work Reframing Organizations (2008). Specifically, it looks at reframing organizational change within the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames, as well as adapting Kotter’s Change Stages to address how sustainability can, and should, transform colleges and universities, while providing the tools necessary for sustainability professionals to enact this innovation.

Full PDF: MillerJSE2012 (1)

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Embedding education for sustainability, in Faith Based Organisations’ (FBOs) school curricula in Uganda, puzzles. Any progressive education system should be dynamic-always calling for timely transformations in content, instructional methodologies, imparted values,
skills and attitudes, to remain holistic. Once these are adequately embraced, the system tends to remain vibrant and relevant to the institutions, the learner and the community. However, in Uganda especially in education institutions of FBOs, Education for
Sustainability (EfS) – a universally conceived aspect of holistic learning seems not to be whole-heartedly attended to either by omission or unawareness. Problems centre mainly on ideological and operational premises. These include lack of awareness, lack of goodwill of
key stakeholders to plan for and manage EfS and lack of competent teachers in EfS aspects. Answers to these problems in essence center on the theoretical underpinning of this report-curricular transformation. Secondly, proper capacity building, integrative planning,
financing and management to enable sustainable programme growth and development should also be enhanced.

Full PDF: SsoziJSE2012

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Partnerships between universities have the tantalizing possibility of providing fresh pathways to more sustainable societies. Institutions in sub-Saharan Africa are new players in this emerging development paradigm, but arguably are most in need of building capacity to address fragile and dynamic environmental and social conditions after decades of underinvestment in higher education. This paper documents the early stages of an Ethiopia-United States partnership to build capacity in institutions of higher education in Ethiopia in the critical area of sustainable water resource management that was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Higher Education for Development (HED). We explain how the concept of sustainability was interwoven with theories about learning organizations, supplemented by in-depth dialogue with stakeholders to assess existing capacity and future needs, and used to inform a strategic plan. The literature highlighted the need for a learning organization: a place where people continuously expand their ability to generate the results they truly desire, where innovative and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. In 2011, the partnership established the Ethiopian Institute for Water Resources (EIWR) with the vision that it will become a key innovator in sustainable water resources management in Ethiopia by integrating education, research, outreach and training. One important observation so far is that in order to create a more substantive engagement than was realized in the “technology transfer” policies that shaped past North-South relationships, partnerships need to be authentic and characterized by open dialogue, mutual respect, and shared learning. Another is that the opportunities for fieldwork in Ethiopia’s complex social and physical landscapes also have enormous potential to create deep and learning experiences for other students of sustainability, thereby building capacity not just in Ethiopia but across multiple geographies.

Full PDF: Atkinson-PalomboGebremichael2012

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Teaching sustainability invariably involves teaching about energy – its use, its sources, its environmental impacts, and its social implications. This paper explores how one renewable energy alternative – biogas – is adapted and applied across scale and culture. Biogas is made by capturing the methane released during anaerobic digestion of organic matter such as manure, sewage, and food waste. In Nepal, biogas is a household scale technology used to create a cooking fuel that replaces firewood and improves both environmental and human health. In the United States, biogas is used as part of large-scale waste management systems for livestock, wastewater treatment, and landfills to create electricity for on-site use and for sale into electric grids. In Sweden, biogas is used as part of a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel usage by using locally generated biogas for district heating, electricity, and vehicular fuel. By comparing these three cases, we gain insight into how one technology is adapted across diverse needs and from household to regional scales in the pursuit of more sustainable energy practices. Such an exercise can be an asset in the classroom to teach students about the importance and relevance of place-based solutions that address diverse cultural and economic realities.

Full PDF: BarnhartJSE2012

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Abstract:

Amenity migration involves people moving to perceived desirable regions, usually for non-economic reasons, such as a physical or cultural environment that is seen as more beautiful, tranquil or inspirational than their current, usually urban environment.  the Italian Alps and Chilean Andes have recently experienced significant amenity in-migration after decades of net population decline.    Whereas amenity migration in other parts of the Alps, and the Americas is well-studied, here we represent some of the first demographic data, and also cultural-geographic analysis, comparing these two regions.  In many respects, the two regions are similar, including the socio-economic situation of existing population and the principal reasons that amenity migrants arrive.  IN both regions, perceived beauty and tranquility of the natural mountains environment is the main attraction for amenioty migrants.  In addition, migrants come to experience a different cultural milieu that thy perceive as less stressful than the usually urban environments that they emigrate from.  In the Italian Alps, close proximity to urban areas bring more day migrants, and the longer cultural history of teh region has led to more conflicts of values between amenity migrants and long-term residents than is seen in the relatively culturally young Chilean Andes.

Full PDF:  BorsdorfEtAl2012JSE

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Alpine tourism in the attractive, glaciated highlands of Eastern Africa’s national parks has traditionally been considered an engine of regional development. The major question this article examines is the significance of this economic sector and whether it can contribute to sustainable regional development. The research area is Mt. Kenya and the Ugandan Rwenzori; the detailed studies were conducted in the most intensively visited tourist areas, i.e. at the foothills of the two massifs: in the Mobuku Valley in the eastern Rwenzori, and at Naro Moru west of Mt. Kenya. In addition to analyses of the current state of the art as well as of official statistical data, our conclusions are derived from own surveys, mapping activities and household observations.
The results show that economic benefits from mountaineering tourism in the Mt. Kenya region are fewer than commonly calculated, mainly because of the low occurrence of tourism. Moreover, existing incomes are low, inconsistent and distributed unevenly. There are clear parallels to the critical structures characterizing the Rwenzori mountains in Uganda: alpine tourism does not reduce regional income disparities and largely fails to promote sustainable development. Nevertheless, community-based tourism, as shown by the example of the Rwenzori Mountaineering Services (RMS) in the Rwenzori National Park and of the Guides & Porters Safari Club (GPSC) in the Mount Kenya National Park, stabilizes the livelihood of rural households and reduces the vulnerability of families. Whereas in the Mt. Kenya area, most of the regional households are involved, in the Rwenzori mountains the favorable effects of alpine tourism are concentrated in just one valley (and support only one twelfth of the entire Rwenzori population). Thus, its contribution to sustainable regional development is negligible.

Full PDF: NeuburgerSteinickeJSE2012

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A study was conducted using a modified participative goal setting approach to create a behavior change over the course of a semester. Two approaches to goal setting were used. Student subjects set goals regarding switching from one-time use plastic or paper bags to reusable bags when grocery shopping. They monitored their behavior on a weekly basis. We hypothesized that the participants would report: 1) an increase in the degree to which they used reusable bags on shopping trips, 2) being more committed to acting in an environmentally-responsible manner, 3) voluntarily adopting additional sustainability-related behaviors that are not required as part of the exercise, and 4) attempting to affect sustainability-related behavior in others. Additionally, the following research question was posed: Would any behavior change be accompanied by changes in attitudes towards sustainability? Results indicated that goal setting was effective in increasing the reported frequency of using reusable bags when shopping, though there was not significant change in attitudes. A more simplified approach was almost as effective as a more complex. If our results can be generalized, they suggest that managers can use a simplified goal setting technique to increase the frequency with which employees engage in sustainable behavior. Further, a change in attitude may not be necessary for this effect to occur.

Full PDF: McDonaldSiegallJSE2012

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Sustainability education for adult learners implicitly and explicitly forms an important component of participatory sustainable community development programs that have become commonplace as part of international development practice. Community-based sustainability education programs for adults vary in their focus on content and process. Defining learning as making meaning that leads to action, we use a critical learning cycle model to analyze learning processes in two water conservation programs in Jordan, one of the world’s most water scarce countries, where sustainability education is an important part of the national water management strategy. In this model, which incorporates inspirational learning and experience-based learning, learners integrate insight and experience to create meaning and to take action. We present the findings from detailed case studies of the two programs, one of which takes a content-oriented approach to sustainability education and the other a more process-oriented approach. We used qualitative research methods including ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with program managers and participants that we analyzed through emergent thematic coding and validated with member-checking and peer review. We observe that the process-focused program was more successful in fostering individual-, household-, and community-level change than the content-focused approach. We conclude with recommendations to develop community capacity to address complex environmental challenges including process-oriented approaches that incorporate internal learning processes and multiple cycles of experience-based experimentation. In these approaches, learners are able to apply what they have learned and test ideas as they develop a more thorough understanding of the problems at hand and their potential solutions while engaging in culturally appropriate forms of expressive self-reflection to make new ideas meaningful.

Full PDF: HansenDannKerrJSE2012

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The purpose of this study was to determine systems thinking skill development among undergraduate students and assess the effectiveness of two different instructional methods for increasing these skills. Undergraduate students from two four-year state institutions, one located in the Midwestern region (n=20) of the United States and one in the Southwestern region (n=16) participated in the study. To accomplish the research object, the study employed a mixed between-within subjects experiment. Employing two different systems thinking teaching interventions, one group of students was exposed to a one-time intervention while the other group was exposed to a more extended and holistic intervention. Data were collected at two points in time: pre- and post-intervention. At the beginning (pre-intervention) and end (post-intervention) of one semester, students read case studies describing apparel firms’ sustainability efforts. The students were then tasked to identify sustainability challenges, analyze conflicts between challenges, and offer business recommendations. Using a rubric, the authors scored the students’ responses on a scale of 0 to 5 and assessed ability to 1) think holistically and 2) perceive interrelationships and resolve resulting conflicts. T-tests revealed that prior to the teaching interventions, as a whole, the students had unsophisticated skills related to their ability to think in systems. ANOVA revealed that, through instructional methods focused on systems thinking, it is possible to increase students’ ability to think in systems. Additionally, the study revealed that, compared to a constrained one-time intervention, a long-term, holistic, and integrated approach is significantly more effective in encouraging students’ system thinking competencies. Results of this study support the need for educators to integrate teaching methods designed to increase students’ systems thinking competencies holistically throughout course curriculum. Additionally, the study outlines a transferrable approach to assessing systems thinking skills within postsecondary education.

Full PDF: HillerConnellRemingtonArmstrongJSE2012

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Effective bases of environmental decision-making build upon multiple and divergent understandings of landscapes and landscape connection. This paper develops ‘ethnogeomorphology’ as a tool for developing a shared (if contested) landscape platform for sharing worldviews and perspectives. Interfaces of intercultural communication, particularly with many Indigenous knowledges, are spaces of crucial juncture in understanding challenges of environmental and social sustainability and their relevance extends far beyond only ‘Indigenous studies’. Methodologies that aim to empower many Indigenous communities in documenting their knowledges can fail when attempting to communicate them in terms of conventional cause-and-effect science based on assumptions of linear and static spatial perspectives. This paper documents one such failure in practice with the Maiyoo Keyoh in Canada, and draws upon research conducted with the Yorta Yorta Nation (south-eastern Australia), the Stò:lō Nation (British Columbia, Canada), the Maiyoo Keyoh (northern British Columbia) and the Tia Kina Te Taiao (in New Zealand), from 2007-2011. Emerging insights in geography offer critical insight in addressing some of these challenges in practical ways, as increasing unrest in ‘physical’ disciplines (such as geomorphology), contest traditional binaries between ‘physical’ and ‘human’. This paper argues that geomorphic landscapes themselves are good learning tools that illustrate dynamic time-spaces. Recent developments around concepts of emergence, contingency and complexity, addressed through system-specific applications, point to reengagement with ‘place’. Similarly, conceptual developments in human geography see concepts of “scale as relation” rather than ‘scale as level’, also offers synergistic perspectives with physical geography founded on seeing multiple scales simultaneously. This solid grounding of coherence in geography could contribute to a practical and grounded basis of sustainability. Rather than being limited to theoretical debates, this paper illustrates the potential of a hybrid geography in practice. This convergence/hybridity in perspectives is not a conflation of knowledges, but an opportunity for situating worldviews in dialogue, assisting efforts to decolonize intercultural communication and promote ethical engagement in practice. This ‘ethnogeomorphic’ perspective offers a reconsideration of the term ‘adaptive’ in ‘adaptive management’, framed around multiple connections to landscapes, rather than as a tool restricted to Western science.

Full PDF: WilcockBrierleyJSE2012

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Abstract.

Given the importance of understanding and learning to work effectively with a diversity of perspectives and values in the sustainability field, this article offers a developmental map of the worldviews of sustainability.  It includes an introduction to developmental theory and research, an overview of the diversity of worldviews, how they differ and relate to one another and to sustainability practice and leadership, and how these worldviews develop over time.  A developmental perspective suggests that every sustainability practitioner/educator/leader has a worldview that is made up of the beliefs that person holds and their definition for sustainability emerges out of those beliefs.  Moreover, there are consistent patterns observed cross-culturally in the ways that these worldviews develop. Understanding and learning to work with the diversity of perspectives and their developmental trajectory is vitally important for sustainability education and leadership in that it helps us to design curriculum, and sustainability campaigns, policy and actions in ways that are more holistic, include a diversity of worldviews, address conflict between them and contribute to the development of the worldviews themselves.

Full PDF:  LynamJSE2012

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Malcolm Brooks, as with all good lol humor,  helps us look in the mirror, recognize where we come from, and not take it all so seriously.

Ecological selves are made not born.  If there were Nuremberg trials for personal ecological crimes, Younger Malcolm would stand among the accused.

Prosecuting attorney: Mr. Brooks, as a boy in White Plains, New York, did you or did you not hammer large numbers of nails through boards into a tree trunk in order to create a tree ladder?

Me on the witness stand:  Yes, I did.

Prosecuting attorney: And did you not also hoist an old, battered door up into the tree and tie it there horizontally with a rope, which rubbed and grated against a primary limb?

Me on the stand:  Yes, I did.

Prosecuting attorney: And when your family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, did you or did you not establish three additional tree forts with nails that pierced the bark of thriving trees?

Me on the stand:  Yes, I did.

Prosecuting attorney: And did you not catch seventy tiny frogs with your bare hands, place them all in a bucket, dig a hole in your front yard, fill it with chlorinated water, and pour the helpless amphibians into this poison?

Me on the stand:  Yes, I did.

Prosecuting attorney: And when the seventy frogs tried to hop away, did you not catch them and force them back into the chlorinated puddle?

Me on the stand:  Yes, I did.

Prosecuting attorney:  Let us move on to your treatment of larger animals.  When your pet cat had three kittens, did you obey your mother’s instructions not to handle them incessantly?

Me on the stand:  I did not obey her.

Prosecuting attorney:  And what happened to the kittens?

Me on the stand:  Um….They died.

Prosecuting attorney:  I see.  Let us consider your attitude towards sources of air pollution.  You rode a city bus to and from school, did you not?

Me on the stand:  I did.

Prosecuting attorney:  And did you or did you not position yourself in such a way as to smell the exhaust?

Me on the stand:  Yes, I did.

Prosecuting attorney:  And why did you do that?

Me on the stand:  Um….I loved the smell of diesel fumes.

Prosecuting attorney:  I didn’t quite hear that Mr. Brooks.

Me on the stand:  I SAID I LOVED THE SMELL OF DIESEL FUMES.

Prosecuting attorney: Thank you, Mr. Brooks.  Let us move on to your young adulthood.  You maintained your own car, did you not?

Me on the stand: Yes, it was a white Volkswagen beetle.

Prosecuting attorney: Did you change the oil regularly?

Me on the stand: Yes, I took good care of the engine.

Prosecuting attorney: And what did you do with the oil that you drained from the crankcase?

Me on the stand: I poured it onto the ground.

Prosecuting attorney:  Did you not work on your car within 300 yards of an Exxon station?

Me on the stand: I did.

Prosecuting attorney: Did you not know that the Exxon station maintained a special tank for holding used oil for safe disposal?

Me on the stand: I may have known that.

Prosecuting attorney: You say you MAY have known that.  Were you friends with the young mechanic at the Exxon Station?

Me on the stand: I would not say we were close friends.

Prosecuting attorney: Not close friends?  Did you have conversations with him?

Me on the stand: Yes, we had conversations.

Prosecuting attorney:  And what did these conversations concern, the weather?

Me on the stand: No, not the weather.

Prosecuting attorney: What did they concern?  Please be specific.

Me on the stand: Women, sir.

Prosecuting attorney:  Women?  Please be specific.

Me on the stand: Women to whom we were attracted.

Prosecuting Attorney:  So you and this mechanic who was not a close friend carried on conversations about women whose hearts you dreamed of winning.

Me on the stand:  Sort of.  Our sights were set slightly lower.

Defense attorney:  Objection!  Where is this questioning leading?

Prosecuting attorney: I am establishing that the defendant was good friends with the mechanic at the Exxon station, that he was a frequent visitor at the Exxon station, and that he probably knew of its services and facilities, including that of the tank for holding used motor oil.

Judge:  Objection sustained.  Please wrap up your examination of the witness.

Prosecuting attorney: Yes, your honor. In later years, Mr. Brooks, when you lived in San Francisco, were you the first or the last in your neighborhood to recycle?

Me on the stand:  I don’t really know.  But I did no longer enjoy the smell of diesel fumes.

Prosecuting attorney:  Please confine your responses to answers to my questions.  When you lived in San Francisco, did you recycle the cardboard boxes that had held your household items during a housing move?

Me on the stand:  I tried.

Prosecuting attorney: What do you mean, you tried?

Me on the stand:  Well, there were so many cardboard boxes, and they were so big, and the recycling people said they would only take away as much cardboard as would fit in one official plastic box.  That plastic box was only the size of an orange crate.

Prosecuting attorney: So what did you do?

Me on the stand:  I hid the cardboard in bags of trash.  There was no limit to the number of bags they would collect.

Prosecuting attorney: You hid the cardboard in trash bags rather than recycling it.

Me on the stand: Um…yes, that’s correct.

Prosecuting attorney:  No further questions.

Defense attorney:  No questions from the defense, your honor.  The defense rests.

Judge:  With good reason.  Mr. Brooks, I am going to instruct the jury to temper their verdict, given that you have absolutely no ecological self.  I advise you to start reading the Journal of Sustainability Education on a more regular basis.

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In March 2012, the Journal of Sustainability Education opens nominations for the Sustainability-Now –And-Powerful (“SNAP”) Awards. You can submit a brief nomination or self-nomination for the award in one of three categories: Restore, Recharge, and Replenish. Each winner will receive $100 towards her/his project and a hand-calligraphed certificate of sustainability achievement as well as space to have a write-up of the winning project featured in the Journal of Sustainability Education’s online edition. One winner in each of the three categories will also win two all-event passes to the Prescott College Sustainability Symposium in May 2013*.  Some honorable mentions will also receive coverage in the JSE. The JSE features a readership of approximately 11,000 Sustainability Educators a year from over 100 countries.  The JSE staff hopes to help share highlights of effective and innovative sustainability education initiatives globally to inspire sustainability education efforts among our readers.

Nominate or self-nominate by April 22, 2012 by emailing your responses to our simple questions in one of three categories to snapawards at gmail dot com.  Winners will be announced May 1, 2012.

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Three “Sustainability Now” Award themes for 2012: Restore, Recharge, and Replenish:

2012 Category 1: Restore

Honoring innovative sustainability education projects that make a difference in restoring learners, restoring landscapes, and ecological restoration. Hands-on projects in natural building, ecological architecture and design, and community gardening are relevant in Restore. Also projects preserving or restoring biocultural diversity and promoting traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) would be relevant in the Restore category.

2012 Category 2: Recharge

Honoring innovative sustainability education efforts that make a difference in sustaining educators. Key notes in this theme include self-sustainability, inner sustainability, networking and support among green educators.

2012 Category 3: Replenish

Honoring innovative sustainability education initiatives that make a difference in replenishing planetary systems andlearning system capacity. Highlights here might include Gaian or transcultural approaches, sustainable social justice initiatives, and educational system initiatives related to sustainability. Sustainable food systems, school systems, alternative green economies: standout projects replenishing ecosystems, economic systems, and planetary systems are welcome for nomination! Projects and innovations that nurture a systems view of transformation would apply in Replenish.

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Nomination Form – Journal of Sustainability Education’s SNAP Awards

Email to snapawards at gmail dot com

Date of Nomination:

Category of Nomination (indicate one):  RESTORE     RECHARGE     REPLENISH

Person Nominating:

Role/Affiliation:

Contact Information:

Name of Project:

Brief Description:

Web Address (if available):

Contact Information:
Relationship of Nominator and Nominee (self-nomination is okay):

Please write 1-3 paragraphs regarding how this project exemplifies the qualities of the category – how does it demonstrate Sustainability Now and Powerful (SNAP)?

Thank you!– Please email nominations before April 22, 2012 to snapawards at gmail dot com

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* A winner in each category wins two all-event passes. All-event passes provide access to all Sustainability Symposium events in May 2012. Winners will be responsible for their own travel and lodging expenses.

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Image Credits:

• Logo: Clover in heart, adapted from 2010, Sunshineconnelly flickr user carbonnyc (Own work) CC-BY-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Restore image: Front of hand built natural “hobbit house,” the Wales, CC-3.0, www.SimonDale.net
• Recharge image: Path in the E.V.A. Lanxmeer green district in the Netherlands, Lamiot, 2009, CC-3.0
• Replenish image: Earth, NASA, public domain

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(Guest Editor’s Note: Jaimie Cloud, the Founder and President of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability, is one of the sustainability education thinkers and practitioners we chose to interview and profile in this issue of JSE. The conversation below took place during December 2010 and January 2011 between Jaimie, Pramod and Rosemary.  After the draft version of this conversation was prepared, Jaimie filled in with additional contents and illustrations. A systems thinker and a thought leader in Education for Sustainability (EfS), Jaimie concludes this conversation with five-fold working principles. First, live by the natural laws. Second, read the feedback. Third, a healthy and sustainable future is possible, we just have to educate for it.  Fourth, it all begins with a change in thinking. And, finally, we are all responsible. Jaimie also points out that only 29% of her EfS clients are attracted to this area due to their concern with the environment. This is eye opening and demands our attention to other dimensions of learning and seeking sustainability. Perhaps they are social, cultural, economic, political, ethical and moral. I hope you enjoy this conversation. Through the pages of JSE, you are also invited to expand and enrich what we have started.  For background and further details on the Cloud Institute’s EfS curriculum and their mode of delivery, please visit: www.cloudinstitute.org.

Pramod Parajuli, Ph.D.)

1. Rosemary and Pramod:

Jaimie, you are recognized as one of the thought leaders of the Education for Sustainability (EfS) concept and movement.  Will you tell us about your background?  Who are you and what led you to found the Cloud Institute? What is the work that you do, with whom, and how did your organization come to be?

Jaimie: I was in one of the first experiments in global education from the 6^th-12^th grades.  As a result, my work began at the age of 11.  I grew up in Evanston, Illinois.  Our teachers were influenced by Buckminster Fuller and other luminaries of the time. The gist of the experiment was to prepare us to thrive in the 21^st Century, to become agents of change and inventors of the future we want.  They provided us  with learner-centered, constructivist methodologies  that produced reflective, flexible and creative questioners, systems thinkers, lateral thinkers, media literate, self-regulated learners prepared to deal with rapid change, increasing complexity and interdependence, uncertainty, diversity, and global challenges, including the environment, peace and security, human rights and human development.

In middle school, I could not have predicted that I would be a founder of the field of Education for Sustainability.  The term sustainability and sustainable development, as we understand it today, would not be coined until 1987, nineteen years later, and the field of Education for Sustainability would not be born until 1992 in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21—some 24 years later.

I grew up to become a Global Educator because that’s what I knew.  In 1987, when the word sustainability appeared in a U.N. report, Our Common Future, I thought to myself, “That’s the name for the desired condition I want to educate for.” I had been tracking the state of the planet data since 1968—since I was 11.  Now I had a word to describe what I saw:  The situation was un-sustainable for humans and other species of plants and animals with whom we share the planet.  Sustainable seemed like a better idea.  Once I had the word, I had the concept. Once I had the concept, I knew I needed to educate for sustainability. My first questions were: What is sustainability?  How do you measure it? What knowledge, skills and attitudes will be required to make the shift toward a sustainable future?  How will we educate for the sustainable future we want? Am I already doing “it” as a global educator? How will it change what I’m doing now? Who is being attracted to this work? Are they smart, creative whole systems thinkers? Can they dance?

I founded the Sustainability Education Center in 1995 at The American Forum for Global Education.  I felt like a laggard.  It had been three years since Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 was written.  In 2002, we officially spun off and became a 501-C3, and we were eventually re-branded by Heller Communications as The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education.  As thought leaders involved in the development of the field of Education for Sustainability (EfS), we work to define the field of EfS through our framework, our EfS standards and performance indicators, enduring understandings, and the articulation of all the fields that inform EfS and the other frameworks and standards with which we are aligned.  Our mission is to ensure the viability of sustainable communities by leveraging changes in K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future.

• We monitor the evolving thinking and skills of the most important champions of sustainability and transform them into educational materials and a pedagogical system that inspires young people to think about the world, their relationship to it, and their ability to influence it in an entirely new way.
• We believe that K-12 education can substantially influence beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors related to sustainability. This is the most fertile ground for helping to shape a society committed to sustainable development.
• We develop in young people and their teachers the new knowledge and ways of thinking needed to achieve economic prosperity and responsible citizenship while restoring the health of the living systems upon which our lives depend.

That is my story. Please also visit our blog at: http://www.cloudinstitute.org/blog/category/resources

2. Rosemary: Though EfS is a relatively new term, the concept is not. Could you, for example, describe some of the precursors to EfS? What fields most strongly contribute to EfS? What, for example is the relationship between EFS and environmental or ecological education? Has environmental education played a role in the identity formation of EfS?

Jaimie: Precursors to EfS are global education, future studies, environmental education, wholistic education, diversity education, win/win conflict resolution, systems thinking and system dynamics education, to name a few. From my perspective, there is no one field that dominates EfS in the U.S.  Each country is different in this regard. In the U.S., the field grew because a handful of people from a lot of different fields emerged simultaneously, independently and co-constructively. The momentum to grow the field is much greater internationally than it has been in the U.S.  My colleagues globally are in Ministries of Education and Colleges of Education.  Here, we are a few NGOs holding the space for the development of the field, and a very few colleges of education have taken the lead.  Prescott College is one of the few.

The fields that strongly contribute to EfS are:

• Sciences

–        Environmental Science and Education

–        Science Education (Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science…)

–        Neuroscience

–        Quantum Physics

• Economics

–        Sustainable Economics

• Social Sciences

–        Global Education

–        Ecological Design and Architecture Education

–        Holistic Education

–        Future Studies

–         Arts and Humanities (Literature, History, Performing, Visual…)

–        Organizational Learning and Change

–        Environmental Ethics and Philosophy

–        Ecological Psychology

–        Positive Psychology

–        Science of Happiness

–        Conflict Resolution Education

–        Systems Thinking and System Dynamics Education

–        Game Theory

The field of neuroscience and the new research on the brain has been extremely useful in contributing to our ability to teach and learn about the paradigms, frames, or mental maps that drive people’s behavior.  Thinking drives behavior, and behavior causes results.  If you don’t like the results, the most upstream place to intervene is the thinking.  That is why education of a certain kind (Orr) is key to making the shift toward sustainability and regeneration. Piaget explained the difference between assimilation and accommodation. So much of our current reality is a result of old ways of thinking and a gap between old mental models and current reality. Our job is to close the gap between mental models and the reality itself based on the evidence—based on the data. That is why Neuroscience is included on The Cloud Institute’s list of fields that contribute to EfS.

Understanding the relationship between EfS and environmental education is interesting because it is not as simple as you might think. From a conceptual point of view they are, in many ways, aligned and complimentary.  Certainly, we are all interested in contributing to a sustainable future through education.  What is in a name? This is where things get tricky.  People call what they are doing whatever they want to call it—whatever there is funding for, or whatever they are used to calling it.  The only way to know whether a program is EE or EfS is to study the attributes, the competencies, and the measureable outcomes.

If one is doing outdoor education and kids are connecting to nature and falling in love with nature by studying science and biology or ecology and ecosystems, then some people would call that environmental education, place-based education, Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC), environmental science, and/or outdoor education. EE has a robust set of standards that are well respected and do an excellent job of capturing what EE is and does. The Cloud Institute’s EfS Content Standards for Education for Sustainability include Responsible Local and Global Citizenship, Sustainable Economics, the Dynamics of Systems and Change, Healthy Commons, Multiple Perspectives, the Natural Laws and Ecological Principles, Inventing and Affecting the Future, Sense of Place, and Cultural Preservation and Transformation. Embedded in the content standards are twelve enduring understandings, five distinct thinking skill sets, six core attitudes and a host of best instructional practices.  It is quite easy to see the similarities and differences between EE and EfS if you look carefully at the core content and learning outcomes we have each articulated.  Everyone wants to be the umbrella and no one wants to be under it.   So there is no sense in trying to determine which one is the “umbrella” field.

The purpose of Education for Sustainability, from our perspective, is to contribute to our individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend.  We have to learn how to be well in our places without undermining their ability to sustain us over time. Even better is to learn how to develop a regenerative relationship with the living systems upon which our lives depend.  The foundations of our knowledge, skills, and habits of mind are cultivated in our schools.  All the children and young people are legally required to go to school.  That is why we work in schools.

3. Pramod: Has David Orr’s work, his 15 principles we need to know for example, informed your work?

Jaimie: Absolutely.  We have embedded his thinking, and that list informs our standards and performance indicators. They fit most appropriately in our core content standard, Natural Laws and Ecological Principles. We have integrated David’s list as well as several other people’s, including Janine Benyus’s work in the principles of Biomimicry, and Sim Van der Ryn’s Principles of Ecological Design, along with several other authors who have tried to capture the essence of what we need to know about the “operating instructions” for the planet. All of David Orr’s books are required reading. He has had a huge influence on my work. He was also one of the first people to make the case for the role of education in contributing to sustainability.  “The worth of education must now be measured against the standards of decency and human survival—the issues now looming so large before us in the 21st century. It is not education, but education of a certain kind, that will save us” (Orr). Too few have said this out loud or have published on the topic.

In most serious conversations about sustainability, I have not detected a shared understanding of the role of education, particularly K-12, in contributing to the shift toward a sustainable future. I have spoken to system dynamics modelers who assume that the time horizon for the return on an investment in Education for Sustainability is twenty years. When I hear that, I ask them, “Do you know any children?!” In my experience, it takes children and young people very little time (especially compared to adults) to turn what they’ve learned into action at the local level.  On average, they are much more responsive, creative, and quicker to make change than we adults are. A seriously flawed assumption is at work there. To quote David Orr again, “This current situation we find ourselves in is not the work of ignorant people. On the contrary, it is the work of extremely well educated people—with advanced degrees.”

In David’s book, Earth in Mind, an entire chapter is devoted to the question, “What is education for?” In the service of what?  We begin many conversations about EfS by asking the following questions that are classic to our field:

What kind of future do we want? What do we want to sustain? For whom, for how long, and what does education have to do with it?  The very next question begged has to be, “What is education for?

4.Pramod: As of now, there are some 400 plus definitions of sustainability.  Is there a particular definition of sustainability (or a mix) that you prefer? What are foundational concepts of sustainability that you and the Cloud Institute are comfortable with?

Jaimie: Yes…there is one that I love. The one I love is from Donella Meadows, “A sustainable society is one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social systems of support.” I also love and use Mathis Wackernagel’s definition a lot too.  He says that sustainability means “a quality of life for all within the means of nature.” That’s a nice, short, and elegant one. We collect definitions of sustainability because people always ask us for one. Having said that, defining it is not actually going to be enough if you really want people to understand what the “it” is.  I often get calls for advice from people who are learning how to educate for sustainability.  They will often call after the fact when they feel that they have flopped. My first question is always, “Tell me you didn’t define education for sustainability in your opening line.” That was their first and last mistake.  In my experience, defining sustainability is like defining education, or grace, or democracy or excellence.  It is not the definition that captures the essence. It is the essence itself, and you just have to learn what it is and experience it to get it.  Defining sustainability makes people’s eyes glaze over…it doesn’t help people get it. Yet, definitions are required.  That is why we collect them.  When people ask me for my “elevator speech,” I often recommend we take the stairs…

Sustainable solutions solve more than one problem at a time and minimize the creation of new problems (Wendell Berry). They contribute to the health of the very systems upon which they depend. Think about the word Sustain-ABLE- what makes something sustain-able? What makes human life on Earth sustain-able? Mutually beneficial relationships with all of the living systems upon which we depend. It’s real simple. It’s not sustain-GUARANTEED. Death and taxes are still the only two guarantees. I do not see evidence of a shared understanding among a critical mass of human beings on Earth about what it takes to sustain us as a species over time. We have created incredibly unfavorable conditions for humans to survive (let alone thrive), as well as for all the creatures with which we are interdependent to survive and thrive over time.  Unintentionally, to be sure, but the feedback is the feedback.

5. Pramod: Among others, your work with the K-12 school teachers seems to be very prominent and rigorous.  I call it the “one teacher at a time” approach to deepening sustainability.  What is your experience in working with teachers?  Do you have some success stories (or lack thereof) to share?

Jaimie: Actually, we work with “one system at a time.” One teacher at a time would take too long. The most whole system work we do is with school districts and their communities learning together for a sustainable future.  We call those our Sites Learn initiatives. Examples include the nine sites around the country that are members of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) Education Partnership that Peter Senge and I created with a team of colleagues, and also our New Jersey Learns program which is funded by The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and is made up of a growing number of sites around New Jersey that participate in Sustainable Jersey. The next level on the continuum is our Districts Learn work. We work with individual districts and consortia of districts to Educate for Sustainability. The best example of that is our work with seventeen districts through the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES on a massive and multifaceted EfS initiative that is grounded in a core set of web-based exemplary units of study across all grade levels and disciplines (www.pnwboces.org/efs). Next, we work with individual schools (Schools Learn) from PS 208 in Harlem to the Denver Green School, and from Trevor Day School in NYC to Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, California, to name a few.  We need to have models and exemplars of what EfS looks like in a school, a district, and a community. If you go to our website you can see our approach and all our programs described there. We network all with whom we work so we can scale up the quantity and quality of the work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Having said all of that, indeed a big part of the work we do involves professional development and coaching of teachers, leadership development and organizational learning consulting and planning with administrators, and work with educators to embed EfS into the core curriculum. Most K-12 schools are new to EfS. A small minority have been working on it since the early 1990s.

We usually begin a relationship with a school or district by providing an introduction to sustainability and education for sustainability in order to achieve three outcomes: 1) A shared understanding among the stakeholders of sustainability and EfS; 2) A personal rationale for educating for sustainability, and; 3) Participants will become inspired and hopeful about contributing to sustainability through education. If we are able to spend one day with educators—even just a day—as crazy as education is these days with testing, budget cuts, and graduation rates at an all time low, at the end of that day, the overwhelming response from teachers and administrators is, “Yes, this is important. I will do what I can to educate for sustainability.  It’s our responsibility. Kids need and deserve this kind of education.  Yes, I will do this.” Maybe they are an “early adopter” and they are ready to start “sustainablizing” (a short hand word we made up) their curriculum and instructional practices, or maybe they’re not quite ready for that yet, and they go home and pow-wow with their families to start being more conscious about their food buying habits or their waste production. Whatever they are ready for, I can say with all honesty that I have never met an educator that said, “Nah…I think I’ll keep educating for unsustainability. I don’t really like kids all that much anyway. I don’t care about their future.” Never once.  All the educators that I have ever met without exception want what is good for kids. It is a deep and fundamental aspiration to contribute to the health and well-being of our children and of future generations. They remember why they became educators in the first place…and the creativity and the work begins. Sustainability and EfS are what’s better for the kids. This is goosebump material!  The work of educating for sustainability is extremely exciting, energizing, and fun.  It is a lot of work—especially in the beginning—and it is worth it.  Our children are worth it.

Let me provide some examples of what it looks like to work with a teacher in a school to embed EfS into the curriculum:

Example ONE:  This is a story from one of our partner schools, St. Paul’s School in New Orleans. They use the Cultural Literacy Curriculum developed by E.D. Hirsch.  One of the teachers we work with was teaching a course on the human body and trying to figure out how to incorporate EfS into the learning. What people don’t always realize is that educating for sustainability is not always about sustainability. It is first and foremost about developing the knowledge and the ways of thinking that will help us to thrive over time—systems thinking is a good example. We want to develop as systems thinkers and to be able to transfer those habits of mind where and when appropriate. The human body is a great thing to study to understand systems and interdependence and the system’s archetypes. You can chart behavior over time…study interdependence by understanding how one part of the system affects the other parts… and all of this can be studied through the human body.  As soon as the teacher saw the connection—saw that systems thinking could contribute to her students’ understanding of the human body (and contribute to sustaining human life on the planet…)—it was a win-win-win. She fell in love with the idea and off she went. It is a great unit of study.

Example TWO: An example of the results of EfS on students is the work of a science teacher at Marin County Day School in California, which is another one of our partner schools. This science teacher was interested in having her students study indigenous plants on the mountain upon which the school is built. They went to the local library to find books on the topic. No books on indigenous plants to the mountain were to be found. The fifth graders decided to write the book. So they did. They published and illustrated the book, and there are now several copies in the local library for others to use. Authentic curriculum and instruction are attributes of EfS. This is a beautiful example of EfS. It is an example of an authentic contribution by students in school to the sustainability of the place in which they live. The process was as relevant as the content of the book itself.

Example THREE: Another example of our work with schools includes the development of two full courses of study for the NYC Board of Education.  A new Participation in Government course, Inventing the Future: Leadership and Participation for the 21^st Century and an Entrepreneurship course, Business and Entrepreneurship for the 21^st Century are learner-centered, standards-based, assessment-driven, and differentiated, all attributes of EfS. Each course was accompanied by a series of professional development programs for teachers and both were very successful at accomplishing the learning outcomes for teachers and students that they were designed to achieve.

Example FOUR: A Pre-K teacher of 3-4 year olds at the Denver Green School is a Reggio-trained teacher. She is a master of constructivist education.  The EfS learning outcomes and content standards worried her, because she wanted her students to drive their own inquiry. Her curiosity and dedication to Education for Sustainability (the mission of the school) inspired her to teach for Healthy Commons. Her students have a play space that is a commons that the kids share. She decided that it would be useful if her students understood their rights to, and responsibilities for, that commons. She thought it would take the entire school year. She called me in October and said, “They’ve already got it! They are applying it and testing it and are transferring it outside of school…now what am I going to do?” The kids understood very quickly the difference between “mine” and “ours” and embraced the idea that the commons were that upon which we all depend and for which we are all responsible. It was a powerful reminder of how quickly children and young people learn and apply what they have learned.

The LAST Example (for now): Earlier I mentioned our work with seventeen districts in the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES in NY. Hundreds of teachers are involved in innovating and writing exemplary curriculum units that other districts can subscribe to (www.pnwboces.org/efs). Some teachers in the 3^rd -5^th grade teacher cohort decided they wanted to teach about the Commons as well (the Commons is one of the favorite EfS Standards among teachers). They had chosen a book entitled, Our Commons, by Molly Bang. The teachers were so excited the librarian found a book on the Commons, and they wanted to use it in the unit. Halfway through the book, however, the author starts talking about the state of our local and global Commons…all bad news. I was concerned.  We talked about the brain’s reaction to fear and how it produces the “away response” in people.  We discussed what the unintended consequences would be of scaring ten-year-old children with the bad news of our current reality and how we could solicit engagement and creativity and help them to turn the problems into opportunities to create positive change. This is not the field of Education About Unsustainability. It is the field of Education for Sustainability.  One of the teachers found the solution: “We can take the kids through the first half of the book, then challenge them to write their own endings to the book.” It was brilliant.  The plan is to send the students’ new endings to the author so that she can read their ideas for creating healthy Commons.

6. Pramod: In my experience, K-12 public education and the role of teachers in its success (or failure) has always been one of the most contentious and difficult issues in the United States. Recently, there has been much praise as well as vilification of the public education system. Amidst the push for privatization of the school system, how does your work around Education for Sustainability fit in? How does your work empower public (or private) schools and teachers to succeed and thrive?

Jaimie: Many people have given up on public schools and yet we keep sending the majority of our children there. It is a bad scenario. We can either give up on them and create something else in their stead, or we can transform them into learning organizations that contribute to our children’s individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend  (we actually like a bit of both.) We cannot, I would argue, continue to send the majority of our nation’s children to places for thirteen years of their lives that we have abandoned financially, psychologically and emotionally.  That’s just a disaster. That’s part of the problem. I’ll say that upfront.

Schooling has not, for the most part, evolved and changed with the evolving and changing world in which we live.  It’s no secret.  The old industrial form for education (public and independent schools can both be guilty of this) is part of the reason our schools are failing our children, our society, and our world.  We cannot blame that on our teachers. Actually no blame can be assigned to any one of the players responsible for K-12 education in our communities. All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get (Senge). Education in the U.S. is a systemic problem. Schools that are still modeled after the industrial revolution were not designed to change, were not designed to respond to, or to make change, and were not even designed to produce learning. They were designed to train people to work in factories. We know the history of schooling here in the United States. Schools are outdated if they are teaching the disciplines in silos, if class periods are forty-two minutes long or close to it (which no research on learning supports, by the way), and if teachers are still standing, delivering, and testing for recall. They will not be successful in the 21^st Century and they will not prepare our children and young people to be successful. It is a design challenge to be sure. You can put that design challenge on top of challenges presented by the No Child Left Behind initiative that put many public school systems in a tailspin, which on the one hand was useful, and on the other hand destructive. Useful in that they asked teachers/districts to be accountable for student learning and student performance, destructive because of the unintended consequences of test preparation and a focus on tests. Test scores are an indicator of success; they are not the goal of education.

How does Education for Sustainability address the current reality of schooling in the U.S. today? We create learning organizations that are vision-oriented and feedback driven. We improve the relationships between schools and their communities, which generates emergent properties that benefit the health of both by accelerating the shift toward sustainability in those places. We inspire educators with aspirational goals, high quality teaching and learning, and low tolerance for mediocrity or failure. We stand for authentic teaching and learning and youth leadership. We use all the best instructional practices that improve teaching and learning, including backwards design in our curriculum planning with educators, curriculum documentation and mapping, and the use of data (feedback in the form of student work, evidence of growth over time and, yes, standardized test scores) to inform practices continuously improving through teacher development and critical conversations. We use learner-centered, standards-based, feedback driven, place and project-based, differentiated instruction in EfS (to name a few). We increase critical, creative, and systems thinking, which contributes to good test scores and college acceptances while contributing to civic engagement and the sustain-ability of human life on the planet. EfS is 21^st Century education at its best.

7. Pramod: At the Cloud Institute, you value the importance of educating “for sustainability” rather than “about sustainability.” What is the difference you have found between these two? At Prescott College Ph.D. program in Sustainability Education, we also talk about education as sustainability. In our interpretation, if “education for sustainability” could be about enabling people to do no harm to the people or the planet, “education as sustainability” is to actually do good to people and the planet as much as possible. Any thoughts you have on the emerging vocabularies we use and conceptualizations?  Have these words and concepts been helpful to you and your work?

Jaimie: It is clear that people educating for sustainability do not all have a shared vocabulary with shared meanings. What you call “education as sustainability—actually do good to people and the planet as much as possible,” we would call educating for sustainability by contributing to the regenerative capacity of all living systems. What you call “educating for sustainability—doing no harm to the people or the planet” we call “better than a poke in the eye” but we have higher aspirations for EfS than that. As I mentioned earlier, the Cloud Institute’s framework for Education for Sustainability is designed to contribute to our individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend (also see questions 3 and 5 above). The ultimate goal is regeneration, of course. However, it’s no easier a word to sell than sustainability…which is why we don’t use it in marketing materials. Bill McDonough, who is famous for Cradle to Cradle Design, always talks about how wrong it is to aspire to doing less bad when doing more good is so much better. We agree with Bill on this and many other points.  More good is what we aspire to. 

When we educate about sustainability we treat sustainability as a topic. In my opinion, its use strictly as a topic is limiting and does not allow for what I believe is its highest and best use. To us sustainability and regeneration (whatever is considered the most aspirational goal) is the name for the desired condition we are educating for. I think the greatest value to us is that the concepts of sustainability and regeneration have their value as aspirational and measurable destinations.

The reason I don’t abandon the word sustainability is that you can measure it. There are measurable indicators of sustainability. We can measure whether we are using more resources faster than the replenishment rate. We can measure our Ecological Footprint.  It is the Ecological Footprint that has made it possible for us to realize that we are using bio capacity on Earth faster than it is being replenished, and that is that the very definition of unsustainable. We are constantly looking at stocks and flows and looking at the health of the systems upon which our lives depend. We measure the quality of the water, the air, the state of our Commons, the health of our wetlands, fish stocks, top soil, public health, the gap between rich and poor, graduation rates, etc. These are all indicators of sustainability that we can measure. We use the indicators we have, and we are developing new and better measures all the time. How are our education systems doing ? We can measure it.  If we put it all together in a place, we have sustainable community indicators. I think the fact that we can measure to what extent we are moving toward or away from sustainability (and even regeneration) is very useful.

8. Pramod: You have also been enthusiastic about considering schools as learning organizations. Your approach to EfS seems to be informed by a whole systems approach. I will throw one more metaphor for your consideration: schools as ecosystems. How successful have you been in getting across these ideas to school administrators, teachers, and parents?

Jaimie: In schools that “learn,” everyone is encouraged to keep thinking, innovating, collaborating, talking candidly, improving their capabilities, self-correcting, and making personal commitments to a shared future…

We have a description of our whole systems approach on our website at http://www.cloudinstitute.org/our-approach

To me, the difference between using the term “schools as ecosystems” vs. “schools as learning organizations” is the perception of these two terms in the marketplace. Ecosystems conjures up the word environment and that suddenly limits the market. This is my experience. As soon as people think what we do is related to “the environment,” then either they are interested or not interested. Our research shows that consistently over time; 29% of our audiences are interested in education for sustainability because of the environment, and the other 71% want to educate for sustainability for a variety of other reasons.

On the other hand, it is sort of obvious that a school should be a learning organization—like a hospital should be a healthy hospital. It seems so obvious to people and doesn’t scare anyone away. It explains that we’re moving from industrial silos of training to a more integrated place for learning. Peter Senge coined the phrase “learning organization” in his book entitled, The Fifth Discipline. He then wrote a book called, Schools that Learn. We agree that the attributes of a learning organization are perfectly suited for schools that want to thrive in the 21^st Century. That is why we use the term.  Having said that, schools are of course ecosystems, and as biomimics, it makes perfect sense to think of them as such.

9. Rosemary and Pramod: Last month (October 2010) we attended the AASHE (American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education) conference in Denver, Colorado. There we saw that assessing sustainability education was a hot topic. Could you please describe some ways that the Cloud Institute assesses student learning of EfS? How are these correlated with federal or state standards? Why is assessment important for EfS? What are the challenges posed to assessing such a form of education? What areas are in greatest need of improvement?

Jaimie: We distinguish between evaluation, assessment, and grading. When we assess, we are gathering information about what students are learning, how they are learning, what it means to them, what they know, and what they can do, using multiple indicators and sources of evidence. Assessment is used to meet a variety of evaluation needs and can be done informally (observation) or formally (tangible evidence). Assessment allows teachers to ascertain, monitor and produce learning. To evaluate is to ascribe a value to the information we have gathered. Evaluation legitimizes teachers’ and students’ assessment data. To grade is to assign a symbol/number to the evaluation.  Grading communicates evaluation information but produces no new learning.

We use pre-post instruments to measure growth over time, formative measures all along the way, and we use summative measures at the end of units and courses to measure overall retention and success. Assessments that produce learning are doing double-duty, and that’s a good thing. There is never going to be more time, so integrating your instruction and your assessments/evaluations makes sense. Nature only integrates. We use a variety of tools to measure student performance. We regularly use prompts that promote reflective thinking and are project-based, and service learning opportunities are excellent ways for students to express what they have learned while making authentic contributions to sustainability in their communities.

Why are assessment and evaluation important? If you want to know whether you have addressed an EfS standard or any standard, you have to produce evidence of it in student work. You have to assess for it.  We want EfS to produce the kind of knowledge, thinking, and attitudes that will prepare children and young people to participate in, and to lead with us, the shift toward a sustainable future. With our EfS Standards and Performance Indicators, the proper instruments and explicit scoring criteria we can measure the acquisition and application of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that characterize EfS.  We are working toward being able to demonstrate a correlation between a comprehensive approach to EfS in schools and communities and the improvement of sustainable community indicators in those places. What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed.  We aim to see improvement over time.  This is not just an intellectual exercise. EfS leads to a different way of thinking that drives different behavior that produces different results—sustainable results.  We are responding to Einstein’s quote, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we used to create them.”EfS is our contribution to that different way of thinking.

Evidence of success would include evidence of the enduring understandings of EfS and the EfS Standards and Performance Indicators embedded with the thinking skills that characterize EfS. Here is an example of how we do it:  One of the teachers we work with at the Trevor Day School in NYC teaches health and nutrition and the food pyramid in science. As a result of working together, she completely redesigned the unit to educate for EfS through food and nutrition. She chose the EfS Standards and Performance Indicators she wanted the unit to address. She designed learning opportunities and the assessments, and now we’re looking at student work to see how well she accomplished her objectives. Looking for evidence, communicating degrees of quality through rubrics, exemplars, and other forms of explicit criteria, helps students develop a frame of reference for excellence.

10.  Rosemary: To put a more human face on assessment, could you share with us a personal story of a moment or a series of moments that communicated a student or group of students “got it?” “It” being the concept of sustainability.  What did it look and feel like? What were you thinking at the time?

Jaimie: The first one that comes to mind is not one of our students but is a great story about a student from Bristol, Vermont, who eventually received a Brower Youth Award for the work she started through school. Her name is Jesse Ruth Corkins.  I always tell her story because it is exemplary. Jessie Ruth was in the fourth grade when Vermont adopted State Standards for Sustainability Education. By the time she got to 9^th grade, she was not new to the concept.

In 9^th grade, a science fair challenge her teacher assigned her class was to convert their school building from oil to a clean, green renewal form of energy. Jessie Ruth and her partner, another 9^th grader, did just that. They did the research, the science, the math, the business case, the politics, the economics, the planning, the writing, the fundraising, the purchasing, and the project oversight and completion. The school board gave them the money to convert their school building to wood chips. They saved the building $30,000 in the first year and $90,000 in the fourth year. Jessie Ruth is a poster child for sustainability education. Every EfS Standard is evident in her work. Jessie Ruth then moved on to organize a statewide coalition called the Vermont Sustainable Heating Initiative. Her coalition received 20 million dollars and 100,000 acres from the state legislature to grow switch grasses and other plant products so Vermont could grow its own energy supply in the form of pellets. They shifted the market for pellet stoves from one stove a week to 1,000 stoves per week. That was all before Jessie graduated high school.

You see every attribute for EfS in her thinking and actions and their integration. She represents the new paradigm in every way. She’s smart, can do the math, and collaborate. That’s not something you would be able to capture in a multiple choice test, and it is not something you can produce in one course or one year. You get that over time. EfS was normal for her from 4^th through 12^th grade. It was embedded in her consciousness. Now she’s attending the University of Vermont.

Other examples include the 3^rd grade students in Byram Hills, NY, who designed and implemented the recycling program in their school and community; the students in Portland, Oregon who saved the Swifts’ “migration rest stop” by instituting an upgrade to their school’s source of energy; the 4^th grade students in Salt Lake City who responded to an RFP from the city and who won 4 ½ acres to build a  nature trail and playground and park; and the secondary students at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrence, NJ, who serve as the “research arm” of the Sustainable Lawrence initiative. These are all examples of authentic assessments that produce learning and make authentic contributions to community sustainability.

11. Rosemary: What do you think are the greatest areas within EfS in need of further research? If you were to put the call out for the next generation of sustainability educators and researchers, what would you tell them?

Jaimie: Certainly assessment and evaluation are big areas that require research. Developing longitudinal studies to track progress over time is paramount. We want to provide evidence of the correlation between EfS and the improvement of sustainable community indicators in a place.  Can we compare the data to others who are not doing EfS? We need baseline data and then we will need to set up systems to track progress over time. We need good researchers to do all of it.

We need help in designing robust assessments to measure student learning in all of the EfS Standards and Indicators. We need great rubrics and a great variety of methods to communicate performance criteria. We need to communicate to people what it looks like to meet an EfS standard. We need to determine what the best measures are. We need to know what the best ways are to assess the degrees of quality of EfS attributes. We need to know what it takes to prepare an educator to educate for sustainability, an administrator to administrate for it, etc. We need to know what kinds of capacity building and professional development works best in different contexts, and we need to have a great deal of student work that produces evidence of EfS attributes. I will give you a quick example: One of our teachers designed an elegant unit of study and was interested in addressing two performance indicators of the Multiple Perspectives Standard of EfS. She designed her unit to produce evidence in her students of respect for other’s points of view and empathy. When the teacher showed me her rubric for the unit, there was nothing about empathy and point of view articulated.  She did all that work to design and teach for those attributes but had forgotten to communicate to her students that those two EfS Performance Indicators were important. She had used an existing rubric that did a great job of assessing for the characteristics of a good essay. To analyze her students’ work, she put the work in three piles: Meets Expectations, Exceeds Expectations and Below Expectations.  Though the student work in the first two categories demonstrated good to excellent writing skills, none of them demonstrated empathy. The writing was indeed poor in the Below Expectations pile, but the work of two students in that pile demonstrated empathy, and they didn’t get any recognition for that. It was a simple issue to resolve.  We added respect for other’s points of view and empathy to the rubric, and the teacher decided to pay closer attention to the congruence between what she was designing for, what she was assessing for, and what she was communicating to kids was important.

How can we best help teachers to do this work? What resources do they need? What professional development opportunities do they need to relatively quickly adjust teaching and assessment practices that will improve student learning and contribute to a sustainable future? We would love to get some help from great and smart researchers out there. We’d be happy to participate in pilots and create focus groups and study teams. We can provide the research subjects, but we have received very little to no funding to do this kind of thing. It has been very difficult so far for us to get money to design and implement robust research and assessment agendas. There are a few studies out there that are fabulous and very useful. At Antioch, David Sobel has evidence of the great impact of place-based education (an attribute of EfS) on civic engagement and test scores. Employing the Environment as an Integrative Context for Learning: Closing Achievement Gap (Lieberman et al., 2002) is another good study that is useful. We need more data to prove EfS contributes to critical thinking or other benchmarks people want, like meeting state standards. We need more evidence that EfS contributes to student performance and success in life.

As Pramod himself is aware, food and learning gardens-based initiatives in Portland, Oregon, and other areas need a total assessment.

12. Pramod: Pedagogy based on a sense of place seems to be one of the areas of your focus in EFS. How do the notions of “local,” “bioregional,” “national,” and “global,” figure in your sense of place? How do you suggest a sustainable citizen would navigate between these scales and responsibilities?

Jaimie:

All of those are nested systems. A local system is nested in its bioregion, is nested in the national and political systems…etc. Nested systems are all interdependent on one another. From a systems perspectives all problems are endogenous. They arise from within the system.  If we solve our problems locally, we contribute to solving them globally. You can use the cliché both ways—think globally, act locally…and vice versa. We can’t have global sustainability without local sustainability. Linking all the locals to one another over time produces global networks of communication, shared understandings, and best practices. We are all in this together.  Prescinding is very useful in this regard.  To prescind is to look with a “zoom lens” at our local systems while, at same time, using a “wide angle lens” to keep our eyes on the big picture. We move from parts to whole and whole to parts. That’s what you’re doing all the time….negotiating and reconciling relationships between the two.

13.  Pramod: What have you found about the new generation of learners in K-12 setting? What are their characteristics? What new technologies are they using to learn and live in the world? How should EfS adapt to those new modalities of teaching and learning such as identified in the Curriculum-21 volume?

Jaimie: The learners that I come into contact with run the gamut. In general, our younger students are hungry to learn and passionate about sustainability and making a difference. As they get older, I see three groups emerging:  Some are becoming more cynical, less reflective, feeling disconnected, and have little hope for the future. Others are in denial completely—thinking that their lives will be fine, even though they see that the world is in trouble (as if, somehow, they had immunity from the results of that trouble). The third group—a growing group, thank goodness—is being educated for sustainability in one form or another, and  they are on fire to learn and to contribute to a healthy and sustainable future.

In terms of young people’s uses of technology, I think the rapid change is really challenging for adults and not that big a deal for young people if they are educated to adapt and to thrive in that context. The speed of technological change is a good example. It is easy for kids to navigate because they’re used to it, and things are always changing in their lives. There is great plasticity in the brain until the age of twelve or thirteen. There is still plasticity after that, but it is never as easy to adapt after thirteen as it is before thirteen. Once the patterns and habits kick in, we have to work hard to keep our minds open and flexible.  The role of teachers is more and more to become “guides on the side” instead of “sages on the stage.” It is a great time for constructivist education. Students don’t need teachers to deliver information anymore. Technology can provide it faster and in differentiated ways for different learners (see the School of One, NYC). We hold students back if we are standing there delivering content.

At the same time, students, and all of us, need tremendous help to not overuse technology and to navigate the use of the Internet in gathering data and doing research. Alan November, in the volume Curriculum 21 (HH Jacobs, ASCD, 2010, visit: http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Heidi-Hayes-Jacobs.aspx), tells a story in his article called, Teaching Zack to Think, about a student who was studying the Holocaust. He somehow learned through his online research that the Holocaust was really a health spa. It turns out that all the websites he used lead back to one engineering professor at a prominent university who hated Jewish people and had set up eight different websites all linked to each other, all delivering consistently bogus information. They all had northwestern.edu at the end and so the student thought they were legitimate. He could not distinguish the lies from the truth. The article then goes on to teach people how to unpack a URL to determine legitimacy. I see students all the time doing research on the Internet by Googling and picking the top three things that come up as their sources. These are some of the benefits and challenges to the use of technology in our classrooms.

I think it is common knowledge these days (though it is not all reflected on the standardized tests) that our job as educators more and more is to teach students how to do things like analyze information, distinguish opinions from facts, back up their statements with evidence, do research, be media literate, and live in community—sustainably, of course.

14. Rosemary: I had the immense pleasure of attending both a workshop you presented on assessment at Bioneers as well as the Advanced Summer Design Studio this summer (2010). Both experiences were among the best trainings I’ve been to on EfS. Could you please describe the variety of resources that the Cloud Institute offers to educators and schools (including opportunities for collaboration via the Cloud Commons)? Where might someone looking to get into EfS find you (professional conferences you present at etc.)?

Jaimie: The Summer Design Studio is a great way to get started or to continue deepening your work in EfS. Each summer teachers and administrators come from all over to design something through the lens of sustainability (units of study, curriculum maps, professional development programs, organizational change strategies, assessments…). They spend five days with us plus the one day introduction if they haven’t had it yet. They have time (our only currency) to work. It is a real treat. There is work time scheduled with optional mini-sessions and coaching when they need it. They have time and space and colleagues, resources, and the Internet. People meet each other and form affinity groups.  Everything we’re doing is encouraging learning communities so no one feels alone out there.

In our consulting work throughout the school year, we are doing more and more long-term work with schools for 3-5 years—a  whole school approach.

We also do individual professional development programs and we’re launching the upgrade of our “Cloud Commons,” a digital resource library with e-portfolio capability for educators to document, share, and receive feedback on their work. Cloud Commons is a great resource people can subscribe to. They can share units and draw on units and plans that other people have designed so that we can all learn from one another and build a repertoire of exemplary EfS materials. This next year will be very exciting.

If you are an individual or small group and district not ready to make a commitment, you can start with a One Day Intro to Sustainability and Education for Sustainability in our shop in NYC or in your own location.  You can buy our EfS Curriculum Design Studio in a Box or you can purchase some of our exemplary units and courses to get you started.

For folks who are ready to do the deeper dive and make the commitment to educating for sustainability, we have four major programs – E-learn (online), Districts Learn, Sites learn and Youth Learn. They are all beautifully described on our website at http://www.cloudinstitute.org/model-programs/

15. Rosemary: While at the Cloud Summer Institute, several of us joked that we wished there was more than one Jaimie—we want your expertise and energy not just in New York City but also across the country and world. If you could imagine for one moment that financial resources for the Cloud Institute were unlimited and the demand for EfS was skyrocketing, how might you envision the role and work of The Cloud Institute?

Jaimie: Thanks Rosemary, I appreciate that. What we need are models to be able to point to and sites around the country that are doing this work seriously, robustly, and comprehensively. We also need to do more product and service development. We need more exemplars and more tools/webinars/videos to make it really easy for people to do this work. We need to do site development and to build capacity in schools and in communities to do this work. We would develop partnerships with Schools of Education, and we would work with sites that are ready to do this work that just need the money to do it seriously. They would be willing to participate in the action research and the externally driven research and evaluation agendas. I know that there are a great many sites that are ready.  We just need the significant financial investment to be made.

16.       Pramod and Rosemary: Any closing thoughts or comments you would like to share with the readers of the Journal of Sustainability Education?

Jaimie:

Here are my five one-liners, elevator speech and sound bites:

Live by the Natural Laws

Read the Feedback

A healthy and sustainable future is possible we just have to educate for it

It all begins with a change in thinking

We are all responsible

Jaimie P. Cloud is the founder and president of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education in New York City.  The Cloud Institute is dedicated to the vital role of education in creating awareness, fostering commitment, and guiding actions toward a healthy, secure and sustainable future. Ms. Cloud has written several book chapters and articles, teaches extensively, and writes and facilitates the collaborative development of numerous instructional units and programs that are designed to teach across disciplines through the lens of sustainability. In addition she serves as an advisor, board or committee member to several organizations with related goals and interests.

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