Throughout this class, we've studied a thousand different ways to design human environments that minimize energy consumption, preserve ecosystem health, support public health, and draw communities together. But, as is the case with many things, walking the walk is not only more difficult than talking the talk, it’s an entirely different ball game. I, like Leith Sharp, former Harvard sustainability officer, have rolled my eyes plenty of times at university departments and whole institutions who teach about environmental and social problems but, as Leith says, “[operate] as if what the faculty was teaching was irrelevant” (Sharp, 2009). In this post, I argue that universities are not only ideal first-movers for sustainability initiatives, but also that they are socially obligated to do so.
It is obvious to many that universities should be leaders in the teaching and researching of sustainability issues. But I also assume that most, if not all teachers of sustainability would argue that sustainability cannot be properly taught without demonstration. The issue here is that actually converting lifestyles and applying research to real-life systems is arguably the harder task. It’s so difficult that few societies – universities, communities, cities, or nations – have even wrapped their minds around it, much less achieved anything meaningful.
