-
Appendix
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
APPENDIX ELSI Core Strategy: ‘‘A Pedagogical Approach to Greening IU’’ (http://www.indiana.edu/&elsi/strategy.html) Rationale: Global environmental crises and the growing interdependency of environmental, social, and economic issues motivate environmental literacy as a basic competency for twenty-first-century education. By environmental literacy we mean an understanding of the ecological, social, and economic dimensions of human–environment interactions, including how to live day to day in a sustainable fashion. We submit that higher education has the responsibility and resources to lead the way in meeting this new educational challenge and see environmental literacy as a fundamental civic necessity and a core learning goal for all students. Learning Goals: Environmentally literate graduates will possess the information, skills, and values to help our complex, global society move toward sustainability— meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The basis of sustainable societies are socially just economies that run on renewable, nontoxic sources of energy and resources with ecologically appropriate levels of population and consumption. Broadly, environmentally literate graduates will have gained information, skills, and values in the following areas: 198 ⭈ Appendix The fundamental life-support processes that ecosystems provide (‘‘ecosystem services’’) The status of the global environment (humanity’s ‘‘ecological footprint’’) The theory and practice of sustainability A sense of place: personal, cultural, historical An understanding of the social and environmental outcomes of individual behavior (e.g., consumption) The interrelationship of economy, environment and social equity The role of policy and market forces (e.g. ecological economics) Ecological design principles and their application to the built environment and to agriculture Strategy: ELSI recognizes that the university learning environment itself is a powerful form of pedagogy, ideally as a deliberate positive model of sustainability (Orr 1994). Our core strategy is therefore to create an experiential learning initiative to green the IUB campus. This strategy will integrate activities across departments and schools, o√ering learning experiences beyond any one academic specialty. ‘‘Greening’’ refers to changes in academic programs, physical operations, and purchasing that move a campus towards sustainability. As students move about campus buildings and grounds every day, they receive important messages about human–environment interactions. Typically, these messages reinforce the paradigm that the earth’s resources and capacity to assimilate wastes are infinite and that each individual’s energy and resource use is disconnected from the welfare of other humans, other organisms, and the local to global ecosystems in which they are embedded. Alternatively, the campus environment, including buildings, grounds, energy and resource use, waste production, and academic focus can foster an understanding that humans are embedded in and dependent upon the web of life, that our personal and collective lifestyle choices have both local and far-reaching impacts on other humans, other organisms, and ecosystems, and that sustainable societies must live within the regenerative and assimilative capacity of earth’s biosphere. The campus greening movement gained strength in the 1990s and now involves hundreds of campuses nationwide (examples include Penn State, Oberlin College, and University of Georgia). In addition to educational benefits, the greater resource use e≈ciency of green campuses can lead to considerable economic savings and help to stimulate the local economy. Furthermore, green campuses have also become an important recruiting draw. [44.206.248.122] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 06:40 GMT) Appendix ⭈ 199 Because it connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and development of civic responsibility, servicelearning is a natural educational framework for greening activities. While ‘‘community’’ has traditionally referred to the local municipality, it can also apply to the campus community. Indiana University already has a strong service-learning presence on campus through the O≈ce of Service-Learning (OSL, http://www.indiana.edu/&copsl/). The OSL has been an active participant in ELSI and is enthusiastic about expanding service-learning opportunities to green IU Bloomington. Sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and we plan to promote campus greening service-learning projects throughout and between a wide range of disciplines and courses at IUB. We will adopt Penn State’s categorization of the campus environment into ten sectors: energy, water, material resources and waste disposal, food, land, transportation, built environment, community, research, and decision-making. Green servicelearning projects with strong environmental, economic, and/or social emphases will be promoted within each of these ten sectors. Key Components: Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Coordinator—A position dedicated to developing, coordinating, promoting, and acquiring funds for this initiative will be key. We recommend that this be a top-level...