Chapter 11: Greening the Campus, Culture, and Curriculum

Sustainability has exploded onto the higher education scene within the past few years and now affects every facet of the institution. Student affairs professionals, academics, business officers, campus planners, members of their associated professional associations, and nearly all other campus personnel have made sustainability the focus of recent conferences, publications, and trainings. The call for sustainability has come from state systems of higher education (e.g., the University System of Maryland Sustainability Initiative), the U.S. Senate (via the Higher Education Sustainability Act), and even the United Nations (via the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005–2014). Our global predicament is clear to almost everyone—exponential growth of the human population and our unyielding consumption of finite resources are unsustainable and have caused irreparable damage to our global ecosystem. A new way forward is needed.