SUSTAINABILITY OPPORTUNITIES at WSU

Sustainability Opportunities at WSU

In addition to the stimulating intellectual and scientific challenges that lie ahead to better define sustainability in ecological, economic, and social terms, there are many exciting opportunities for WSU to immediately take actions to advance towards a more sustainable future. The Campus and Community Ecology Project facilitates this effort by sponsoring conservation projects on real landscapes and campus

research projects, such as developing environmental benchmarks and audits that will help provide specific information on which to make effective decisions about future institutional and community design and management.

In addition to the many significant steps WSU is already undertaking to reduce environmental impacts, what specific next steps might be taken to promote ecological literacy and sustainability at WSU? The following list highlights a few of the types of opportunities and issues for studying sustainability that could be pursued immediately:

Comprehensively exam resource flows on campus: food, energy, water, materials, and waste.
Study the design impact of WSU campuses on public transportation vs. use of personal vehicles.
Determine how to more effectively promote mass transit andreduce cars on campus.
Reconsider campus food service and dining operations (e.g., use of disposable plastics; future design and cafeteria management toenhance recycling and composting).
Engage the public in discussions about costs and benefits of producing and purchasing "green energy" (e.g., solar or wind-powered electricity) for WSU.
Consider contracting with local and regional farms to produce selected organic fruits and vegetables under no-till agricultural systems to develop, evaluate, and publicize a model university and community sustainable agriculture program.
Publically test fuel-cell technologies and hybrid electric cars for use in campus vehicle fleets.
Publically test personal transportation devices (e.g., Segway) and alternative vehicles on our campuses and encourage administrators, faculty, staff, students, and community members to participate in the evaluations and reports.
Challenge the WSU faculty and students to design a futuristic "green building" and then build and operate it as a living laboratory and living building for scientific and educational studies (e.g., like the Oberlin College Living Machine).
Challenge the WSU faculty to reevaluate our teaching and the GER - General Education Requirements - are we actually producing ecologically literate students in all disciplines?
Establish the goal of: ECOLOGICAL LITERACY FOR ALL WSU STUDENTS.

Washington State University faces unlimited opportunities to advance the science and understanding of sustainability, but what should we do about education? To consider one perspective offered by Dr. David Orr, environmental educator and philosopher, see: Education & Sustainability.