This past February, AU earned the ranking of the “greenest” university in the nation under the widely regarded Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Ranking System (STARS). If you’ve ever taken the sustainability tour or perused the Office of Sustainability, you know that American has taken significant steps towards earning this cherished title. Among the many initiatives, the university composts paper towels, converts kitchen grease to biodiesel fuel and earned the LEED Gold certification for the new SIS building.
While we are excited to be associated with a university so dedicated to sustainability, we hope AU realizes these initiatives are just the beginning. One can find many areas for continued improvement, such as plastic packaging prevalent in campus food options, the claim that AU is vegan friendly but lacks vegan options throughout campus and the abundance of lit buildings late at night. Yet, our main quandary does not rest with these low-hanging fruits — it is the lack of student awareness and education on these incredibly important initiatives.
In fact, the missing element in AU’s sustainability plan is education. Though it is oxymoronic for a university to display an Achilles’ heel in education, only a handful of U.S. colleges or universities offer any learning opportunities involving sustainability. Beyond the new buildings, this is AU’s real opportunity to be a leader in the field of sustainability. The “greenest” campus in the nation has the unique ability to educate its students and faculty on exactly why it earned this title, and on how the campus can further move toward sustainability.
In order to accomplish this task, we advocate for a sustainability education requirement at AU. A required sustainability course would be a groundbreaking, national initiative not only for AU, but for the 4,300 colleges and universities in America. Most students have no clue what the LEED or STAR acronyms, let alone certifications, even mean. Why can’t students learn about or become certified in such programs on campus? For all its promise, the present condition of sustainability education is more like the relegated, arcane status of driver’s education.
Nevertheless, AU is taking some steps towards sustainability education. From April 18 to April 22, the university is celebrating Earth Day with a full week of events highlighting sustainability topics. In addition, Sean Miller is teaching a course this fall entitled “Foundations of a Healthy School” — the first of its kind in the nation — with a specific focus on the burgeoning movement to create healthy schools across the country. These efforts could be the initial steps in making AU the first campus in the nation to institute a formal sustainability education program. Such a program would branch across all departments, academic and administrative alike, with the stated goal of empowering AU students and the community with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in a 21st century world.
We understand that sustainability education is a new topic. For instance, the Department of Education only had its first summit on the issue last September. There, Secretary Arne Duncan asserted the imperative for its immediate development: “Preparing our students to be good environmental citizens is some of the most important work any of us can do … It will build the foundation for the long-term prosperity of our country and the sustainability for our world.” The time has come to address this urgent need on our campus and in our society. In honor of Earth Day — which was originally billed as the “first national teach-in on the environment” — we call upon leaders and members of the AU community to develop and institute a community-driven plan for comprehensive sustainability education on campus.
Katie Alexander and Autumn Rauchwerk are sophomores in CAS. Adjunct Professor Sean Miller is the education director at Earth Day Network.
