Leadership capacity, diversity, and communication in campus sustainability

Leadership capacity, diversity, and communication in campus sustainability

• 1.
  MARY ANN LIEBERT,INC. • Vol. 5 No. 2 • April 2012 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2012.9979 Sustainability 97 This roundtable discussion focuses on the campus sustainability professional and the skills and disposition needed to be an effective sustainability leader in the world of higher education. Participants are campus sustainability officers and senior fellows in the national Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). An intensive year-long program, the ELP trains the next generation of environmental leaders, who come from diverse backgrounds, to be able to innovate and collaborate, and have the know-how to effectively com- municate with stakeholders. The program calls upon a coordinated professional network to ensure the senior fellows learn from real-world experts. The following par- ticipants and other ELP Fellows are working across sectors to advance sustainability in academia, business, government, and nonprofit leadership. Jesse Pyles: The term campus sustainability can make us first think of the physical campus, but our work, to varying degrees, encompasses a lot more than managing the built environment. I tend to talk about my role in terms of sustainability education. How would you define sustainability education? Amber Garrard: Sustainability education is about acquiring the skills to work across discipline and departmental silos. It includes learning about how to appreciate diverse perspectives and how to use our differences to help us think creatively about complex issues. Sustainability education is about helping peo- ple understand that we live in a world of beautiful and complex systems, and teaching and learning the skills to appreciate the complexity of those systems. Riley Neugebauer: I would define sustainability education as education which results in students who comprehend the interconnection between the three E’s—ecology, equity, economy (a systems thinking Leadership Capacity, Diversity, and Communications in Campus Sustainability framework)—and then feel empowered to be able to educate others about this and take action to create more sustainable communities. Sustainability educa- tion will provide them with an understanding of the decline of the natural world and its relationship to human development, which could then create more of a context for the necessity of systems thinking in our societies and decision-making structures. Mieko Ozeki: Sustainability is interdisciplinary by nature and a free exchange between theoretical learning and real-world problem solving. Sustain- ability is an underlying concept made explicit to expound upon the connectivity of human, societal, and ecological systems. I think sustainability educa- tion makes us aware of the cognitive and physical disconnects that exist within the human-oriented systems, but it also offers opportunities to realign and renew our values with the natural world. Jesse Pyles: At Unity we’re sharpening our com- munity focus around the tenets of sustainabil- ity science as a framework for the education we deliver for every student. This has direct implica- tions for faculty, but it also influences the way I view my role as a nonfaculty educator on campus. In what ways do you fill the role of sustainability educator and how does your location within the organizational structure of the institution impact that work? Mieko Ozeki: Experiential education and ser- vice learning are integral components to most courses at the University of Vermont (UVM). This allows us to develop projects that connect concepts students learn in the classroom with real-world issues occurring on campus or in the community. I like taking my role as an educator one step further by demonstrating professional skills such as project management and helping students develop their professional portfolios. Amber Garrard: Yale’s approach to institutional sus- tainability is largely directed toward campus systems and culture. Educating all members of the commu- nity is important to ensure they have the knowledge Roundtable Participants Moderator Jesse Pyles Sustainability Coordinator Unity College, Unity, ME Senior Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program Amber Garrard Education & Outreach Coordinator Office of Sustainability, Yale University, New Haven, CT Senior Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program Riley Neugebauer Sustainability Coordinator Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY Senior Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program Mieko Ozeki Projects Coordinator Office of Sustainability, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT Senior Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program —Jesse Pyles Our work encompasses a lot more than managing the built environment.
• 2.
  98 Sustainability MARYANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 5 No. 2 • April 2012 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2012.9979 to change behavior and advocate for improvements to the system. My role is to communicate sometimes technical and complex information in a way that is easily digestible and empowering. I love that this role provides me the opportunity to work with many sectors of the university—vice presidents as well as custodial staff and action-oriented student leaders as well as thought leaders. Riley Neugebauer: I work with Skidmore students as a mentor and supervisor through several intern- ship and hired positions. I’m a frequent class visitor and community resource on sustainability concepts and engage others through college planning work. I help students understand how to get things done and how to take their own initiatives and make them a reality. Beyond the conceptual ideas of sustainabil- ity, I think it is even more important that I offer them tangible ways to enact sustainability on campus. I try to demonstrate more effective styles of commu- nication and empowerment based in the idea that accountability and collaborative decision making are possible and can be effective. Jesse Pyles: You’ve each touched on this notion of empowering others on campus, not simply to be effective institutional change agents, but also to see themselves as educators. I consider the sus- tainability education we’ve been discussing as a toolkit of skills and competencies we can offer our students. How does campus sustainability work equip students to be engaged sustainability prac- titioners in the 21st century? Amber Garrard: Today’s college students are living in an interesting time and many of them grasp the severity of the future and are impressively opti- mistic. Campus sustainability work encourages stu- dents to use what they’re learning in the classroom to change the world around them in creative and new ways. Many students are looking for hands-on opportunities to learn with their full beings, not just their heads. Campus sustainability work, whether through monitoring energy usage, sorting waste, or growing produce for a dining hall, is providing these types of opportunities that expose students to transdisciplinary learning that will be very valuable to them in the future. Riley Neugebauer: The 21st century citizen has to be flexible and adaptable to a constantly changing world; whether because of technology or the decline of the natural world, there are lots of things that are changing fast. Sustainability work on campus, par- ticularly when people are really in the early stages of figuring out their career paths and evaluating their value systems, can provide students with a framework for change. This framework is based in real projects and applied conversations, and gives inspiration and hope that people can successfully find ways to manage their communities, organiza- tions, businesses, and beyond in a way that will allow future generations the ability to thrive as well. Jesse Pyles: I’d add that the solutions-focused, problem-based work of campus sustainability demands the development of highly transferable skills: communications, project management, and stakeholder engagement. What skills do you find are most important to the sustainability education work you do? Riley Neugebauer: I think the skills most impor- tant to this work include critical thinking, consen- sus building, and community organizing. Skills in nonviolent communication and conflict resolution, cultural competency, and an understanding of white privilege and race within the movement are key. Mieko Ozeki: It is necessary to understand systems and resource flows early on. Traditional education approaches learning in a fragmented way, divvying real-world situations into specific knowledge areas and drawing away from the bigger picture. Seeing the college campus as a whole rather than its parts makes my job feel more manageable than over- whelming. Amber Garrard: Communication and respect for people’s knowledge and experience—whatever that may be. Much of my experience with this came from traveling and meeting people in different places and cultures. For me personally, this was important to understanding why global sustainability is an issue that needs to be addressed. It also helped me see that there are often multiple ways of seeing and interpret- ing the same thing or idea, and that learning to use pluralistic approaches to problem solving is neces- sary and advantageous. Jesse Pyles: What do you wish you’d learned in school to make you more effective in your work? Mieko Ozeki: I wish I had learned about systems thinking and putting it into practice—whether through designing a policy or implementing a proj- ect on campus. In higher education, academics are broken up into disciplines. This is great for develop- ing depth in a field, but loses sight of the intercon- nection of these different knowledge areas. I feel fortunate that in my undergraduate studies I studied philosophy while taking interdisciplinary courses between the humanities, arts, and sciences. If I’d learned about systems thinking in my senior year, I think it would have tied my learning together and prepared me to look at organizational structures in my career. Riley Neugebauer: I would have liked to learn more about leadership as related to working with and Today’s college students are living in an interesting time and many of them grasp the severity of the future and are impressively optimistic. —Amber Garrard The 21st century citizen has to be flexible and adaptable to a constantly changing world; whether because of technology or the decline of the natural world —Riley Neugebauer Roundtable
• 3.
  managing group processand strategic planning with diverse stakeholders—basically more leadership and management models and applications. I think the earlier that students and others can become skilled in things like nonviolent communication, cultural competency, and conflict resolution, the easier the ongoing conversations about change will be, and I certainly wish I had developed those skills sooner and had more of them now. Jesse Pyles: I share that want for more process management training. So much of the work we do is about organizational maneuvering and admin- istrative planning; process and project manage- ment are crucial. Ofcourse,theEnvironmentalLeadershipProgram has introduced us to some of these skills through trainings, but I find the greatest benefit of ELP has been access to this diverse network of sustainabil- ity leaders. I’ve learned a lot from the network and gained a great deal from my collaboration with you all. Thanks for your good thoughts and your good work as sustainability education leaders. Seeing the college campus as a whole rather than its parts makes my job feel more manageable than overewhelming. —Mieko Ozeki About the ELP Fellowship The ELP Fellowship Program targets emerging environmental and social change practitioners eager to connect their specialized work to larger environmental and social concerns. ELP is committed to selecting a class of Fellows that represents diversity of race and ethnicity, gender, sector, sexual orientation, education levels, professonal background, values and traditions, and environmental is- sue expertise. The Fellowship Program offers intensive leadership and skill training, regional networking opportunities, and time for personal and professional reflection. Consisting of three retreats and additional optional trainings, the curriculum helps emerging leaders hone their leadership styles, improve their strategic communications, and strengthen their outreach to diverse constituencies. For more information on the ELP program, including Fellowship eligibility and requirements, visit: www.elpnet.org/ MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 5 No. 2 • April 2012 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2012.9979 Sustainability 99