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Part Two : Higher Education's Role in the Transition to a Just and Sustainable Future
Higher Education plays a profound and pivotal, but often overlooked, role in making this vision of a sustainable future a reality. It prepares most of the professionals who develop, lead, manage, teach, work in and influence society's institutions, including K-12 education. Besides training future teachers, higher education strongly influences the learning framework of K-12 education. Higher Education plays a critical role in creating and disseminating the knowledge, skills and values for society. It has unique academic freedom and the critical mass and diversity of skill to develop new ideas; to comment on society and its challenges; and to engage in bold experimentation in sustainable living.
In addition, higher education is a large economic engine. In 1999, there were approximately 4,100 higher education institutions in the United States, with a total of 14.6 million students; 2.3 million degrees were conferred. The annual operational budgets of those institutions are $200 billion—greater than the GDP of all but twenty countries in the world. Their endowment is over $230 billion.
What if Higher Education were to take a leadership role, as it did in the space race and the war on cancer, in preparing students and providing the information and knowledge to achieve a just and sustainable society? Imagine the societal impact that Higher Education could have if, as a sector, it incorporated sustainability principles and practices into fundamental decisions about purchasing, building design, and operations. Imagine the impact of Higher Education forming partnerships with local and regional communities to help make them socially vibrant, economically secure and environmentally sustainable. And imagine the long-term leverage if Higher Education faculty and students, working in conjunction with administrators and staff, conducted the research for and helped to implement sustainability programs on campus and surrounding communities. Graduating students could then bring knowledge, skills and values of sustainability to their future employment, consumption decisions, lifestyle choices, and to the improvement of communities in which they live.
© 2005 Second Nature, Inc.
