![handle is hein.journals/elrna33 and id is 1 raw text is: Copyright 0 2003 Environmental Law Institute@, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, ht_ p://WWW.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.
1-2003 33 ELR 10003
ELR
NEWS &ANALYSIS
ARTICLES
Progress Toward Sustainability in Higher Education
by Wynn Calder and Richard M. Clugston
When society recognizes a need that can be satisfied
through advanced education or research and when suffi-
cient funds are available to pay the cost, American uni-
versities respond in exemplary fashion.... On the other
hand, when social needs are not clearly recognized and
backed by adequate financial support, higher education
has often failed to respond as effectively as it might, even
to some of the most important challenges facing Amer-
ica .... After a major social problem has been recog-
nized, universities will usually continue to respond
weakly unless outside support is available and the sub-
jects involved command prestige in academic circles.'
former Harvard University president Derek Bok
S ustainable development remains barely recognized as a
significant social, economic, or environmental chal-
lenge for the United States. The President's Council on Sus-
tainable Development (PCSD)2 was disbanded in May
1999, based in part on the perception of Vice President Al-
bert Gore's campaign that sustainability was not an issue for
the American electorate. Little funding from either govern-
ments or foundations supports higher education initiatives
Wynn Calderis associate director, Association of University Leaders for a
Sustainable Future (ULSF) and the Center for Respect of Life and Envi-
ronment (CRLE). He is editor of the ULSF report, The Declaration, news
editor for the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,
and co-coordinator of the Higher Education Network for Sustainability
and the Environment (HENSE). Richard Clugston is executive director,
CRLE and ULSF and the Earth Charter USA Campaign. He is publisher
and editor of the CRLE journal, Earth Ethics, and deputy editor of the In-
ternational Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
[Editors'Note: In June 1992, at the United Nations Conference on En-
vironment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, the nations of
the world formally endorsed the concept of sustainable development and
agreed to a plan of action for achieving it. One of those nations was the
United States. In August2002, at the World Summit on Sustainable Devel-
opment, these nations gathered in Johannesburg to review progress in the
10-year period since UNCED and to identify steps that need to be taken
next. Prof. John C. Dernbach has edited a book, Stumbling Toward
Sustainability, that assesses progress made by the United States on sus-
tainable development in the past 10 years and recommends next steps. The
book, published by the Environmental Law Institute in July 2002, is com-
prised of chapters on various subjects by experts from around the country.
This Article appears as a chapter in that book. Further information on
Stumbling Toward Sustainability is available at www.eli.org or by calling
1-800-433-5120 or 202-939-3844.]
1. DEREK BOK, UNIVERSITIES AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA 104-05
(1990).
2. The PCSD was formed in June 1993 by Executive Order to develop
policy recommendations for sustainable development in the United
States. It was a 25-member council consisting of 5 cabinet secretar-
ies, chief executive officers of businesses, and executive directors of
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
to promote sustainable development, and only a few disci-
plines are beginning to afford a measure of legitimacy to
teaching, research, and outreach in this area. Hopeful signs
are emerging, but education for sustainable development in
America is still at the margins.
The seeds of the movement to green higher education in
the United States go back to the emergence of environmen-
tal concerns in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first
Earth Day in 1970 was a student-based effort. Interna-
tionally, the Stockholm Declaration of 19723 related envi-
ronmental concerns to all societal sectors, including educa-
tion. Only after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit4 did the term ed-
ucation for sustainable development (also education for
sustainability) enter the vocabulary of educational reform-
ers. While the movement continues to draw on an environ-
mental foundation, concerns have broadened to include the
social and economic dimensions of sustainability.
In the United States, higher education for sustainable de-
velopment (HESD) has been given impetus over the years
primarily by a small number of champions from the acad-
emy, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and business
communities, and to a minor degree from government. In
other countries (notably European, but in some developing
countries as well) sustainability in higher education is sup-
ported by governments and has made deeper inroads in the
disciplines and professions.5 Some colleges and universities
in the United States are actively pursuing an authentic com-
mitment to sustainability, yet there is little consensus as to
what the end goal looks like. Sustainable development,
when deeply embraced by higher education institutions,
means essentially that these values are reflected in each of
the core areas of university life: research, teaching, out-
reach, and operations.
While teaching and scholarship must begin to reflect
these issues, so that students learn how to think in a more in-
tegrative fashion, there is an emerging consensus that insti-
tutions must also model sustainable practices. It is important
that academics keep experimenting with, and sharing, their
efforts to embody sustainability, especially in making it a
focus of their disciplines and professions. But it is even
3. Declaration of the United Nations (U.N.) Conference on the Human
Environment, June 16, 1972, reprinted in 11 I.L.M. 1416 [hereinaf-
ter Stockholm Declaration].
4. Declaration on Environment and Development of the U.N. Confer-
ence on Environment and Development, June 14, 1992, reprinted in
31 I.L.M. 874 [hereinafter Rio Declaration].
5. See Walter L. Filho, Sustainability and University Life: Some Euro-
pean Perspectives, in 5 SUSTAINABILITY AND UNIVERSITY LIFE
(Walter L. Filho ed., 1999).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/elrna33&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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