Sustainability Sustainability InfusionInfusion Project Training Project TrainingLane Community CollegeLane Community College

“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. ”~Albert Einstein

"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one "less traveled by"—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." ~ Rachel Carson

Lane’s Sustainability Core Value• Integrate practices that support and improve the

health of systems that sustain life.

• Provide an interdisciplinary learning environment that builds understanding of sustainable ecological, social, and economic systems, concern for environmental justice, and the competence to act on such knowledge.

• Equip and encourage all students and staff to participate actively in building a socially diverse, just, and sustainable society, while cultivating connections to local, regional, and global communities.

The Three PillarsThe Three Pillars

– "The continued poverty of the majority of the planet’s inhabitants and excessive consumption by the minority are the two major causes of environmental degradation." - UN Environment Program

Connecting the PillarsConnecting the PillarsQuestions to ask ourselves and our students:

1. What in the natural world is essential to maintaining life

on the planet as we know it?

2. Are there actions taking place in society that currently do

not support the health of systems that sustain life?

3. If so, what are they? What does the research say?

4. How do our impacts on the natural world affect people?

5. Can a healthy ecosystem lead to the social betterment of

people? If so, how?

6. How is a nation’s economic policy related to the safety,

health and social equity of a community?

EcologicalEcological

"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."

~Edward O. Wilson

"U.S. consumers and industry dispose of enough aluminum to rebuild the commercial air fleet every three months; enough iron and steel to continuously supply all automakers; enough glass to fill New York's World Trade Center every two weeks. ~Environmental Defense Fund advertisement, Christian Science Monitor, 1990

EcologyEcologyQuestions to UnderstandQuestions to Understand

• To what extent are our ecosystems impacted by our actions, economically and socially? – In other words do you know current the facts? Check facts and

knowledge base.

• Utilize these facts for problem solving, writing exercises, metaphorical learning.

• How are humans imbedded in and dependent on ecological systems?

• Are there beliefs and hierarchical values of both human/animal categories that we have learned that separate us in some way from the ecological systems we live within? How are they related to our ecological and social situation?

SocialSocialWhere justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where

ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

~Frederick Douglass

“Societies and economies can be destroyed by bombs. Societies can also be destroyed by locking every aspect of life like provision of food and water through an economic war.” 

~Vandana Shiva

SocialSocialWhere we are placed in the social ranking by the governing and social systems in Where we are placed in the social ranking by the governing and social systems in place within our culture determines to a great degree, our ability to participate in place within our culture determines to a great degree, our ability to participate in

creating a sustainable world, those with the least (the majority), will do what they can creating a sustainable world, those with the least (the majority), will do what they can to survive because that is all they can do within a economically and socially to survive because that is all they can do within a economically and socially

inequitable world system.inequitable world system.

SocialSocialQuestions to UnderstandQuestions to Understand

• Are the economic and ecological policies in the world (global Trade) set up to increase people’s security?

• When people are insecure (flight or fight) what are some natural consequences that impact the both the ecological and economic pillars?

• What factors must be considered to ensure that people are secure?

• How is social equality relevant to a person’s security, safety, health and esteem?

EconomicEconomic

"Our world has enough for each person's need, but not for his greed.

- Mahatma Gandhi

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

~ Abraham Lincoln [1864]

EconomicEconomicQuestions to UnderstandQuestions to Understand

• Questions to ask:• What is our (U.S.) current economic policy

based on? In general, how does it work? • How does the current U.S. and global

economy support social equity and ecological sustainability?

• Are there alternative economic policies or options available that better support the other ecological and social pillars?

Resources to Increase Knowledge and Awareness

• http://sites.google.com/site/cousars/Home/web-research-links

• http://www.esdtoolkit.org/resources/web_esd.htm

• http://www.scup.org/page/resources/topic-issue/sustainability

• http://www.secondnature.org/Resources.html