University Business - June 2007 - (Page S8)

SMART and SUSTAINABLE E ARE APPROACHING WHAT I would term a critical inﬂection point in the evolution of global society. Such inﬂection points occur when new advances in our understanding converge in some meaningful way with our existing social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances and practices, allowing us to glimpse new opportunities. Sustainability is a term that is easily applied to so many things that we constantly risk diluting its power as a concept, but without doubt it represents nothing less than a reconceptualization of our relationship with both the planet and the community. The task for scholars and administrators in our nation’s colleges and universities is to register the signiﬁcance of this inﬂection point and to consider how best to reﬁgure institutions to accommodate and advance the new transdisciplinary teaching and research critical to our collective well-being. W New Challenges, New Solutions Sustaina An Organizing Principle for impact on environmental systems. The concept of sustainability, sometimes mistakenly equated with an exclusive focus on the environment, is at once straightforward and far more complex than one might suspect. Sustainability embraces environmental concerns, certainly, but its implications are far richer, spanning issues intrinsic to economic development, health care, environmental planning and urbanization, energy, chemicals, materials, agriculture, national security, business, industry, and government—in short, all the concerns of daily life in societies around the globe. Sustainability acknowledges the needs of human societies but in its framing seeks a balance between social values, including equity and justice, and the environment. We are at a critical juncture in the evolution of our relationship to the environment—the long-term sustainability of our nation and even our planet remains in doubt—and universities must take the lead in addressing issues of sustainability. Academic communities cannot be removed from the front lines of social change, and our universities must serve as a forum for cultural, economic, political, and social reform. Universities are transformational catalysts for societal change and perform functions essential to our collective survival, but we must confront the fact that we do not fully understand the implications of human impact on the environment and are not adequately prepared to advance policies universitybusiness.com With a global population of 6.5 billion that is projected to increase to 8.5 billion by mid-century, we face challenges of unimaginable complexity, both as a species and, more narrowly, in terms of our American standard of living and quality of life as a nation. The increasing interconnectedness and integration of societies and economies worldwide makes us interdependent, but we are all wholly dependent on the dynamic and interactive system of complex biogeochemical cycles that makes life on earth possible in the ﬁrst place. Yet despite our eﬀorts to advance our understanding, there remain both incomprehension and complacency regarding the extent to which the Earth is falling increasingly under our inﬂuence as the dominant life-form. As we impinge more and more on natural systems—with our planet falling increasingly under the domination of a single species with the capacity to modify natural systems, extract and consume resources, and generate waste on a scale that even in the recent past would have been unimaginable—we must assume challenges that remain beyond our historic and present capacity to solve. An open-letter call to action from Ar We are at a critical juncture in the evolution of our relationship to the environment, and universities must take the lead in addressing issues of sustainability. Nations are falling further behind, both in terms of developing the basic infrastructure necessary to maintain quality of life and an adequate standard of living for all citizens, and in balancing the needs of humanity with the long-term consequences of human S8 | June 2007 http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - June 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Virginia Tech Coverage
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Admissions
On The Hill
Future Shock
Independent Outlook
Internet Technology
I Wanna Be Rich
Smart and Sustainable
Walking the Talk
Steering Toward Sustainability
An Organizing Principle for Colleges and Universities
News Shorts
News Shorts
It’s Not Easy Eating Green
Facilities Focus
The New Face of ERP
Document Management Across Campus
What's New
Direct Connect
Calendar of Events
End Note
Annual Directory of Higher Education Consultants

University Business - June 2007