The Sustainable University

In my Environmental Assessment and Milieu Management course, we are now reading a book entitled The Sustainable University.  In this book published just last year in 2012 by James Martin and James Samuels, these authors make the case for higher educations' role and challenges in advocating sustainability.  Colleges and universities have been at the forefront of efforts to preserve our natural resources for our future generations.  The research and education around sustainability on colleges and universities have been second to none.  However, this book provides a lens for those who are currently or plan to lead any college or university in the future.

Today, there has been several hundreds of university presidents who have signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment.  However, there are a great many university leaders who have yet made this commitment.  This book outlines four biggest challenges for presidents and other university leaders to face along with solutions to address these challenges.  The four challenges are:

• Effectively institutionalizing sustainability thinking
• Developing an efficient, flexible system of sustainability benchmarks
• Implementing an accountable university budget mode
• Engaging the Board of Trustees in the campus sustainability agenda

This publication outlines solutions that tackles these four challenges with the goal of ultimately educating but equally important, preserving our earth's resources for the generation that follows us.  The purpose of higher education goes beyond the classroom!  This is student affairs!