Document Type

Essay

Publication Date

1-2022

Abstract

On September 15, 2008, DePauw University joined the community of the nearly 700 other institutions of Higher Education that had “pledged to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions of their institutions and make environmental awareness a key component of campus life” by signing the American College and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC, hereafter referred to as the PCC). This action established the Office of Sustainability at DePauw, which formally dedicated human resources to the emerging discipline of campus sustainability for the first time, but it did not begin the conversations about environmental best practices on our campus. To fully understand how DePauw has evolved, it is important to understand the historical context of sustainability thinking during and before 2008 as well as the events and circumstances that enabled new ideas and practices. Though the narrative described in this paper is specific to a time and place, it nevertheless reveals important dynamics that will likely resonate with many institutions of higher education and reveals steps that college campuses can use to create - and sustain - meaningful change.

Since signing the PCC, the very ethos of the campus has changed as sustainability processes and ideals have been infused into all areas of university life. For example, responsibility for sustainability considerations have become part of the job responsibilities of numerous employees across the entire university, and budgets and funding structures have been established that give sustainability efforts a solid foundation on campus. Additionally, new academic and co-curricular programs have been developed to prepare students for emerging sustainability careers. Despite being far from the goal of carbon neutrality, the PCC pushed up to meaningfully pursue this sustainability goals. This paper describes the processes by which sustainability took root and began to flourish at DePauw as a means of demonstrating mechanisms that have resiliency and staying power and are adaptable to other Institutions of Higher Education that seek to implement or enhance campus sustainability.

Download

Share

COinS