December 9, 2021
The Evolving Campus
Episode 3: What sustainability looks like now

“Sustainability” may not have the buzz in higher education that it did in 2008, but it’s re-emerging in institutional risk management, and colleges have a responsibility to experiment, our guests argue — and to team up with local communities.

Scott Carlson, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, discusses these issues with Jay Antle, chair of the Board of Directors of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, as well as executive director of the Center for Sustainability and a professor of history at Johnson County Community College, in Kansas, and Nilda Mesa, an adjunct senior research scientist, Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University's Earth Institute. 

Listen to Antle explain: 

• the risk-management implications for colleges (03:48)
• what beyond climate neutrality should be a priority now (04:50)
• why "standalone sustainability" programs aren't the best approach (09:11)

And to Mesa discuss:

• how colleges can serve as a proving ground (20:14)
• how colleges and cities can work together (21:37) and (25:56)

Related links:

• Chronicle article: "Whatever Happened to the Drive for Campus Sustainability?"
• Chronicle article: "As Publicity Over Climate Pact Fades, a College Considers Its Worth"
• Chronicle article: "Colleges Map Hazy Routes to Limiting Emissions"
• The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
• Second Nature's Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments
• "Young People's Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon" in The Lancet

Host: Scott Carlson
Producer: Carmen Mendoza
Sponsor: Perkins Eastman, whose Learning Futures Project imagines higher ed in 2025.

We would be glad to hear from you! Send feedback, questions, and ideas to Chronicle Intelligence: [email protected].