SUSTAINABILITY VISION Version 1.0 (last updated 11/05/11), Michael D. Lee, CSU East Bay, Dept.

of Geography and Environmental Studies It is my wish for the rest of my time here at California State University East Bay (CSUEB) that we transform our institution into a leader in Sustainability Education. I cite three main justifications for our taking the necessary steps to fundamentally integrate sustainability into our curriculum and operations (Martin and Jucker, 2005): First, CSUEBs role is to produce tomorrows leaders for the East Bay, Northern California and beyond, educating many of the people who will develop and manage society and its institutions. Thus we bear a profound responsibility to increase the awareness, knowledge, technologies, and tools to create a sustainable future (Talloires Declaration, ULSF, 1990) - graduates of every discipline will thus need a sound working knowledge of sustainability. Second, CSUEB is regarded by the public and our students as a centre of advanced knowledge in our teaching and institutional practice we must thus become role models for the wider society and offer microcosms of best practice for the future. Third, as a public and educational institution, we are allowed academic freedom and receive public and private resources - in exchange for this privileged position, we are obligated to contribute as much as possible to the solution of societys problems. Here is my personal vision to turn us into a leader in sustainability, exploiting the tremendous geographical and physical advantages bestowed upon us by our location to bring out the best of our faculty, staff, and student body and become a vital force in the creation of a vibrant, sustainable, post-carbon Bay Area economy. This is a vision of where well be in 10-20 years time (i.e. when Im ready to retire) given the support of the President, the Provost, colleagues, and the continuous, evolving flow of students we accept and then graduate with a certificate or degree. This is merely one persons vision; with the help of the CSUEB community, this vision can be further refined and expanded to even greater effect over the next few months and years. It is my belief that we can become a campus where sustainability is front and center across our institution, reflected in our infrastructure and operations, our student life, our curriculum, our faculty research, and throughout our public interface. Heres what I see in my vision.. Campus buildings and land use have been retrofitted and/or redesigned to maximize opportunities to generate energy, minimize waste, and promote efficiency while maintaining and enhancing aesthetic appeal and comfort. All new buildings are state-of-theart green buildings and current buildings have been retrofitted to recognized best-practice standards for existing buildings. All parking lots at Hayward and Contra Costa have become solar power generators with solar covers that yield a significant net-income to the university. The institution has become at least carbon-neutral, if not carbon-negative, through efforts to reduce direct and indirect fossil fuel use, produce renewable energy, and fix carbon on-site through landscape operations and tree-planting. The campus has become an incubator of and a living-laboratory and demonstration site for the widest possible range of sustainability measures and practices in, but not limited to, renewable energy generation, energy conservation, water conservation, water harvesting, stormwater management and pollution prevention, urban forestry, urban farming, recycling, creative reuse, and so forth. Students and faculty are integral in implementing and managing these measures and

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practices. Student life is characterized by broad opportunities to pursue an affordable education, maximizing the use of electronic media and public and shared transport, and minimizing total transport to do so, with myriad opportunities to engage in programs to reduce campus energy use and to maximize resource production, reuse and recycling to offset the overall impact of education-related activities. The campus operates an effective and convenient web-based ride-share matching program that greatly reduces the number of car-trips to campus and increases car occupancy for those unable to take public transport or use other means. Students receive instruction that not only imparts the professional skills and knowledge needed for sustainability to become a reality in the 21st century, but which teaches them the practical life skills that help them act sustainably at home, at work and in their societal interactions at large. Metrics are maintained that allow CSUEB to identify the true life-cycle costs of the average students education, with these metrics linked to program assessment so as to assist students in graduating on a timely basis, keeping the resource ratios per student credit unit low while maximizing student satisfaction and learning outcomes attainment. Maximum use is made of new media to engage students in all aspects of sustainability. Students have sustainable choices for on-campus dining and living and for the sourcing of educational products and consumables, including course texts. Moreover, students have ample opportunity for hands-on experience in sustainable development and clean technology activities both on campus and through service learning (at public and private-sector employer partners in our East Bay Sustainability Coalition, with help from our Sustainability Advisory Council of industry and institutional leaders in the green economy) that improve the surrounding community, promote diversity and social equity, and stimulate economic activity while preparing them for the green economy and to be active leaders and participants in creating a sustainable workplace. Students are engaged in the balancing of economic, social equity, and environmental aspects of sustainable living and the triple-bottom line approach to public and private sector management. Students maintain an organic urban farm on campus from which participants receive a share of production and participate in and benefit from a weekly certified farmers market on site. Faculty, staff and students living in the expanded campus housing are offered reduced rent in exchange for their stewardship of the urban farm operations. Faculty and administration engage closely with industry and particularly local employers to develop partnerships and facilitate CSUEB graduates in acquiring satisfying jobs in an expanding green sector and sustainability-focused positions. The curriculum is infused with sustainability education; all students get a solid grounding in sustainability topics regardless of their discipline through introductory and capstone classes developed for each college and satisfying GE requirements. Classes developed for each of the colleges are delivered by sustainability experts on their respective faculty. The introductory course is a common, interdisciplinary class team-taught by faculty from the four colleges while the capstone class is a specialist class on science, education, business/management, or the social sciences respectively oriented towards the sciences, education, business, and the arts/humanities majors. Most if not all of the individual disciplines on campus also offer at least one upper-division class focused on the subject of sustainability and sustainable development as it pertains to their particular field. Graduates of each major are required to take this class to matriculate. In a transitional phase, a subgroup of students elected and were guided in taking a suite of these designated classes on sustainability from a range of disciplines to build a custom masters, bachelors, minor, or certificate program in sustainability through our interdisciplinary major program. The

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curriculum content of courses tagged in the catalog with a sustainability education symbol was governed by a sustainability curriculum committee charged with addressing issues of overlap, compatibility and coherence between courses and across programs. Now, this practice has been replaced by our East Bay Center for Sustainability Education (EBCSE) through which faculty members coordinate formal graduate and undergraduate degrees in Sustainability. The EBCSE provides hands-on research training for our students and brings sustainability education into local K-12 classrooms. It coordinates our activities and forms partnerships with two-year and four-year higher education institutions across the nine Bay Area counties and is the recognized leader in promoting and supporting sustainability education across our California State University system. Students across the university can declare sustainability majors or earn minors and certificates in sustainability through the Center, and Center faculty assist other campuses in replicating this model. Sustainability scholarships are available to students, funded by a sustainability endowment and investment fund. Students from other CSU campuses where a given sustainability course is not yet offered can take that course online through the Center and seamlessly receive credit on their home campus transcript. Each summer, a sustainability leadership academy is held on campus for K-12 student leaders and K-12 teachers and administrators seeking to promote sustainability. Faculty at CSUEB from across the colleges are actively engaged in applied research in the Bay Area and beyond on the issue of sustainability. They support numerous graduate theses and undergraduate projects in the areas of sustainability, mentoring our own undergraduates to transition to post-graduate work and attracting suitable applicants from other institutions. Faculty and students are prolific in presenting sustainability-related posters and papers at regional, national and international conferences. Faculty research produces an increasing number of peer-reviewed papers and we have collectively published e-books/print publications on sustainability authored by CSUEB researchers and edited by our faculty Sustainability Coordinator. CSUEB increasingly seeks and attracts tenure-track faculty with specialties in sustainability for its disciplines and is known for nurturing junior faculty seeking to make a difference with their work, rewarding them through recognition in their retention, tenure and promotion evaluations. This emphasis on sustainability teaching and research has resulted in an expanding body of theses, both departmental and university, with a sustainability focus and copies of these theses are made available electronically to the wider community through the CSUEB library and via the campus sustainability web portal. CSUEB faculty are frequent guests on local television and radio programs asked to comment on sustainability matters, and public affairs maintains a database of names, contacts and specialty areas of faculty willing and able to address sustainability-related issues in the media. Sustainability occupies a high profile in our public interface as part of the branding of our CSUEB identity. The institution has a dedicated Academic Sustainability Coordinator who works closely with his or her counterpart facilities management Campus Sustainability Manager and ASI Student Director for Sustainability. Sustainability features prominently on the home page of the university with a link to a dedicated sustainability portal documenting all the different aspects of sustainability discussed previously. This first-level presence is mirrored on the MyCSUEB site, facilitating ease of access for intranet users as well as Internet visitors. Sustainability messages are frequently broadcast on CSUEB electronic signage and fixed signage is installed across campus related to sustainability infrastructure and activities. New and prospective students receive sustainability materials in their outreach and welcome packages and campus tours include a sustainability component. The

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CSUEB site offers a clearing house for sustainability opportunities and advancements available to students in their home and workplace, for example, rebate programs offered by local utilities, Bay Area city and county agencies, and so forth, the goal being to help promote sustainability and reduce the cost of living for those who are eligible but are unaware of such initiatives. A sustainability-related jobs posting area is maintained on the site by the careers center. An interactive web-based map/guided tour is featured for visitors to explore the sustainability initiatives on campus (e.g. solar power, recycling, fuel-cell, urban gardens, rain catchments, etc.) using scanable QR codes linked to web pages. Periodic news briefs and press releases are issued concerning sustainability at CSUEB and a frequently updated sustainability blog is maintained by the Sustainability Coordinator along with a Facebook page, sustainability podcast series and YouTube archive, and a twitter tweet and image feed (plus/or whatever dominant social media is prevalent in the future). A volunteer speakers bureau is maintained (with honorariums offered by the administration) to supply CSUEB speakers to community groups and other associations in our geographic region seeking information on sustainability. CSUEB maintains strong connections with its alumni who are active contributors to the campus sustainability program, both financially and through their advisory input and partnership activities. In short, CSUEB is a destination university for students, professionals in re-training, and lifelong learners seeking knowledge and careers in sustainability and inspired to play an active, fundamental role in our timely transition to the post-carbon society. We are a recognized leader and authority in the practice of sustainability education and, through our transformation, we are assisting other institutions, not least our sister campuses of the California State University, in transforming themselves. Employers recognize the quality of our students and the role they can play within their organizations in a new age of sustainable entrepreneurism and public service. In doing so, we are helping ensure that through our actions and the life work of our students, our society may continue to experience the levels of welfare enjoyed today for future generations. Martin, Stephen, and Rolf Jucker. 2005. "Educating Earth-literate Leaders." Journal of Geography in Higher Education 29, no. 1: 19-29.

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