(Originally published in the June 2011 issue of the Nova Scotia Business Journal - National Environment Week feature)
Educational institutions, especially universities, do not have a reputation for rapid change, which makes Dalhousie University's College of Sustainability remarkable.
In the summer of 2007, the college was merely a gleam in the eye of students, faculty members and deans, all looking for more collaboration between faculties, departments and programs relevant to the study of the physical environment and sustainability-based issues. Just two years later, in the fall of 2009, the college opened its doors to the first cohort of students in the ESS (Environment, Sustainability and Society) program.
As of June 2011, almost 850 students have taken an ESS class, and about half of these ESS students say they chose Dalhousie because of the College of Sustainability. The college is housed in the “greenest” building on campus — the new Mona Campbell academic building at the corner of Coburg and Le Marchant streets. The designers are hoping to receive a LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the building.
The college was created in recognition of the urgency and complexity of today's environmental challenges. Solutions to global issues like overpopulation, deforestation, climate change and pollution will require inspired thinking and creative energy from a new generation of leaders.
Julian Boyle, energy manager for Halifax Regional Municipality, agrees.
“We can't keep doing things the way we've been doing them,” he says. “We really have to shift toward sustainability to protect the natural environment but also to protect the economy and to create the jobs of the future.”
Some believe that schools have not changed their approach quickly enough. Deborah Buszard, associate director of outreach and research notes: “If you look at the kinds of problems that we're facing now, many of the people involved in creating those problems were themselves university educated. What that tells us is that we need to change the way we educate people in university.”
Dalhousie's College of Sustainability has recognized this need for change with a ground-breaking double major undergraduate program allowing students to pair ESS studies with disciplines as diverse as biology, planning, theatre, sociology, or marine science.
Susan Tirone, associate director, undergraduate, says “we can't say to students 'here's how you do it' — but we can give them a set of critical thinking skills and a knowledge base to explore complex sustainability issues.”
The ESS faculty hope that by breaking down the barriers between academic disciplines, using a team-teaching approach and offering an experiential and hands-on curriculum that graduates, whatever their career, will be equipped with a new kind of enlightened, eco-conscious thinking to tackle earth's complex environmental challenges.
Steven Mannell, director of the college, thinks that team-taught lectures, hands-on tutorials, and on and off-campus internships help students.
“They get a sense of what they can do and discover what role they play in a larger group and how to work together to move things forward,” says Mannell. “We're giving them a sense of agency or power in the world, and inspiring them to take action.”
Melissa LeGeyt, a second-year ESS student agrees.
“In class, it's not just 'here are the depressing facts, now go home and be sad’,” she says. “The profs offer ideas about how to do something constructive.”
Society is facing enormous challenges and changes. Solutions will need to come from all areas of social and economic activity. An understanding of sustainability issues will be essential for all citizens, leaders and decision-makers in every sector.
Read more "National Environment Week" stories at: http://www.ns.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Industry-Spotlight/National-Environment-Week-20393
