“There’s Something Happening Here…”
Last March, I did a significant amount of traveling. I spent more time thananyone would like in our nation’s airports. When I travel, I enjoy browsing the periodicals at newsstands. This time, I noticed something remarkable. Several dozen magazines had special issues on some theme related to sustainability and/or climate change. Mainstream business magazines like The Economist, Business Week, and Fortune had special sections on the business of sustainability.
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Mitchell Thomashow
President, Unity College
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Even Sports Illustrated had an essay on how climate change will impact the future of sports, with an accompanying article on how sports stadiums of the future could be more sustainable!
Meanwhile the Bank of America Corporation announced “a $20 billion initiative
to support the growth of environmentally sustainable business activity to address global
climate change. Bank of America's ten-year initiative encourages development of environmentally sustainable business practices through lending, investing, philanthropy and the creation of new products and services.”
Goldman Sachs launched a new environmental initiative “requiring its 24,000 employees to promote eco-friendly practices and would encourage its own clients -- which include paper companies, refineries and auto manufacturers -- to use "appropriate safeguards" to protect the environment.”
Other multinational corporations announced programs as well, including United Technologies, which has already visited the Unity College campus.
I’ve been a student and a practitioner in the Environmental Studies field since 1969 when I first discovered the Whole Earth Catalog on the shelves of the 8th Street Bookstore in Greenwich Village. I’m old enough to remember the publication of Silent Spring (1962). I’ve studied conservation and environmental issues since I’ve been old enough to read and write.
Guess what? In all those years (almost fifty now if you allow me to go back all the way to 1957) I’ve never seen anything quite like this. The public awareness of sustainability is at an all time high and it’s not just a grassroots phenomenon. You’ve got businesses, insurance companies, state governments (like California and Maine), college and university leaders, and some very prominent politicians (both Democrat and Republican) who are starting to grasp an essential point. Climate change is real. It threatens the economic security of our children and grandchildren. There is great business opportunity in crafting solutions, mitigations, and remediations of this problem.
In June, I was in Washington at the first meeting of The President’s Climate Commitment Challenge. Unity College is a charter signatory of a document pledging campuses to carbon neutrality. Indeed, I am on the Steering Committee of this organization. I urge you to read our charter statement (page 22). Please do visit the website and check out all of the other colleges and universities that are behind this effort.
Unity College is a small environmental college in rural Maine. But we can have a big regional impact in promoting “frugal sustainability,” in broadening the constituency for conservation, and in making our campus and community a living laboratory for environmental learning. Our mission statement boldly claims that “Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through ctive learning experiences within a supportive community.”
Perhaps I reveal too much of my sixties roots in referring to a Buffalo Springfield song. But there is something happening here, and I’ll change the lyric and suggest “what it is” is exactly clear. The door is opening. It’s time for everyone associated with Unity College and everyone who cares about the future of the planet to walk through it.
Mitchell Thomashow
President, Unity College
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