Pre-Conference Workshop Descriptions

You may register for workshops using the online registration tool.

Critical Thinking and Sustainability Across the Curriculum

Workshop by Daniel Abel
and Robert McConnell Workshop

The focus of this workshop will be our approach to teaching sustainability using critical thinking and simple math as contained in our textbooks Environmental Issues: An Introduction to Sustainability (Prentice Hall, 2008) and Environmental Issues in Oceanography (2003). We will also work with attendees to develop their own discipline-specific analyses for use in classroom and other settings.

Dr. Daniel C. Abel is an Associate Professor of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC, where his research focuses on ecology of sharks along the southeast Atlantic coast.   He earned his Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is co-author of the textbooks Environmental Issues: An Introduction to Sustainability (3rd ed.) and Environmental Issues in Oceanography  (2nd ed.), and writes the weekly environmental column Sea Level for the Myrtle Beach Sun News. Dr. Abel is a Fellow of the SC Sustainable Universities Initiative and a Senior Fellow of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. He is the founding director of CCU’s Campus and Community Sustainability Initiative. He resides in Pawley’s Island, SC.

Dr Robert McConnell is a Senior Fellow with the U.S. Partnership, Education for Sustainable Development, and Professor (emeritus) of Environmental Science and Geology, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA. He is co-author of Environmental Issues, An Introduction to Sustainability, 3rd edition, 2007 Environmental Issues, Measuring, Analyzing and Evaluating, 2nd ed.,2002 Environmental Issues in Oceanography, 2nd ed., 2002 He is also author of more than two dozen commentary articles in major newspapers such as the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Constitution, Philadelphia Enquirer, and Richmond Times-Dispatch. He lives and works in Corvallis, Oregon.

Sustainability Professionals Workshop

Workshop organized by AASHE and others

This workshop for paid sustainability professionals focuses on professional development in specific areas such as communications and social marketing, and on sharing strategies for scaling up sustainability and climate initiatives on campuses.  It is aimed at an intermediate to advanced audience. 

Educating for The Commons

Two Overlooked Themes In Sustainability Education:  How Language Carries Forward the Misconceptions of the Past and the Cultural Commons as an Alternative to a Consumer Dependent Lifestyle

Workshop by Chet Bowers

Einstein’s observation that we cannot use the same mind set that created the problem to fix it has particular relevance for the issues that will be discussed in this workshop. The focus of the workshop will
be on how the analogs for such words as individualism, progress, intelligence, tradition, community, etc., were settled upon in the past by thinkers who were unaware of environmental limits are still taken for granted in many courses.  How to introduce students and faculty to an understanding that the meaning of words can be reframed by current analogies that are ecologically informed is an essential step in avoiding the double bind identified by Einstein.

The second theme will address how to introduce students and faculty to the nature and importance of revitalizing the local cultural commons as alternatives to the ecologically destructive consumer dependent lifestyle. Introducing students and faculty to the intergenerational knowledge and skills, which ranges from food, narratives, creative arts to civil liberties and even to language itself, as well as introducing them to the forces that are undermining the cultural commons, are essential to strengthening local democracy and to recognizing the local alternatives to consumerism.

Chet Bowers is the co-founder of the international online journal The Ecojustice Review: Educating for the Commons.  He wrote his first book on the connections between education, cultural ways of knowing, and the ecological crisis in 1974. The title of the book was Cultural Literacy for Freedom. Since then he has written over 95 articles and 19 books that examine how language reproduces ways of thinking that were formed before there was an awareness of ecological limits, the connections between emancipatory/transformative ways of thinking and the globalization of the West’s industrial culture. In more recent years attention has been given to understanding the educational implications of eco-justice for Third World cultures, the prospects for future generations, and the need to revitalize the world’s diverse cultural commons as sites of resistance to economic globalization and further environmental degradation. This latter phase of writing has led to a series of essays that examine the ideas of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, E. O. Wilson, and Richard Rorty. The essays and books presented on this website are intended to help clarify the nature of the formulaic thinking that prevents a wider recognition of how the cultural and environmental commons need to be taken into account in thinking about the reform of public schools and universities. As part of the commons the articles and other materials may be reproduced without charge.

Creating Living Laboratories for Sustainability

Workshop by Sarah Banas and Daniel Roth

On many university and college campuses, the low-hanging fruit of campus greening has already been harvested through years of effort. The next phase of higher education leadership in sustainability is now
underway. Over the last 5 years, higher education has seen an explosion of innovative and trans-disciplinary centers for sustainability. The directors, staff, faculty, fellows, and students involved with these new centers are poised to make a significant contribution to campus, regional, and global sustainability. Through recent national surveys by the AAAS and Cornell University it appears there is a common strategic goal among many of these centers: the formation of campus wide and regional partnerships that can strengthen the relationships between research, education, and real-world impact. Dozens of these centers have identified the potential to help their institutions and their regions become "living laboratories for sustainability".  These partnerships appear to be the next wave of sustainability in higher education and university-based research.

This 5-hour, pre-conference workshop is intended for directors of sustainability centers and other staff/faculty working with such centers. The workshop will be designed and facilitated to encourage
learning from direct experience and the formation of a peer network.

Overall the workshop will focus on four goals:

1)      Increased awareness of existing living laboratory models and
         sharing of lessons-learned at participants* universities
2)      Strengthened relationships between leaders and centers
3)      Identify national and international trends and opportunities
4)      Identify benefits/risks of living laboratories to various stakeholders

Workshop registrants will be asked to prepare a short document--assisted through guiding questions--explaining their program's use of the campus/state/region as a living laboratory.  All vignettes
will be collected, distributed electronically to attendees before the workshop, and provided in hardcopy at the workshop.  Following brief introductions, the workshop will feature a combination of brief program profiles or mini case studies that highlight distinct elements of the "living laboratory" concept, and interactive sessions where participants break into small teams to discuss how the approach has or might play out within their program or university.  A final wrap-up session will build on the opportunities for further collaboration identified in earlier sessions.

Sarah Banas is a Program Associate in the International Office of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Most well-known as the publisher of the journal Science, AAAS is an international, multidisciplinary non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. Sarah is the key staff member in The Center for Science, Technology, and Sustainability, where she organizes a variety of activities to bring together scientists and engineers from developed and developing countries to address fundamental science and technology issues at the nexus of social and environmental development. She holds an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University.

Daniel Roth is a Sustainability Coordinator for Cornell University and is a founding board member of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. Born and raised in Albany, NY he received a BA from New York University for his work on cultural ecology, and a MS in Adult and Extension Education from Cornell. Daniel has worked in the fields of experiential education, organizational learning, and youth development for over a decade. As a social entrepreneur and community organizer he has developed advocacy campaigns, broad-based community partnerships, environmental and food security education, service learning programs, civic engagement projects, and a non-profit car share operation. He is also on the advisory council to Sustainable Tompkins, a countywide sustainability network. In addition Daniel is a Somatic Movement Educator and massage therapist. Daniel deeply enjoys connecting with diverse people and places, creative expression, and healthy food.