Sustainability and Sustainable Living as Right Relationship

Many of us have come to understand sustainability as the expression of right relationship – the relationship we have as individuals and as groups of individuals with nature, with one another in our societal systems, and with our well being as human beings within a global humanity.

As human beings, as humanity, we are interdependent with the natural environment, with the earth. We are at the same time interdependent with each other – as communities, as nations, as nation states within a global civilization. And we are interdependent economically, as members of a global economic system in which individuals and economies are inter-connected. In each of these relationships, what we do as individuals, and as groups affects and influences the lives of others throughout the global systems of economy, environment, religion, health, well-being, and so on.

We have experienced the truth of this principle of interdependence in the events of 9/11, and many situations since 9/11/2001. One effect of 9/11 is the realization that a severe disturbance in distant societies through the action of individuals in that society can result in disturbances in our own society and community. We see our interdependence in the disruptions within individual religions, and the global system of religious activity, in that the activities of 9/11 has affected all the nations and the communities of the world based on the acts of individuals within factions of several global religions, within specific nation/societies. We see our interdependence in the challenges to our global civilizations – through our economic systems, environmental systems, in societal/national systems – how we are linked globally as individual national economies, within in an all pervasive economic, financial, and workforce system.

These disruptions call for solutions. The solutions that are effective are and will be those that take the interests and agendas of all those who are affected within these systems of relationship - whether economic, environmental, religious, societal or governmental.

Sustainability is a term that captures the processes of innovation that result in solutions that serve not just in the short term, but in lasting, sustainable solutions that provide better for the well-being, growth and development of all involved. All those who are affected within a system are identified as stakeholders – those having a ‘stake’, an interest, an investment in that system. These solutions are sustainable only in so much as they address the interests, needs and well being of those stakeholders. New processes are being innovated to create the solutions for 21^st century life. The processes and institutions that have brought us to where we are – are no longer able to sustain the well being of the majority of humanity, regardless of being in developed, developing, or undeveloped systems.

Now is a time of great opportunity - to engineer individual, community, and global systems that serve the needs and desires of greater numbers of humanity, the natural world, and ourselves. This is the evolved meaning and significance of what we are describing in the term ‘sustainability.’

We are each and all stakeholders in these local, national, and global systems – as we are in their challenges. We each and all deserve to have our interests heard and addressed, and to participate in the development of solutions to the challenges, and the benefits derived from win-win, mutually beneficial relationships with all other stakeholders.

We need awareness and access to the decision making processes in these multiple areas of human activity. Since we are each and all affected, we deserve to have a say in our own lives and affairs. Sustainability and its processes provide both the vehicles of awareness, and the processes for solution building in all areas of human life and affairs. There are significant benefits to be had in participating in these processes, and taking the action that are birthed in them.

What can we as members of an educational institution do to promote awareness of challenges, participate in solution building, teach and support others in their efforts to participate in their own well being? There is much being done to teach and learn these processes of sustainable living. As an educational institution, we have a responsibility, a mission, to prepare individuals and communities for the 21^st century and beyond. How can these sustainable solutions and processes benefit the students and future citizens of communities, nations, and these global systems? How can we prepare them, educate them, provide a solid and tangible basis for their relationships and interdependencies that we and they face in our lives and affairs today and in the future?

Sustainability in Higher Education is a movement that is catching on quickly. It was the theme of Cornell’s Institute for Community College Development conference. Several community colleges have initiated sustainability programs across their community college landscapes – from green building, to use and demonstration of renewable energies for the 21^st century, to producing curriculum to train students in new processes and techniques for initiating solutions, and providing valuable solutions to the problems and challenges of the times. These community colleges are developing new solution building skills that can be exchanged by students and workforce member for acceptable wages, salaries and the financial wherewithal to sustain them and their families.

Without knowing it, our Sustainable Initiatives in these areas, we are not only applying the new and proven principles of sustainability to create a better learning environment with less impact on the environmental system locally, but we have become natural leaders in these areas by virtue of being a first mover in these areas. We are capable of sharing valuable experiences in the sustainable activities we’ve initiated. We are capable of, and have the opportunity for cooperative leadership in sustainability - working with the few other leading community colleges in further innovating sustainable educational activities - activities that serve the needs and well being of communities, their colleges, students, and workforces in learning and implementing these valuable sustainability skills, processes and solutions.

There is great opportunity to educate and serve not just students and community, but to serve the communities, colleges, and students throughout the nation through community colleges and their unique relationships and missions with communities, staffs, and students.