This document summarizes a roundtable discussion between campus sustainability officers and senior fellows in the Environmental Leadership Program on sustainability education. The participants discuss defining sustainability education as acquiring skills to work across disciplines, understand complex systems and interconnectivity, and feel empowered to educate others and enact change. They emphasize skills like critical thinking, consensus building, and communication. Filling educational roles on campus allows them to demonstrate skills and help students develop professionally while working on "real-world" sustainability issues.

1. MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 5 No. 2 • April 2012 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2012.9979 Sustainability 97
This roundtable discussion focuses on the
campus sustainability professional and
the skills and disposition needed to be an
effective sustainability leader in the world
of higher education. Participants are
campus sustainability officers and senior
fellows in the national Environmental
Leadership Program (ELP). An intensive
year-long program, the ELP trains the next
generation of environmental leaders, who
come from diverse backgrounds, to be
able to innovate and collaborate, and
have the know-how to effectively com-
municate with stakeholders. The program
calls upon a coordinated professional
network to ensure the senior fellows learn
from real-world experts. The following par-
ticipants and other ELP Fellows are working
across sectors to advance sustainability
in academia, business, government, and
nonprofit leadership.
Jesse Pyles: The term campus sustainability can
make us first think of the physical campus, but
our work, to varying degrees, encompasses a lot
more than managing the built environment. I tend
to talk about my role in terms of sustainability
education. How would you define sustainability
education?
Amber Garrard: Sustainability education is about
acquiring the skills to work across discipline and
departmental silos. It includes learning about how to
appreciate diverse perspectives and how to use our
differences to help us think creatively about complex
issues. Sustainability education is about helping peo-
ple understand that we live in a world of beautiful
and complex systems, and teaching and learning the
skills to appreciate the complexity of those systems.
Riley Neugebauer: I would define sustainability
education as education which results in students who
comprehend the interconnection between the three
E’s—ecology, equity, economy (a systems thinking
Leadership Capacity, Diversity,
and Communications
in Campus Sustainability
framework)—and then feel empowered to be able to
educate others about this and take action to create
more sustainable communities. Sustainability educa-
tion will provide them with an understanding of the
decline of the natural world and its relationship to
human development, which could then create more
of a context for the necessity of systems thinking in
our societies and decision-making structures.
Mieko Ozeki: Sustainability is interdisciplinary
by nature and a free exchange between theoretical
learning and real-world problem solving. Sustain-
ability is an underlying concept made explicit to
expound upon the connectivity of human, societal,
and ecological systems. I think sustainability educa-
tion makes us aware of the cognitive and physical
disconnects that exist within the human-oriented
systems, but it also offers opportunities to realign
and renew our values with the natural world.
Jesse Pyles: At Unity we’re sharpening our com-
munity focus around the tenets of sustainabil-
ity science as a framework for the education we
deliver for every student. This has direct implica-
tions for faculty, but it also influences the way I
view my role as a nonfaculty educator on campus.
In what ways do you fill the role of sustainability
educator and how does your location within the
organizational structure of the institution impact
that work?
Mieko Ozeki: Experiential education and ser-
vice learning are integral components to most
courses at the University of Vermont (UVM). This
allows us to develop projects that connect concepts
students learn in the classroom with real-world
issues occurring on campus or in the community. I
like taking my role as an educator one step further by
demonstrating professional skills such as project
management and helping students develop their
professional portfolios.
Amber Garrard: Yale’s approach to institutional sus-
tainability is largely directed toward campus systems
and culture. Educating all members of the commu-
nity is important to ensure they have the knowledge
Roundtable
Participants
Moderator
Jesse Pyles
Sustainability Coordinator
Unity College, Unity, ME
Senior Fellow, Environmental
Leadership Program
Amber Garrard
Education & Outreach Coordinator
Office of Sustainability, Yale University,
New Haven, CT
Senior Fellow, Environmental
Leadership Program
Riley Neugebauer
Sustainability Coordinator
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Senior Fellow, Environmental
Leadership Program
Mieko Ozeki
Projects Coordinator
Office of Sustainability, University
of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Senior Fellow, Environmental
Leadership Program
—Jesse Pyles
Our work encompasses
a lot more than
managing the built
environment.

2. 98 Sustainability MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 5 No. 2 • April 2012 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2012.9979
to change behavior and advocate for improvements
to the system. My role is to communicate sometimes
technical and complex information in a way that is
easily digestible and empowering. I love that this
role provides me the opportunity to work with many
sectors of the university—vice presidents as well as
custodial staff and action-oriented student leaders as
well as thought leaders.
Riley Neugebauer: I work with Skidmore students
as a mentor and supervisor through several intern-
ship and hired positions. I’m a frequent class visitor
and community resource on sustainability concepts
and engage others through college planning work.
I help students understand how to get things done
and how to take their own initiatives and make them
a reality. Beyond the conceptual ideas of sustainabil-
ity, I think it is even more important that I offer them
tangible ways to enact sustainability on campus. I
try to demonstrate more effective styles of commu-
nication and empowerment based in the idea that
accountability and collaborative decision making are
possible and can be effective.
Jesse Pyles: You’ve each touched on this notion of
empowering others on campus, not simply to be
effective institutional change agents, but also to
see themselves as educators. I consider the sus-
tainability education we’ve been discussing as a
toolkit of skills and competencies we can offer our
students. How does campus sustainability work
equip students to be engaged sustainability prac-
titioners in the 21st century?
Amber Garrard: Today’s college students are
living in an interesting time and many of them grasp
the severity of the future and are impressively opti-
mistic. Campus sustainability work encourages stu-
dents to use what they’re learning in the classroom
to change the world around them in creative and
new ways. Many students are looking for hands-on
opportunities to learn with their full beings, not just
their heads. Campus sustainability work, whether
through monitoring energy usage, sorting waste,
or growing produce for a dining hall, is providing
these types of opportunities that expose students to
transdisciplinary learning that will be very valuable
to them in the future.
Riley Neugebauer: The 21st century citizen has to
be flexible and adaptable to a constantly changing
world; whether because of technology or the decline
of the natural world, there are lots of things that are
changing fast. Sustainability work on campus, par-
ticularly when people are really in the early stages
of figuring out their career paths and evaluating
their value systems, can provide students with a
framework for change. This framework is based in
real projects and applied conversations, and gives
inspiration and hope that people can successfully
find ways to manage their communities, organiza-
tions, businesses, and beyond in a way that will allow
future generations the ability to thrive as well.
Jesse Pyles: I’d add that the solutions-focused,
problem-based work of campus sustainability
demands the development of highly transferable
skills: communications, project management, and
stakeholder engagement. What skills do you find
are most important to the sustainability education
work you do?
Riley Neugebauer: I think the skills most impor-
tant to this work include critical thinking, consen-
sus building, and community organizing. Skills in
nonviolent communication and conflict resolution,
cultural competency, and an understanding of white
privilege and race within the movement are key.
Mieko Ozeki: It is necessary to understand systems
and resource flows early on. Traditional education
approaches learning in a fragmented way, divvying
real-world situations into specific knowledge areas
and drawing away from the bigger picture. Seeing
the college campus as a whole rather than its parts
makes my job feel more manageable than over-
whelming.
Amber Garrard: Communication and respect for
people’s knowledge and experience—whatever that
may be. Much of my experience with this came from
traveling and meeting people in different places and
cultures. For me personally, this was important to
understanding why global sustainability is an issue
that needs to be addressed. It also helped me see that
there are often multiple ways of seeing and interpret-
ing the same thing or idea, and that learning to use
pluralistic approaches to problem solving is neces-
sary and advantageous.
Jesse Pyles: What do you wish you’d learned in
school to make you more effective in your work?
Mieko Ozeki: I wish I had learned about systems
thinking and putting it into practice—whether
through designing a policy or implementing a proj-
ect on campus. In higher education, academics are
broken up into disciplines. This is great for develop-
ing depth in a field, but loses sight of the intercon-
nection of these different knowledge areas. I feel
fortunate that in my undergraduate studies I studied
philosophy while taking interdisciplinary courses
between the humanities, arts, and sciences. If I’d
learned about systems thinking in my senior year, I
think it would have tied my learning together and
prepared me to look at organizational structures in
my career.
Riley Neugebauer: I would have liked to learn more
about leadership as related to working with and
Today’s college students
are living in an interesting
time and many of them
grasp the severity of
the future and are
impressively optimistic.
—Amber Garrard
The 21st century citizen
has to be flexible and
adaptable to a constantly
changing world; whether
because of technology
or the decline of the
natural world
—Riley Neugebauer
Roundtable

3. managing group process and strategic planning with
diverse stakeholders—basically more leadership and
management models and applications. I think the
earlier that students and others can become skilled
in things like nonviolent communication, cultural
competency, and conflict resolution, the easier the
ongoing conversations about change will be, and I
certainly wish I had developed those skills sooner
and had more of them now.
Jesse Pyles: I share that want for more process
management training. So much of the work we do
is about organizational maneuvering and admin-
istrative planning; process and project manage-
ment are crucial.
Ofcourse,theEnvironmentalLeadershipProgram
has introduced us to some of these skills through
trainings, but I find the greatest benefit of ELP has
been access to this diverse network of sustainabil-
ity leaders. I’ve learned a lot from the network and
gained a great deal from my collaboration with
you all. Thanks for your good thoughts and your
good work as sustainability education leaders.
Seeing the college
campus as a
whole rather than
its parts makes
my job feel more
manageable than
overewhelming.
—Mieko Ozeki
About the ELP Fellowship
The ELP Fellowship Program targets emerging environmental and social change practitioners eager
to connect their specialized work to larger environmental and social concerns. ELP is committed
to selecting a class of Fellows that represents diversity of race and ethnicity, gender, sector, sexual
orientation, education levels, professonal background, values and traditions, and environmental is-
sue expertise. The Fellowship Program offers intensive leadership and skill training, regional networking
opportunities, and time for personal and professional reflection. Consisting of three retreats and
additional optional trainings, the curriculum helps emerging leaders hone their leadership styles,
improve their strategic communications, and strengthen their outreach to diverse constituencies.
For more information on the ELP program, including Fellowship eligibility
and requirements, visit: www.elpnet.org/
MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 5 No. 2 • April 2012 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2012.9979 Sustainability 99