I have a theory. A person’s sustainability awareness decreases while they are in tertiary education. Why? Three reasons.
1. We’re not very good at modelling sustainable behaviour (yes the skip, but also try informally applying the Green League criteria to your own organisation – I did, it’s not pretty)
2. According to Erik Erickson’s eight stages of the life cycle, our students are undergoing selfish transformations as they switch from adolescence to young adulthood.
3. However hard we try in tertiary education, primary and secondary schools are going to be better at whole school
initiatives. I like the “Rethinking school lunch” from the Center for Ecoliteracy.
- Food systems used as vehicle for sustainability education. “Rethinking school lunch visual guide” (2.5MB) essays , entire guide
Discover through this visual guide how an enriched school environment can enhance student understanding of personal well-being and the natural world.
- I think such initiatives are great. What would be an equivalent for higher education? (and, given the nature of this blog, what role could computing play in this).
Computing for Sustainability 
leighblackall
June 29, 2007
Well, directly we could improve the food at the student centre! Add waste management to be proud of, such as worm farms. Get Horticulture’s vege gardens providing ingredients. And a user maintained database of locally growing foods that are available to the kitchen staff.. even a recipe wiki where kitchen staff create and maintain their recipes, as well as announce the weeks yummies based on local ingredients. I’m getting hungry thinking about it.
Samuel Mann
July 1, 2007
Sarah Rich writes up a similar project in an indigenous school system in New Mexico:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006951.html