University of North Carolina, Greensboro
ER-15: Sustainability Research Identification

The Academic Subcommittee of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) team was tasked with establishing a definition of sustainability in academics (curriculum and research). The CAP was published and adopted in 2013, and team's definition is as follows (from pp. 84-85): The  UNCG  Strategic  Plan,  UNCG  Tomorrow,  defines  sustainability  as  “Academics,  operations,  and  outreach… conducted with careful attention to the enduring interconnectedness of social equity, the  environment,  the  economy,  and  aesthetics.”  Ensuring  that  students  acquire  a  basic  understanding of the individual elements of sustainability identified in this definition only serves as the  beginning  of  sustainability  in  academics  at  UNCG,  however.  The  centrality  of  the  natural  environment is essential to the entire idea of sustainability; the core of the concept is how the environment  shapes,  and  is  shaped  by,  economic,  social  and  aesthetic  factors.  Because  of  this  characteristic, imparting a robust understanding of the natural environment to students is vital to any attempt to infuse sustainability into our academic programs. Infusing sustainability into academics at UNCG will produce graduates who are able to: • Communicate the basics of sustainability; • Employ and promote sustainable practices during their time at UNCG; and • Apply relevant sustainable practices in their career paths. Other  important  aspects  of  this  philosophy  include  conveying  current  insights  and  best  practices  (instruction) and generating new knowledge (research) that explain and enhance the links between the  various  elements  of  sustainability.  Emphasizing  the  intentionality  of  these  connections  and  broadening the scopes in which students think and act are significant outcomes for sustainability in academics.  UNCG  will  provide  training  and  resources  to  faculty  to  build  the  programs  needed  to  achieve these goals.

Two inventories have been completed. In 2011, a survey was created by interior architecture professor and campus sustainability leader Dr. Anna Marshall-Baker for UNCG faculty to identify sustainability in their research activities; the university's definition of sustainability in its Strategic Plan was used to guide respondents, and results were reviewed by Dr. Marshall-Baker and Sustainability Coordinator for Operations Trey McDonald. In 2014, Academic Sustainability Coordinator and associate professor of musicology Dr. Aaron Allen, together with his research assistant, examined the biographies and/or CVs of every full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty member. These two inventories include, obviously, many overlapping individuals. In addition, self-selecting faculty who have expressed interest in sustainability research and/or teaching have signed up for a sustainability faculty "Google Group."