Higher Education's Privilege of Denying Responsibility for Sustainability and Climate Change

As most institutions of higher education continue to struggle with the economic impacts of a global pandemic, their commitment to sustainability and climate has once again sank to low/no priority or dismissed all together. Sustainability and climate programs are being off-ramped, professionals who've dedicated their careers to changing universities for the better are being laid off, and investments in climate adaptation and resilient operations are being halted.

All of this is wrong.

The only way out of the current environmental mess that WE ALL have created is through education, in respect to teaching new ethical, sustainable, environmental and societal best business practices. Universities should be the establishments where new paradigms of sustainability are discussed, researched which then in turn brings new sustainable innovations and models to market. If you visit the website of most major American universities, you will find very eloquent statements of commitment to sustainability, how they are dedicated to changing the world and creating a brighter future for their students. In most cases, not all, this is smoke and mirrors.

In recent years this "de-prioritization" of sustainability plays out over and over again; when the market crashes, when budgets are cut, when global supply chains struggle, when a new president or governor is elected, when enrollment drops, when oil/fuel prices drop or increase, when disaster strikes, when the housing markets nose dive, or when literally any other priority of an organizational leader rises up the environment takes a back seat or is left at the nearest bus stop. The line of excuses to dismiss any responsibility for climate change or to creating sustainable campus communities is staggering. Staggering. Cities and communities are literally burning to the ground and we do nothing. Sources of drinking water are drying up and we do nothing. Crop yields fail and we do nothing. Thousands of people die each year from our inaction to climate and still we do nothing. We do nothing but react to fix the current crisis, clean up the current mess, sweep up the current flood, plug the current leak in the dam and move on. Denial in its purest form.

Much like the fragility and privilege we see in our ongoing societal struggle (understatement) for racial equity, the privilege higher education takes to dismiss responsibility to sustainability is blatant. The backlash of denial (fragility) at the slight insinuation that the long held traditions of "operational excellence" and "continuous improvement", while practiced and honed to perfection, is not enough to meet the non-stationarity of our current world context is met with defensiveness and refusal to accept any responsibility. Convenient. I imagine the unspoken question of "how could our mighty and historic institutions of higher learning, populated with generations of a homogenous and gender normative workforce be anything but world class?" "how could our legacy possibly be anything but a shining example for the common good?" This is "father knows best" combined with the misguided beliefs that "we have always" and "stick with what works" collide with the insidious demise of higher education as we know it.

So I ask institutions of higher education "why"? Or maybe the better questions are "how"? How with any good conscience can you purport to have a mission of preparing students for the future when at the same time contributing to the degradation of the global ecosystem? How can you publish and sell your accomplishments without taking any responsibility for your contributions to a declining global climate? How can you with a straight face accept accolades and gold standard ratings for artificially inflated achievements? How can you invest millions of dollars in fossil fuel infrastructure when the science/data and all market science point to fossil fuel as a losing strategy? How can you support and cultivate innovative and leading research in fields of sustainability, renewable energy, carbon sequestration, water conservation, social welfare, justice/equity and climate science without utilizing that same knowledge/experience in your own campus community? How can you stand up as a "good citizen" in your communities and literally have no (or very little) intention to actually meet your sustainability and climate goals, if you even actually have goals at all? The list of questions is without enumeration.

The reality is that the ripple effects of a global pandemic are not new to sustainability and climate leaders. Time and time again environmental sustainability and environmental justice have been deemed "not essential" in "hard times", especially hard economic times. And addressing the climate crisis is only a fair weather endeavor, a luxury for organizations with deep pockets. We have come to a new place in history, a place and time we have never experienced before and we have yet to fully understand. This new and now ever-changing context requires us to approach problems with new ways of thinking, with new coalitions of people, science and resources and with a new sense of dedication, of responsibility. We need organizations believing that what is good for the planet is good for business, good for all people and that the return on that investment will pay dividends in the long-game.

So what do we do about it? What can we do?

Often, change starts with our organizational leaders. In my experience, most operational leaders in higher education are not thinking about sustainability or climate action as a business model. If they were, sustainability professionals wouldn't be on the chopping block. Even sustainability departments with data proving their worth, in dollars, are still being cut. Unfortunately there isn't much you can do if your leaders aren't listening.