Executive Summary — Sustainability: Higher Education’s New Fundamentalism

Posted on MAY 2, 2015 Written by NAS.ORG

“Sus­tain­abil­ity” is a key idea on col­lege cam­puses in the United States and the rest of the West­ern world. To the unsus­pect­ing, sus­tain­abil­ity is just a new name for envi­ron­men­tal­ism. But the word really marks out a new and larger ide­o­log­i­cal ter­ri­tory in which cur­tail­ing eco­nomic, polit­i­cal, and intel­lec­tual lib­erty is the price that must be paid now to ensure the wel­fare of future generations.

 

This report is the first in-depth crit­i­cal study of the sus­tain­abil­ity move­ment in higher edu­ca­tion. The move­ment, of course, extends well beyond the col­lege cam­pus. It affects party pol­i­tics, gov­ern­ment bureau­cracy, the energy indus­try, Hol­ly­wood, schools, and con­sumers. But the col­lege cam­pus is where the move­ment gets its voice of author­ity, and where it molds the views and com­mands the atten­tion of young peo­ple.  [CON­TINUE READING]