Antioch University New England

1. Environmental Studies:
A Transformative Experience
Michael Simpson, Chair
Environmental Studies Department

2. Environmental Studies: 3 Degree Programs
MS ES MS RMC PhD ES
Conservation
Biology
Sustainable Development &
Climate Change
Science teacher
Certification
Advocacy for Social Justice
and Sustainability
Environmental
Education
Self Designed
Studies
1 Integrated Faculty

3. The Department of Environmental Studies
educates:
visionary, pragmatic leaders
in a collaborative interdisciplinary setting
that is founded on academic excellence and
the principles of environmental justice and
sustainability.
Environmental Studies
Mission Statement

4. Environmental Studies
A trans-disciplinary department

6. Principles of Sustainability
Political Economy and Sustainability
Energy and Materials Sustainability
Real World Sustainability
Sustainable Leadership
History & Practice of Educating for Sustainability
Conservation, Ecology & Sustainability of the Sonoran Desert
Building Sustainable Organizations
Community/School Sustainable Food Systems
Sustainability in the Land of the Maya
Citizen Participation and Sustainable Communities

7. C0evolution and self organization
Complex Systems
Entropy and limits
Reinforcing feedback

8. Building Sustainable Organizations
Surveys the landscape of sustainability theory and
literature and how this can apply to organizational
functions…private sector, governments and NGOs.

9. Building Sustainable Organizations…
explores the questions:
• What are the different lens of
Sustainability within
organization?
• How do you evaluate an
organization’s sustainability?
• Are there models that can be
applied?
• Do sustainable organizations
focus on outcomes or
process?
• How does one externally
assess sustainability claims

10. Foundation courses (4)
Internship (2)
Methods/skills courses (5)
Concentration courses (2)
Capstone (1)
(thesis, project, collaborative capstone)
A Curriculum To Build Knowledge and Skills
Learning by
Doing and
Serving

11. Learning By Doing

12. Advocating for Social Justice

13. Tom Wessels
Mitch Thomashow
Alesia Maltz
Joy Ackerman
Resilience
Significance of Scale
Surplus and Scarcity
Risk

14. Community Gardens
Initiative

15. Center for Tropical Ecology
and Conservation

16. Monadnock Ecological Research
and Education Project

17. Climate Change
Adaptation Initiative
Minneapolis, MN: Vulnerability Assessment
Recent
conditions With
population
growth
And more
extreme
rainfall
Sunapee Adaptation Plan

18. Building Resilience Through
Community-Based Stakeholder Capacity Building

19. The best way to predict
the future is….
to invent it.

22. Research Team
James Gruber, Antioch University New England
Robert Roseen, UNH Stormwater Center Latham
Stack, Syntectic, LLC
Thomas Crosslin, Climate Techniques, LLC
Robert Wood, Lake Sunapee Protective Association
Joel Smith, Stratus Consulting
Colin Lawson, Antioch University New England
Michael Simpson
Antioch University New England
Water from the Hills:
Adapting to land use and climate change

24. Some Indicators
 Innovative program delivery model servicing approximately
1,000 FTE students annually using 85,000 square feet
 56% reduction in electricity usage over past six FYs
 350% increase in composting
 81% reduction in printed pages in Computer Resource
Room
 Robust Responsible Purchasing Policy & practices
 First graduate department of environmental studies in the
country
 First graduate program in the country that explicitly links
sustainability and education
 Green MBA program ranked in top 5 nationally by Net
Impact
 Thousands of students and alumni engaged in championing
AUNE’s mission

25. Progress to date: Established a campus-wide Student Government to enable students to have a
regular voice in the governing process of the school
 Established a President’s Council that brings together representation from the
institution’s constituencies to serve as a forum for generating recommendations
concerning governance issues
 Established a senior-level administrator position to lead our SSJ initiatives
 Transitioned to 100% recycled paper for copiers/printers & restroom products
 Switched to non-toxic, Green Seal-certified cleaning products
 Installed restroom light sensors
 Installed low-tech Please Flip Me Off light switch signs
 Removed energy-sucking vending machines
 Re-launched our Green Bikes program & built a solar-lighted bike shelter
 Installed demonstration sites for rain garden and pervious pavement, designed to
reduce stormwater run-off and sand/salt usage for snow/ice removal.
 Created organic campus vegetable/herb garden to provide food for AUNE café &
Keene Community Kitchen. Added edible plants to campus landscaping.
 Conduct Carbon Counts: You Can Too education and outreach campaign that
includes a regular home-grown speakers’ series and Green Guru initiative
 Upgraded our solid waste recovery systems & conducted waste audit

27. Educating for Sustainability
Program for Working Teachers
E F S ACR O S S T H E CU R R I CU L U M AT AL L G R AD E L E V E L S

28. Hybrid Delivery Models
Online courses spring and fall
Integrating Environment, Economy, and Equity
Curriculum Design for Educating for
Sustainability
Connecting Communities

29. Msters in Urban Sustainability
Training Sustainability Practitioners
http://www.antiochla.edu/academics/ma-urban-sustainability/

30.  Two-year program
 36 units
 Low-residency: two residencies per semester
 Residencies: classes, fieldtrips, speakers

31. Fieldwork
 Ecovillage
 Farmers Market
 City of Santa Monica
 EmpowHer
 Heal the Bay
 Los Angeles Food Policy Council
 And many, many more fieldwork sites!

32. Capstone Projects
 Sustainability Plan for a Hotel
 An Undergraduate Course Curriculum on the
Role of Graffiti in the City
 Survey of the Carbon Footprint of Farmers
Markets in the City
 Transforming an Alley into a Community
Asset
 And many others!

34.  “Serving as the Fellow for the Congressional Progressive Caucus was
the kind of opportunity that comes along only once in a lifetime.
Thanks to the comprehensive education and practical experience I
gained at AUNE and the CPC Fellowship, my professional path as a
progressive advocate and organizer is well underway and I can proudly
say that I wake up every day with the tools that I need to be the change
that I want to see in the world.” —Wendy Stott, 2010 CPC Fellow