Sustainability At Viterbo

Business Investment in Sustainability• Businesses are investing heavily.

– 92% of companies addressing issues of sustainability (MIT, 2009).– In 2010, U.S. companies spent approximately $28 billion on sustainability (Verdandix, 2010). – Investment expected to rise to $60 billion by 2014.

• Sustainable business jobs experienced a 19% growth (MIT, 2009).

• Benefits of Sustainability (Aberdeen Research Group, 2009; Blackburn, 2008; MIT, 2009)– Increased market share– Enter new markets– Increased revenue– Reputation– Customer retention - 16% increase– Enhance competitiveness– Innovation– Increased productivity– Identify inefficiencies and drive down operating costs - 6% reduction in energy costs– Access to capital (lender and investor appeal)– Reduced legal liability/risk– Employee recruitment and retention

Nation-wide Educational Investments

• Colleges created more than 100 majors, minors, and certificates in energy and sustainability-related programs in 2009 (US News College Campus, 2009)– Obama administration projects that careers in the energy and environmental sector

will grow 52% between 2000 and 2016, while other occupations will see only a 14% growth (Campus Explorer, 2010).

• Students more conscious of how humans are affecting the planet, and as green technology continues to grow, there will be countless opportunities for college graduates to make a living protecting the Earth (Careers and Colleges, 2011).

– Students want to look at the world's problems from scientific, social, and economic perspectives

– Students have more time to transform sustainability majors into a launching pad for almost any area of employment.

– More employers are looking for workers who can apply themselves in all sorts of different ways.

• If a college isn't green, some students choose a greener school. – Princeton Review of 10,300 college applicants—63% stated a college's commitment to

the environment could affect their decision to attend. (Princeton Review, 2010)

Presentation Today

• Viterbo’s New Majors– Sustainable Management – Tom Knothe– Environmental Sustainability – Sister Lucy

Slinger

• Viterbo’s community Sustainability Initiative Review

Sustainability

“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Bruntland Commission (1987)

• Sustainability is a conceptual philosophy, a management paradigm, a strategy, a process, and an end goal. As such, it is a discipline in its own right.

• Conceptually, it is defined as comprising three pillars: environment, society, and economy.

Sustainable Management

• Balanced scorecard • Business ethics and CSR• Longer term• Lean thinking• Economic value added• Value investing• Quadruple Bottom Line

Business Examples

• Real Estate• Corporate Earnings• Value of the Dollar• Debt Financing• Health Care & Social Security

Dahl School’s New Program

• Core Curriculum• Professional Core • Business Courses• Sustainability Courses

www.viterbo.edu/sustainablemanagement

Jobs

• DOL’s “bright outlook” list• Sustainablejobs.com• Monster.com

• Good paying too!

Jobs• Managers (products, services and people)• Corporate sustainability officers• Government agency managers• Non-profit directors• Production managers - logistics• Sustainability coordinators• Sustainability directors

Make a good living…live a good life

Ecological expertsConservationistsConsultantEcological educator

social dynamics of change political dynamics of change psychological dynamics of change legal dynamics of change

Community Change Agents

Degree

EmphasisNature Balance Restorers

Solid foundation in the issues, polices, and skills needed for civilized humans to live in harmony with and preserve the natural environment.

Features a required internship or research experience tailored to the student’s interest.

Allows students to pursue a minor or tailor their course work based on career interest.

Prepares students for a variety of careers and graduate studies in a variety of areas.

Contemplation

Hospitality

Integrity

Service

Stewardship

Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit-Disorder - Richard Louv

Toward A Spirituality for Global Justice:A Call to Kinship – Elaine Prevallet

Cradle-to-Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things – W. Mc Donough & M Braungart

True Cost of Low Prices: The Violence of Globalization – Vincent Gallagher

Blessed Unrest : How the largest Movement in the World Came into being and Why No One Saw It Coming

– Paul Hawken

La Crosse City & County - Natural Step Program Endorsement

Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration - commitment

Natural Environment Uniqueness “Driftless”

WTC’s new Sustainability associate degree

Collaborative efforts with: Other educational institutions Businesses Nonprofits Private Many others organizations with environmental

concerns & emphasis.

"We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us.” Pope Benedict XVI

"We must respect the interior laws of creation, of this Earth, to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive.” Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI- Jul 26, 2007

"This obedience to the voice of the Earth is more important for our future happiness ... than the desires of the moment. Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive.”

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively, the land.

This sounds simply: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just whatand whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sendinghelter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assumehave no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate wholecommunities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already exterminated many of the largest andmost beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alternation, management, and use of these ‘resources.’ but it does affirm their right to continue to existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.

In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.” Aldo Leopold

Land Ethic ( A Sand County Almanac, 1949)

Implementing A Land Ethic Advise

“Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends to do otherwise.”

Aldo Leopold (Sand County Almanac )