A factory being built just outside of Shenzen, China has a real impact on the lives of a Pittsburgh family. That’s globalization. Yet the hyper-global reality has also necessitated community-based solutions, as it is within these spheres of more manageable influence that the potentials for human ingenuity are being realized.
When world leaders got together in December to devise a global solution to man-made climate change, some were hopeful and others cynical. What came of these talks was billed as a multilateral fail that may as well have fossilized the concept of environmental negotiations. The post-Copenhagen consensus is that the global cannot work without the local.
Local actors coming up with local solutions with local incentives for local communities will fill the void that global governance has left. Local debates will bring about a more sustainable and equitable world, not high-level conferences that need procedural votes just to decide on pee breaks.
A university campus, as a microcosm of the world, encapsulates the essence of community: it is manageable in size but can be meaningful in impact. The same discussions that happen on the global stage occur in a university setting on a smaller scale. What can we do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campus? How do we achieve sustainability with the current rate of student growth? How do we get the rest of campus involved in affecting change? Are there enough financial incentives for the government and the administration?
It’s terribly important that we continue this great tradition, as many of today’s sustainability projects on campus have resulted from pooling ideas, passions, and resources. For example, the wildly successful Rewire program began as a pet project of three undergraduate students at Trinity College and spread to the rest of the campus in succeeding years. By employing social psychology to bring about environmentally friendly behavioural change, Rewire has been acknowledged on and off campus as a powerful tool for promoting energy reduction habits.
The Athletic Centre’s solar thermal project—which will power all of the centre’s showers—began as a senior thesis project.
Another student’s love for local and organic produce and her desire to share the joy of eating, blossomed into what is now the Hot Yam, which provides meals every Thursday at the International Student Centre.
Though these success stories are to be applauded, much more needs to be done for the university to truly decarbonize its growth.
Since students are generally only stopping at the university for four years before moving on to the real world, ideas circulate in a short period of time. Yet fundamental institutional change that will alter the way we live our lives requires that we begin conversations with each other on ideas that embrace long-term payback loops. Students must be willing to pursue projects and discuss ideas that they themselves will not benefit from, but that will ultimately help the university on to the path of green growth. And in return, the administration must be willing to listen.
As a marketing slogan has claimed, U of T boasts “great minds for a great future.” To achieve greatness, students must not bite the hand that feeds them. Just as brute force often fails, blindly demanding that the administration cough up millions for retrofitting buildings or developing sustainable curricula will not work. The student body must be willing to give and take, and to think in decades, not in months. That being said, the administration must be willing to talk, but more importantly, to listen. And so, let the great conversations begin.
