Friday, February 23, 2007

Agents of Change

Campuses have an imperative to be "agents of change," said Pam Shockley-Zalabak, Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, at Thursday's Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit held in Boulder, Colorado. Colleges and universities have the challenge "to lead and to create leadership," she said, a theme repeated throughout the day at workshops and seminars.

Highlights included practical solutions to laying out sustainability goals that can be met, to providing incentives for pursuing sustainability research and best practices, and to forming cross-disciplinary collaborations to define and meet these goals.

Presentations included the "triple bottom line" approach to cost accounting (economic, ecological and social valuation), a hands-on workshop on how to capitalize the conservative values in your community into sustainability resources, building the institutional capacity necessary for water sustainability and more.

Participants from the Rocky Mountain region and beyond (Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Tennessee, Arkansas, Washington, California, Florida, and, of course, Colorado) to share challenges and solutions to sustainability issues on the campus and within communities.

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