Vermont Environmental Consortium

And

BRATTLEBORO REFORMER

October 9, 2007
Environmental Education: Vermont’s Best Opportunity to Lead
by
Daniel Hecht

One of my favorite bumper stickers reads “Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?” I liked it even before it dawned on me that the car itself was the handbasket, carrying us to a very hot place, emitting greenhouse gases all the way.

Another favorite is “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

The two lines of thinking converge, and suggest a magnificent opportunity for Vermont.

Consider this: Ten years from now, fossil fuel depletion and global warming will make the world a very different place. We’ll derive energy from different sources, we’ll be on a strict low-carbon diet, we’ll be using new technologies. Farming will have to adapt to climate changes and energy-crop opportunities. Our houses will need to be retrofitted for energy efficiency. Money will flow in new channels to different kinds of investments. The job market will demand very different skills.

If you don’t believe things will change so much, so fast, consider just one indicator: The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has reported that, so far, 2007 sales of alternative fuel vehicles are up by 27% over 2006; sales of hybrids up by 48%.

Just as auto mechanics will need training to master these new technologies, college students will need educations that prepare them to deal with unprecedented challenges and find jobs in this new economy.

Anticipating this trend, colleges and universities nationwide have been expanding their environment-related programs. Environmental education is now a growth industry, just as computer-related education was 15 years ago, when students flocked to courses that would get them jobs in the silicon economy.

Of Vermont’s 22 colleges and universities, 17 now offer environmental studies concentrations, and six have made exceptionally deep commitments to environment-related education.

And they’re a fine bunch. Sterling College has been devoted to programs on conservation ecology, sustainable agriculture, and outdoor education for over 25 years. Green Mountain College has put environment-related studies at the center of all its degree programs and calls itself “Vermont’s Environmental Liberal Arts College.” UVM has launched an ambitious effort to become the nation’s leading environmental education university. Vermont Law School has earned first-place ranking in environmental law by U.S. New & World Report 11 times in 15 years. Middlebury College has gained national renown for its pioneering use of biodiesel and sustainably-harvested woods, electric vehicle fleets, and other sustainability initiatives.

Importantly, colleges and universities play a double role in the greening of Vermont’s economy. They not only provide us with ideas, technologies, and future professionals, they are themselves an important green enterprise segment. Environmental programs take in millions in student tuition dollars and provide hundreds of jobs for faculty and staff; pilot projects and community initiatives spark economic activity.

It’s been bluntly said that in the new environmental economy, you’ll either be a buyer or a seller. That is, we here in Vermont can lead in developing environmental solutions and generate economic growth by selling our products and services; or we can lag, and end up buying someone else’s. The former creates wealth, jobs, and security here at home; the latter hands them to someone else, someplace else.

Environmental education offers the most promising green enterprise leadership opportunity for Vermont. We have terrific institutions, a very green reputation, a widespread conservation ethic, a beautiful landscape.

True, no single institution has the cash to compete with, say, Harvard or UCLA. Even our best and wealthiest schools, individually, can’t muster the staff, faculty, labs, or project funding to compete with larger, richer schools elsewhere.

But what if Vermont institutions work together to build our “brand” of environmental education? What if they jointly leverage Vermont’s recreational attractions, draw upon the expertise of the environmental business sector, and devise innovative partnerships with communities, using them as learning labs while helping them move toward sustainability? New kinds of academic-community-business partnerships can simultaneously confront the challenges we face and establish Vermont as the place where environmental solutions are conceived, tested, and deployed.

This is the vision behind Vermont Environmental Consortium’s conference, “Education in the New Environmental Economy,” on Nov. 3, at Norwich University, Northfield. It will be the first forum of its kind, looking at new potentials for environmental education.

Panels will suggest novel opportunities for partnerships between academia and businesses, public agencies, nonprofits, and communities. Presenters will assess trends in environmental industries, and consider the kind of education needed in an era of fossil fuel depletion and global warming. Speakers and audience will brainstorm ways colleges can reduce competition and increase collaboration. The goal: to help Vermont become the destination of choice for students seeking environmental education. The place where ideas are hatched, solutions pioneered.

Actually, that suggests a great slogan that would work well as a bumper sticker: “Vermont: The Idea State.” It’d be illustrated by a face with a lightbulb over it, signifying a Eureka! moment -- a compact fluorescent bulb, of course.

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Daniel Hecht is a novelist and executive director of Vermont Environmental Consortium. For more information on any Green Grapevine topic, contact vec@norwich.edu.

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