May I share great news? Stodgy academic bureaucracies across the country are booming with optimism, vitality, and creativity! Sustainability is energizing academe right down to its foundational mission statement. Evidence of this massive reform of campus practices and curricula was glaring at a conference I attended last week. It was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE was founded in 2006 to promote sustainability in all sectors of higher education - from governance and operations to curriculum and outreach. An astonishing 1,700 registrants attended from over 400 colleges and universities in 48 states and 15 countries. What everyone shared was eagerness to engage in open inquiry and bold experimentation.

Many presenters and attendees identified themselves as “Sustainability Coordinators”, a position that didn’t exist four years ago. Suddenly campuses across the country are hiring enterprising visionaries to initiate environmental reforms.  They are inventing curricula as well as new protocols for campus waste management, energy reduction, resource recycling, etc.  It is not an exaggeration to suggest that these coordinators are designing the future of higher education. The buzz term is “integrating sustainability across the curriculum.”

All this activity indicates that many academic communities are launching reforms that may prove to be as revolutionary as the introduction of computer technologies twenty years ago. The force of eco-momentum, like digital-momentum, is sweeping and comprehensive. It exhibits all the signs of inevitability. This is tomorrow's promising promise.

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