Faculty
Exploring and deepening your connection to advancing sustainability can promote sustainability awareness and action within the academic community, empowering students to become agents of positive change in their lives and beyond.
- Build sustainable practice into the classroom - If not already implemented, transition to electronic course readings and assignment submission formats. This reduces paper usage, promotes sustainability by minimizing resource consumption, and supports students in adopting these practices when transitioning to their careers.
- Incorporate sustainability issues into classroom discussions - Whether you teach literature, economics, or biology, sustainability touches every facet of our society and economy. I encourage you to help students make these connections in your classes, illustrating how sustainability principles apply across all disciplines. By integrating sustainability into your curriculum, you equip our students with the skills and mindset needed to address complex challenges and create a more sustainable future in their chosen careers. Consider how your subject intersects with sustainability issues and bring those topics to the forefront of classroom discussions. This could involve integrating case studies, current events, or guest speakers that highlight the relevance of sustainability to their discipline.
- Promote diversity of perspectives - Strive to bring more diverse worldviews and perspectives into classroom discussions. This could involve incorporating readings, guest speakers, or activities that explore different cultural, social, and economic perspectives on your subject and how these relate to sustainability issues. Incorporating diverse worldviews into sustainability-related learning in the classroom enhances students' understanding and appreciation of sustainability issues. It equips them with the skills and perspectives needed to become effective agents of positive change in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.
- Lead by example - Students highly value your perspectives. Demonstrate sustainable practices in your personal life. This may involve arriving to campus on public transportation, bringing your travel mug to class, using Trent's ecotray program, or embracing other visible sustainable actions. If you have social media platforms, consider sharing posts about sustainability practices in your daily life beyond work, such as tending to your garden, using a rain barrel, packing your lunch sustainably, or visiting local markets. These actions demonstrate your commitment to sustainability and inspire students to adopt similar practices in their own lives.
