A footnote to the "Death of Campus Sustainability"
blog [posted below this blog] last month.
A new report from a philanthropic watchdog group analyzed the
ineffectiveness of the environmental movement--and placed the blame squarely on
the same issue as we wrote of in the 'Death' blog: the lack of a social justice presence.
The report
“Cultivating the Grassroots” was released in late February by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
At the root of the problem: “any push for environmental
change which fails to prioritize communities of color is a losing
strategy," the report says. And, "Until the broader concerns... of
all communities are on the radar of environmentalists, it will be hard for
environmentalists to be on the radar of all communities."
As Peter Montague writes in Alternet,
“”The environmental movement hasn't won any "significant policy changes at
the federal level in the United States since the 1980s" because the greens
have favored top-down elite strategies [e.g. cap and trade] and have neglected
to support a robust grassroots infrastructure.””
Bottom line: for me this report reaffirms the opportunity campus
sustainability has to bridge town with gown, environment with social
justice, and build powerful, people-facing sustainable communities.
Campus sustainability practitioners are uniquely suited to cultivate and support new leadership from within
these communities by providing student-service capacity, knowledge base, linkages with allied groups, and the academe's legitimacy.
We can help enable leadership to rise up from communities of color--it won't work any other way anyway.
"In movements throughout history, the core of leadership
came from a nucleus of directly impacted or oppressed communities while also
engaging a much broader range of justice-seeking supporters," the report notes.
“In other words, successful movements
for social change -- anti-slavery, women's suffrage, labor rights, and civil
rights -- have always been inspired, energized, and led by those most directly
affected. Yet these are the very groups within the environmental movement that
are starved for support.”
They need funding—and they need the white environmental
community to go to them and ask what we can do to support their efforts.
And that "asking" thing needs to start on campus.
For instance, I received many personal messages about last month’s “Death
of Campus Sustainability”—mostly supportive. The comment that hit me
the hardest came from a respected sustainability leader who remarked, “I suspect
that most SOs [sustainability officers] go to the diversity officer and
multicultural offices with 'asks' (how can we work together) and not 'gives' (what
can my office do to help you meet your diversity goals?). I hear a
complaint that the diversity offices don't want to play with the sustainability
offices. I think the reason is that we ask for things but have not
figured out what, if anything, we have to offer.”
Indeed. Mea culpa. I have had that very visit with my campus
diversity officer very recently. I was chagrined to read those words as they
are, for me anyway, very true.
Another comment I received that stings a little is along the
lines of, “OK smart ass, what are we going to do about this? It’s not good
enough just to throw stones. How can we prevent the fall?”
So, stay tuned. The next blog will hopefully move that
question forward. I have some thoughts, observations, successes and many mistakes to
share. But there’s a lot to know and I don’t claim to know it all. So, any help is appreciated.
However, the report profiled above offers some valuable
perspective and ideas for change.
See you soon.
