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University establishes Willamette Sustainability Institute

April 2013

At Willamette, we take to heart our motto, “Not unto ourselves alone are we born,” as we seek to envision the future of humankind as a sustainable enterprise – not only the natural world that sustains life, but also the communities and economies that connect us to one another. Considered in this more ecumenical light, our interdependence on each other for survival is brought into sharp relief.

Across all schools and in our co-curricular offerings, we seek to foster meaningful educational experiences that address the defining challenges of the 21st century, including sustainability, which Willamette defines through the “Four E’s”:

• Education (teaching ecological literacy)
• Environment (creating a smaller ecologic footprint)
• Equity (social justice)
• Economics (sustainability principles for campus operations)

As we move into the future, sustainability continues to serve as a focal point beyond our efforts to ‘live our motto,’ in the service of our city, state, and world, and our mission to prepare graduates to pursue lives of achievement, contribution and meaning. Sustainability is also integral to the university’s strategic objectives as we seek, in a global context, authentic engagement with our immediate surroundings, knowing that the choices we make here and now could have current or future implications for others, both nearby and on the other side of the planet.

We are restructuring sustainability so as to advance, not simply manage, sustainability at Willamette, thereby living up to our worthy aspirations in ways that are authentic to who we are as a community of scholars, and to our mission, motto and values. The creation of the Willamette Sustainability Institute combines the Center for Sustainable Communities, the Sustainability Council and the Zena Advisory Committee into a single focused entity.

Goals of the restructure:

1. Provide administrative leadership, coordination and management of Zena Forest & Farm, increasing the amount of high-quality academic and co-curricular utilization of that resource by students and faculty.
2. Better coordinate and focus sustainability in the curriculum and co-curriculum university-wide.
3. Reduce administrative burden on faculty so academic sustainability programs can be strengthened.
4. Increase the visibility of the sustainability efforts at Willamette so that key constituencies within and beyond the community (e.g., current and prospective students and faculty, alumni, prospective donors, community partners, and other institutions) understand the depth of commitment to sustainability at Willamette.
5. Incorporate university sustainability goals clearly into university operations.