2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

Building a sustainable society cannot be accomplished through individual efforts – key is effective collaborations and partnerships.  In this session we discuss four different types of activities linking universities and communities. The University of Florida advances sustainability through interdisciplinary research and cross-sectorial partnering, organized through the creation of its Center for Adaptive Innovation. In Boston, campus-based efforts focus on the health of children challenged by environmental lead, and the need for grass roots activism through local organizations to find practical solutions.  In Wisconsin, university based Project 1808 seeks sustainable solutions in improving quality of education and sustainable livelihood in disadvantaged communities, working locally and in Sierra Leone.  The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability, based at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, focuses on the social sustainability element of the sustainability trilogy.  This work is done through exchanging ideas and approaches including the development of informational networks and annual conferencing from multiple venues stretching across the globe. Collectively this session aims to demonstrate effective approaches breaking down traditional boundaries providing obstacles to the advancement of sustainability in a variety of communities. 

Building Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research for Sustainability in Higher Education.  Seaton Tarrant, University Doctoral Candidate, Department of Political Science, CAIRES Center for Adaptive Innovation, Resilience, Ethics, and Science University of Florida, Gainesville. 

Overcoming disciplinary silos and speaking across discipline-specific expertise is a substantial challenge to sustainability research. This presentation reports on six months worth of surveys and research determining best practices for supporting interdisciplinary, sustainability-focused research at higher education universities. The presentation details the missing links in the University of Florida’s own research efforts, and strategies deployed by the CAIRES center to better network and support sustainability researchers across the UF campus.

The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability: A Collaborative Approach to Strengthen Sustainability’s Neglected Third Leg.  Nicole D. Peterson, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology; Helen Hilger, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Robert Boyer, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences; Brett Q. Tempest, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Thomas A Gentry, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture; Gary S. Silverman, Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences. University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

The sustainability trilogy – the environment, the economy, and social equity - provides unsteady support for building sustainable societies. Rather, efforts typically concentrate on developing less consumptive and less polluting technologies, and stable economies, while rarely linking technological and economic options with cultural norms and preferences. Providing more attention to the social aspects of sustainability is just beginning to be seen as critical to the overall success of the sustainability movement.

The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS), headquartered at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, works with partners throughout the United States, the Americas and Europe to accelerate the rate at which social aspects of sustainability are more authentically included in policy, planning, and research about the built environment.   Through conferences and online discussions and resources, it identifies tools and opportunities for connecting people and projects, and enriching ideas and possibilities for sustainability.  The network provides an important conduit for sustainability scholars and practitioners to collaborate in developing approaches critical to the maintenance of a high quality of life in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Multinational School-Community-University Partnerships: Education and Capacity Building for Sustainability and Global Citizenship.  Linda Vakunta, PhD, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Program Director, Project 1808 Inc. 

 The 2014 Ebola crisis highlighted our global connectivity and the need for strong global citizenry. We have developed a multidisciplinary and multinational framework for educating and building young people’s capacity in both Koinadugu district, Sierra Leone and Wisconsin, USA. While much progress had been made in Sierra Leone after the ten-year civil war, the recent Ebola outbreak threatens recovery thus far. Project 1808 Inc has built partnerships and programs at the school, community and university level with various partners including the University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Sierra Leone to develop innovative programs focused on real time knowledge exchange and building workable models of community and people based solutions to holistic health problems that use locally available resources. These partnerships between students and faculty enable knowledge exchange, innovation and creativity through small pointed and targeted projects that address disconnects in health (nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation, waste disposal and management, sexual health, workshops focused on one and infectious diseases like malaria, typhoid, and Ebola), community engagement (community mapping), and career development (career workshops, and leadership). Given the challenges the country faces, this program increased health awareness among 400 students on addressing community health issues such as Ebola. Overall, we observed increased learning, engagement, ownership, leadership, greater sense of optimism, hope as well as civic responsibility regarding community needs. We have also seen USA students become deeply educated in complex Africa related issues and serving as educators in their communities where it is critically needed. 

Collaborations to Protect Children from Environmental Lead in Boston.   Martha E. Richmond, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Director of Environmental Science, Suffolk University.  

Environmental lead is a classic “wicked” chemical problem.  While the gradual phase out of tetraethyl lead in gasoline has resulted in a marked decrease of environmental lead exposure for the general population, lead contamination remains an intractable environmental health problem in many US communities, especially underserved communities of older cities.  In such communities, significant numbers of children under 72 months of age continue to have blood lead levels that are higher than the presently accepted CDC standard of 5 ug/dL.  Despite educational and funding support to address many of the factors that contribute to environmental lead contamination, lead toxicity has not been addressed in meaningful ways in such communities. To more effectively speak to this problem, more collaborative approaches are necessary.  Recently, Boston, MA undertook steps to create a “lead free” Boston, including a Lead Summit and a Lead Working Committee composed of representatives from the public health, medical, legal, regulatory and academic communities.  This paper will discuss strategies that have been considered to more successfully address lead contamination, evaluate the effectiveness of the academic/regulatory/community collaborations, and suggest ways that the collaborations could be strengthened.  

Building Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research for Sustainability in Higher Education.  Seaton Tarrant, University Doctoral Candidate, Department of Political Science, CAIRES Center for Adaptive Innovation, Resilience, Ethics, and Science University of Florida, Gainesville. 

Overcoming disciplinary silos and speaking across discipline-specific expertise is a substantial challenge to sustainability research. This presentation reports on six months worth of surveys and research determining best practices for supporting interdisciplinary, sustainability-focused research at higher education universities. The presentation details the missing links in the University of Florida’s own research efforts, and strategies deployed by the CAIRES center to better network and support sustainability researchers across the UF campus.

The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability: A Collaborative Approach to Strengthen Sustainability’s Neglected Third Leg.  Nicole D. Peterson, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology; Helen Hilger, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Robert Boyer, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences; Brett Q. Tempest, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Thomas A Gentry, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture; Gary S. Silverman, Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences. University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

The sustainability trilogy – the environment, the economy, and social equity - provides unsteady support for building sustainable societies. Rather, efforts typically concentrate on developing less consumptive and less polluting technologies, and stable economies, while rarely linking technological and economic options with cultural norms and preferences. Providing more attention to the social aspects of sustainability is just beginning to be seen as critical to the overall success of the sustainability movement.

The Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS), headquartered at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, works with partners throughout the United States, the Americas and Europe to accelerate the rate at which social aspects of sustainability are more authentically included in policy, planning, and research about the built environment.   Through conferences and online discussions and resources, it identifies tools and opportunities for connecting people and projects, and enriching ideas and possibilities for sustainability.  The network provides an important conduit for sustainability scholars and practitioners to collaborate in developing approaches critical to the maintenance of a high quality of life in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Multinational School-Community-University Partnerships: Education and Capacity Building for Sustainability and Global Citizenship.  Linda Vakunta, PhD, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Program Director, Project 1808 Inc. 

 The 2014 Ebola crisis highlighted our global connectivity and the need for strong global citizenry. We have developed a multidisciplinary and multinational framework for educating and building young people’s capacity in both Koinadugu district, Sierra Leone and Wisconsin, USA. While much progress had been made in Sierra Leone after the ten-year civil war, the recent Ebola outbreak threatens recovery thus far. Project 1808 Inc has built partnerships and programs at the school, community and university level with various partners including the University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Sierra Leone to develop innovative programs focused on real time knowledge exchange and building workable models of community and people based solutions to holistic health problems that use locally available resources. These partnerships between students and faculty enable knowledge exchange, innovation and creativity through small pointed and targeted projects that address disconnects in health (nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation, waste disposal and management, sexual health, workshops focused on one and infectious diseases like malaria, typhoid, and Ebola), community engagement (community mapping), and career development (career workshops, and leadership). Given the challenges the country faces, this program increased health awareness among 400 students on addressing community health issues such as Ebola. Overall, we observed increased learning, engagement, ownership, leadership, greater sense of optimism, hope as well as civic responsibility regarding community needs. We have also seen USA students become deeply educated in complex Africa related issues and serving as educators in their communities where it is critically needed. 

Collaborations to Protect Children from Environmental Lead in Boston.   Martha E. Richmond, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Director of Environmental Science, Suffolk University.  

Environmental lead is a classic “wicked” chemical problem.  While the gradual phase out of tetraethyl lead in gasoline has resulted in a marked decrease of environmental lead exposure for the general population, lead contamination remains an intractable environmental health problem in many US communities, especially underserved communities of older cities.  In such communities, significant numbers of children under 72 months of age continue to have blood lead levels that are higher than the presently accepted CDC standard of 5 ug/dL.  Despite educational and funding support to address many of the factors that contribute to environmental lead contamination, lead toxicity has not been addressed in meaningful ways in such communities. To more effectively speak to this problem, more collaborative approaches are necessary.  Recently, Boston, MA undertook steps to create a “lead free” Boston, including a Lead Summit and a Lead Working Committee composed of representatives from the public health, medical, legal, regulatory and academic communities.  This paper will discuss strategies that have been considered to more successfully address lead contamination, evaluate the effectiveness of the academic/regulatory/community collaborations, and suggest ways that the collaborations could be strengthened.