It has been said that “everything that's old is new again,” and in this commentary we examine environmental sustainability with an eye on history. Not surprisingly, many of today's global environmental issues are the same problems that have dogged society for thousands of years and, remarkably, many of the proposed solutions are the same tired, unimaginative standbys, too. For example, society started using water to dispose of sanitary waste more than 2,000 years ago, and today we continue to use our waters to convey sanitary waste, only now we spend energy and resources to clean the water because we are running out. First, it was oxygen demand, then pathogens, then nutrients, and now drugs, hormones, and personal care products. What if these pollutants never reached our waters to start? What if the low-flow toilet was the no-flow toilet?

Funded by the United States (US) Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the US Institute on the Environment organized by the East-West Center hosted 20 undergraduate and graduate students for a six-week program in May–June 2009. Through involvement in the institute, participants gained an understanding of the environmental movement in the US by engaging advocacy, market, policy, cultural, and scientific approaches to environmental issues and seeing how these approaches are intertwined in the quest for developing sustainable pathways to environmental stewardship. The institute interacted with a diverse range of stakeholders, from government policy and management representatives, activists, educators, and for-profits involved in the broadly defined environmental movement. The curriculum was designed to maximize experiential learning through a variety of exercises and activities that demonstrated the dynamic complexity of environmental stewardship. Education for Sustainable Development provided a framework to design a program with proposed outcomes that include public diplomacy. The take-home lessons of each participant and the long-term cumulative impacts they will have in their respective fields of study and places of residence will ultimately measure the success of this public diplomacy initiative.

Environmental Practice 12:8–17 (2010)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) environmental management system (EMS), and the goal of sustainable development provide three separate and independent approaches for protecting the environmental. NEPA provides a scientifically based process for rigorously and objectively evaluating alternatives to a proposal or plan. In contrast, an EMS provides an ideal system for implementing and monitoring a federal agency's NEPA plan and final decision. A detail assessment of these two processes demonstrates that both systems share many common features and that the weaknesses of one process frequently tend to be counterbalanced by the strengths of the other. Properly combined, an integrated NEPA/EMS provides an efficient mechanism for evaluating and implementing federal agency actions. The goal of sustainable development is gaining international attention, yet it lacks a general-purpose system for identifying, evaluating, and implementing a sustainable development plan. This article further expands upon an earlier concept of an integrated NEPA/EMS. Specifically, this article describes a fourth-generation system that uses an integrated NEPA/EMS procedure to develop and implement a sustainable plan or program. The advantage of this consolidated process is that it draws from the synergistic strengths of an integrated NEPA/EMS to identify, plan, evaluate, and implement sustainable measures for proposed plans, projects, or programs. The following section explains the role that the NAEP has played in developing an integrated NEPA/EMS.

Environmental Practice 12:18–34 (2010)

Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are becoming a common measure of environmental impact and sustainability for institutions. The University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC) prepared a GHG inventory for fiscal years 2004–2008. UIC conducted a commuter survey to obtain data regarding the commuting habits of its faculty, staff, and students. In fiscal year 2008, UIC's carbon footprint was not significantly higher than the 2004 emissions (275,000 vs. 273,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, respectively). For 2008, the largest source of emissions was buildings (83%), followed by commuting (16%) and waste (1%). When compared to 85 other doctorate-granting universities, UIC's gross emissions per square foot (21.4%) are lower than average. The variation in the emissions over the five years studied is largely influenced by the amount of electricity purchased and the mix of sources of that electricity (i.e., nuclear vs. coal). Conducting a baseline GHG inventory can serve as a measure of progress toward more sustainable practices within an institution and as a tool for developing goals, strategies and policies to reduce emissions.

Environmental Practice 12:35–47 (2010)

As evidence of the earth's limited capacity to sustain human life mounts, institutions of higher education are being looked to for leadership in the effort to educate students about environmental concerns and support the development of sustainable innovations. Colleges and universities are responding to this call for leadership by starting and/or expanding environmental research programs, integrating sustainability issues throughout the curriculum, adopting sustainable operations, and building green facilities. Reflecting upon the sustainability efforts of these institutions, this research study explores the following questions:

• What factors are essential for initiating and leading a successful change effort to foster sustainability in higher education?

• What processes guide higher education institutions in efforts to deeply and comprehensively implement sustainable changes?

A sequential mixed-methods research design was used to gather data from questionnaires administered to 86 colleges and universities in the United States implementing sustainability programs and from interviews with 20 individuals who are guiding the change processes at ten different institutions. After the data had been analyzed to identify common themes, factors, and change-process strategies, the results of the analyses were examined in relationship to existing models of change in higher education. Significant correlations were found between the change strategies used and the support systems provided by these institutions and the level of progress achieved on the sustainability initiatives.

Environmental Practice 12:48–58 (2010)

The United States (US) Army became the first agency in the federal government to apply the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines to its sustainability program in 2007. It fully reported on 28 performance indicators and partially reported on another 12 in its first annual report. The second annual report for 2008 fully reported on 25 performance indicators and partially reported on 22. For each year, the US Army achieved the Global Reporting Initiative Administrative Level B for its sustainability program. The US Army has established sustainability as department policy, developed courses to indoctrinate senior leaders to the concept, and made a commitment to practicing sustainability. This report describes the evolution of sustainability as a multidimensional management paradigm in the US Army, identifies the Army Triple Bottom Line, and explores next steps, including the use of sustainability as a force multiplier in contingency operations.

Environmental Practice 12:59–65 (2010)

Waste reduction is a policy objective being pursued around the world, and many jurisdictions are now considering bag fees as a targeted way to deal with an avoidable waste stream. Seattle City Government passed legislation in July 2008 that placed a $0.20 fee on paper or plastic bags given at the checkout stand of grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores. However, an opposition campaign collected enough signatures to send the measure to a public vote in August 2009, where it was turned down. Understanding the lessons learned from this and previous bag-fee legislation will be useful to interested governments. Governments must understand that disposable bags symbolize convenience to many, and many citizens are unaware of the true consequences of handling waste. I conclude that for this breed of policy to be successful, four components are necessary: public education on the issue and the environmental context of the policy; a provision to mitigate financial hardship that may arise from the fee on low-income communities; an alliance with grassroots activist organizations that can help bring the discussion to a wider audience and gain public support; and, finally, a consideration of the macroeconomic conditions.

Environmental Practice 12:66–75 (2010)

The National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) and other constituencies have advocated the development of core competency guidelines for environmental educational programs for many years. Despite the high level of interest, no consensus has emerged on program identity that could lead to their development. The lack of a clearly defined identity has threatened program legitimacy and raised concerns about how well these programs are preparing students for entry into the environmental profession. To address these concerns, the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, a group of academic environmental program leaders operating under the auspices of the National Council for Science and the Environment, launched a study to learn more about extant program curricula and investigate the potential for reaching consensus on core competence areas. In this article, we review selected findings from the study to date and discuss their implications for the development of core competency criteria. Despite differing perspectives on curriculum design, our research indicates that programs share a common vision of program identity congruent with sustainability. A review of employer and employee surveys and reports from environmental professionals also point toward participation in and understanding of sustainability processes as increasingly important components of practice. Taken together, these findings indicate that sustainability could serve as an overarching paradigm to inform the development of core knowledge and skill competency recommendations for curriculum design.

Environmental Practice 12:76–86 (2010)

Sustainability, the global buzzword of the 2000s, is a vague and ambiguous term from an environmental consultant's perspective. The concept is just too large to incorporate in its entirety when designing, advising, and managing ecological and environmental projects at the local level. One concept I do admire and fully understand is “Think Globally, Act Locally.” It's a mantra that many people can relate to and appreciate. It makes the unreachable—achievable. So to incorporate sustainability into environmental consulting, it needs to be broken down to an understandable and usable level—the local level and how it relates to consulting.