Getting on the same (recycled) page.

SUSTAINABILITY: NOT EXACTLY the new kid in higher education circles, but certainly gaining in popularity. In March, for example, members of the media spent several hours talking with 11 college and university presidents at a dinner organized by The Science Coalition. Discussions centered on IHEs' responsibilities and ideas for respecting the Earth and its systems. Two months later, the new Higher Education Associations' Sustainability Consortium, or HEASC, launched with its first official meeting in Washington, D.C.

Efforts to implement sustainable practices on campus are growing around the country, with more schools taking steps like buying foods from local growers or relying on wind power to fuel energy needs. Getting everyone on the same page takes work, and that's where HEASC comes in. The new consortium brings higher ed associations together on issues of sustainability, according to Anthony Cortese and Debra Rowe, who are co-coordinating the efforts. "If we are going to truly have the campus as a lab for sustainability, it needs to be integrated into the facilities, the curricula, the community partnerships, the research," says Rowe, who also oversees the U.S. Partnership for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. "If those are all done in silos, not only is it inefficient but it's a terrible waste of opportunity."

Seventeen different higher ed associations now have sustainability programs. "A lot of these organizations are doing significant things, yet they recognize this is the ground floor of things that need to be done," says Cortese, who is president of Second Nature, a non-profit that helps colleges and universities turn ideas on sustainability into actions. "The whole idea is that by pooling resources and knowledge, hopefully we can take a quantum leap forward. The kind of synergy that happens when people put their heads and resources together can create a whole that's much greater than the sum of its parts."--C.M.F.