Future-Proofing Higher Education: Sustainability and Leadership

in the Academy
Offered to SEHSA 2006
by
Edward Quevedo
WSP Environmental North America
Fall 2006

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Overview of Our Conversation

Compliance, Education, and
Leadership Using the
challenges of EHS compliance to
educate the next generation?
How can we contribute to the
Mission of our Institutions while
improving EHS performance?
What is Sustainable Development
and why is it relevant to the EHS
professional?
Sustainable Development and
Academic, and National,
Leadership
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What is the
relevance of EHS
Compliance to
Education in the
Academy?
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EHS Compliance
Natural
Resources

Goods and
Services

Pollution, Waste
and Environmental
Disturbances

Every EHS law and regulation is in place because of the

products and artifacts we produce and the way we produce
them
By weight, 89-91% of what we take from the Earth to make
products is lost as waste during the manufacturing process
Much of the rest is disposed at the end of useful life

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Does EHS Compliance result in

Environmental Protection and
Improvement in Quality of Life?

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Another Perspective:
Enforcement

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The EHS Enforcement Picture

full

122 Universities and Colleges

visited since 1998
New England, West Coast,
and Southeastern Focus
initially
Midwest inspection plan
developed for 2007
Average site inspection time
12 days
Average number violations
noted 112
Average fines levied $241,000
Corrective actions per
campus 159

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U.S. Department of
Labor
Occupational Safety & Health
Administration

Corrective Action Models

Focus is on University-wide safety
committee and satisfaction of
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
requirements
Sentencing Guidelines
Policy on EHS Compliance
Internal Audit functions
Hazardous waste management
plan
Staff involvement (faculty and
Deans)
Business Plan for the OEHS
Department
Models from other defense and
compliance projects
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Environmental Management
Systems and Leadership

What they do
Focus management
attention
Distribute responsibility
Emulate financial
management tools

How they work

Fun
Collaboration
Discipline
Accountability

Why they matter

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What we know
The traditional model
will fail, and continue
to fail
We need all hands on
deck
The reputational risk
and branding damage
is too large to justify
any other course of
action
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Education and EHS Leadership

The Financial Markets: FTSE for
Good, Dow Jones, Calvert, Domini
Trading over $3B in publicly held
funds
All use EMS as a filter for
Responsible Corporate Governance
EMS and EHSMS will be the
management model of the future
where EHS product regulation and
stakeholder expectations of life cycle
management and Corporate
Responsibility are growing
Rex Tillerson, CEO, Exxon Corp.

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Education and EHS Leadership

Education about Corporate
responsibility is central to
our role. We believe that
social, ecological, and
financial responsibility form
the backbone of our
operations and must
increasingly inform our
curriculum. Talloires is only
a part of that.

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Shirley M. Tilghman
President
Princeton University

The Talloires Declaration

and the Mission of Higher
Education

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Talloires Sources and Text

Agenda 21 Chapter
36
Agenda 21 Chapter 4
Johannesburg Summit
(WSSD) Section 3
A long and sustained
movement in Europe,
Latin America, and
Africa

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Talloires

We, the presidents, rectors, and vice chancellors of universities from

all regions of the world are deeply concerned about the unprecedented
scale and speed of environmental pollution and degradation, and the
depletion of natural resources.

Local, regional, and global air and water pollution; accumulation and
distribution of toxic wastes; destruction and depletion of forests, soil, and
water; depletion of the ozone layer and emission of "green house" gases
threaten the survival of humans and thousands of other living species . . . the
security of nations, and the heritage of future generations. These
environmental changes are caused by inequitable and unsustainable
production and consumption patterns that aggravate poverty in many regions
of the world.

We believe that urgent actions are needed to address these fundamental

problems and reverse the trends. . . .

Universities have a major role in the education, research, policy formation,

and information exchange necessary to make these goals possible. Thus,
university leaders must initiate and support mobilization of internal and
external resources so that their institutions respond to this urgent challenge.

We, therefore, agree to take the following actions:

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Talloires
1. Increase Awareness of Environmentally Sustainable Development
Use every opportunity to raise public, government, industry, foundation, and
university awareness by openly addressing the urgent need to move toward
an environmentally sustainable future.
2. Create an Institutional Culture of Sustainability
Encourage all universities to engage in education, research, policy formation,
and information exchange on population, environment, and development to
move toward global sustainability.
3. Educate for Environmentally Responsible Citizenship
Establish programs to produce expertise in environmental management,
sustainable economic development, population, and related fields to ensure
that all university graduates are environmentally literate and have the
awareness and understanding to be ecologically responsible citizens.
4. Foster Environmental Literacy For All
Create programs to develop the capability of university faculty to teach
environmental literacy to all undergraduate, graduate, and professional
students.
5. Practice Institutional Ecology
Set an example of environmental responsibility by establishing institutional
ecology policies and practices of resource conservation, recycling, waste
reduction, and environmentally sound operations.

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Talloires
6. Involve All Stakeholders
Encourage involvement of government, foundations, and industry in
supporting interdisciplinary research, education, policy formation, and
information exchange in environmentally sustainable development. Expand
work with community and nongovernmental organizations to assist in finding
solutions to environmental problems.
7. Collaborate for Interdisciplinary Approaches
Convene university faculty and administrators with environmental
practitioners to develop interdisciplinary approaches to curricula, research
initiatives, operations, and outreach activities that support an
environmentally sustainable future.
8. Enhance Capacity of Primary and Secondary Schools
Establish partnerships with primary and secondary schools to help develop
the capacity for interdisciplinary teaching about population, environment, and
sustainable development.
9. Broaden Service and Outreach Nationally and Internationally
Work with national and international organizations to promote a worldwide
university effort toward a sustainable future.
10. Maintain the Movement
Establish a Secretariat and a steering committee to continue this momentum,
and to inform and support each other's efforts in carrying out this declaration.

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What is Sustainable
Development?
Economic
Development
drives the world

In the 1930s,
the industrial
world began to
respond to
labor strive

In the 1960s,
rivers began
burning and
leading nations
began to pass
environmental
laws

In 1972, the
Stockholm
Conference
convened

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Sustainable Development: Design of

the Future and Opening Real Doors to
Student Opportunity

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What does Sustainable

Development Look Like?

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What does Sustainable

Development Look Like?
Is this the Realm of
Sustainable Development?

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Well, No
Not Really . . .
So, then, what is the better picture???

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A More Accurate Picture

Natural Resources

Stakeholders
Students, Parents, Suppliers,
and Institutions of Civil Society .
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The Infrastruc
Of Industry an
Our Economies

The Fundamental Premise

Sustainability is a
Discipline
It is a decision-making
tool
It helps us with our two
most important duties
Measurably better
decisions over time in
the face of risk and
change
No surprises
anticipating and being
proactive (i.e., paying
attention)
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With Only Three Kinds of Resources, we must use them all with
caution, humility, and effectiveness

Natural
Capital

Financial
Capital

Used to grow or enhanc

Invested to enhance:
Better decisionmaking &
Organizational
performance
Used with a view

to protecting and growing:

Human & Social Capital

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The Theme: Business at Usual is

not Good Enough

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Hypothesis and
Opportunities:
By teaching long term
financial and social
responsibility as
fundamental to business
Citizens
Compliance Leadership
Curriculum (the Ithaca
Model)
The Built environment (and
going beyond LEED)
Operations and SMS
Implementing Talloires

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The Fundamental Hypotheses

The future of the
Academy depends on
the example we set
Gaining and holding
our Institutions
Competitive Edge
through Brand and
Reputation
Becoming more
central to
governance and
decision-making

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Facing the Future: FutureProofing

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Ethics, Culture, and Duty

Diversity and Global
Citizenship
Peak oil and preparing for a
Hydrogen Economy
Ecosystem collapse and the
Millenium Ecological
Assessment
Carbon and Consumption Taxes
National Governments
discussing Responses to, not
the theory of, drastic Climate
Change
Our students must live and
thrive in this world

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The Future - A Campus that

Embodies, and Teaches . . . The
Values of the Academy
An economy that is based
on non-carbon fuels
Communities that are net
exporters of renewable
energy
Asset value enhancement
through use of structures
Anticipating market
demand
Generating Quality of Life
Ensuring fulfilment and
enrichment through work
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Equity - Ecology - Economy

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The gross national product includes air pollution and

advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our
highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our
doors and, jails for the people who break them.
It grows with the production of napalm and missiles
and nuclear warheads
And if the gross national product includes all this,
there is much that it does not comprehend. It does
not allow for the health of our families, the quality of
their education, or the joy of their play. It does not
account the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our
love for each other, the intelligence of our public
debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither
our wisdom nor our learning.
The gross
nationalFproduct
measures
everything,
in
Robert
. Kennedy,
May
1968, Chicago
short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it

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Further Reading

The Dance of Change, Peter Senge, 1999

The Millenium Ecological Assessment (March 2005, Watson et.

al)

Believing Cassandra, Alan Atkisson (2001)

Ithaca College (www.ithaca.edu/sustainability), Univ. of British

Columbia (www.ubc.ca) ; London School of Economics
(http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/summerSchool/brochure/econ
omics/EC240.htm)

Holistic Management, Allen Savory & Jody Butterfield (2002)

Agenda 21 and the 2004 WSSD Johannesburg Plan of

Implementation, (www.unep.org)

Talloires Declaration (www.talloires.org)

The MEA - http://www.maweb.org/en/products.aspx

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Thank you for your kind

attention!

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Edward L. Quevedo
Senior Director, Global Integrity
and Sustainability Programs
(c)+1.415.806.0355
(o) +1.415.402.2207
(e) edward.quevedo@wspgroup.com

WSP Environmental North America

San Francisco Offices:
405 Howard St., Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94105
And offices in Palo Alto, Seattle, Austin,
London (Headquarters), and throughout Africa, Europe,
and Asia
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