Our Vision is an environmentally and economically just and sustainable future.
Our Mission is to assure that all graduates from UMass Dartmouth—who will be the professionals, decision-makers, leaders, and teachers of the future—will be environmentally literate and responsible, and work toward regional sustainability; to contribute to the international re-examination of paradigms in business, science, and technology through the establishment of educational programs that combine stellar intedisciplinary research and groundbreaking partnerships with business, non-profit groups, government agencies, and educational institutions.
Education for sustainability (EFS) means incorporating environmental education into all aspects of learning. Increasingly, university leaders are concluding that environmental education must be made a pillar of all higher education. Termed "education for sustainability," this approach of including environmental education within all aspects of campuses is rapidly growing in popularity at institutions around the world. These institutions consider it the most powerful approach to reversing the environmentally and economically inequitable and unsustainable path that the world is on.
Education for sustainability encourages institutions of higher learning to assure that all graduates are environmentally literate and responsible and foster regional sustainability.
The mission of education for sustainability has been divided into four major goals to help institutions achieve sustainability:
Greening the campus
Greening academics
Greening research
Greening private and public partnerships
Work on all of these goals must be integrated and deeply involve students, as part of their coursework, in interdisciplinary, experiential problem solving of campus and regional, public and private environmental and economic sustainability and social justice issues.
In 2001 the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funded An Assessment of Practices and level of Support With Recommendations for Implementing a Program of Education for Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts.
The assessment concluded that the activities and strong interest in sustainability at UMass campuses provide an excellent opportunity to develop a powerful EFS program and propel Umass into a leadership position in this rapidly growing approach to education and a just and sustainable future.
Last Updated On: 12/3/07
