First off, I think Shana Weber and all of her efforts at Princeton are awesome, and I hope that Lafayette can soon make similar strides in sustainability efforts. I felt that Dr. Weber really did “uncover sustainability” at her talk. The question of how to nurture an ethos of sustainability is one that she has clearly striven to answer.

College campuses are truly a prime spot to develop sustainable practices as a living laboratory that thrives off the elements of engagement, teaching, communication, and research. Colleges hold a great deal of prestige and influence, and small scale successes across campuses have the potential to spread beyond to influence the nation and the world. Lafayette has so many students and faculty with great ideas, though they are not always feasible. This positive sustainability influence might be enough to encourage the school to place a higher value on the development of these practices.

Dr. Weber made an excellent point in saying that an integral part of a liberal arts education must be a focus on sustainability. Lafayette needs to make this a higher priority throughout the campus. One of the ideas I particularly enjoyed was that water bottles full of helpful information are passed out to the first year students right upon moving to campus. What a positive message from the very beginning! I hope to have a strong coordinator like Shana Weber and to see more emphasis on the sustainable efforts at Lafayette in the future.