Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories

2010 Earle Bates Lecturer in Environmental Studies to Discuss “The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus”

Dr. Mitchell Thomashow, president of Unity College in Maine and nationally known in environmental circles, is the 2010 Earle Bates Lecturer in Environmental Studies at Washington and Lee University. He will give a lecture on Friday, April 2, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in the Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons.

The title of Thomashow’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is “The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus.”

Thomashow is a scholar and writer who is specifically interested in developing reflective, interdisciplinary pedagogy for undergraduate and graduate programs in environmental studies. He has spent 30 years in the field of environmental studies, promoting an approach that is precisely matched to the unique qualities of Unity College.

As a way of meeting the challenge of training a new generation of sustainability leadership, and as a guide for both curricular and institutional transformation, Thomashow proposes nine elements of a sustainable campus which are designed to evoke a whole new twenty-first century catalogue of transformational sustainable practices.

Thomashow is the founder of “Whole Terrain,” an environmental literary publication and “Hawk and Handsaw,” a journal of reflective sustainability. He serves on the advisory board of The Orion Society, the Coalition on Environmental and Jewish Life (COEJL), and the Teleosis Institute.

Thomashow is a founding member of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, a national organization that supports interdisciplinary environmental studies in higher education. He serves on the Steering Committee of the American Colleges and University President’s Climate Commitment.

Thomashow’s talk is sponsored by the Program in Environmental Studies.