The United Nations’ adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD), including 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, is a watershed moment in the global effort toward a sustainable life on earth. Pope Francis added his voice to urge action by stating that “a true ‘right of the environment’ does exist,” that “any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity,” and that “human beings are not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it.” He went on to lay blame for environmental degradation on the “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity” that is leading to increased suffering for the poor who “are cast off by society”.
The challenges to implementing the 2030 Agenda’s SD actions are overwhelming, complex, interdependent, interconnected and dynamic. The explosive brew of the issues to contend with and the ever changing realities, and the fast approaching climate tipping point require not only long-term strategies but also innovative plans to cope with short-term human needs. Effective solutions require enormous material and human capital, purposeful interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary collaboration, cooperation of all players within local communities and across boundaries, and, most importantly cultural transformation.
The storied human legacy that stands to profoundly influence the desirable change is education. Education promotes awareness, influences behaviors, and inspire contextual, appropriate, innovative and action-oriented sustainable solutions. The plethora of courses, programs, research articles, and reports, and the myriad of consortia for sustainability point to a high level of engagement by higher education institutions (HEI) in confronting ecological challenges. However what the HEIs are doing is not influencing the right change. A case in point is that research findings had forewarned humanity long ago of the catastrophic impact of climate change attributed to destructive human activities. However, humans were very slow to react and the Paris Accord of last year may be too little too late for what is forever lost. The recently released movie, before the flood is a riveting account of the warnings, denial, and the slow to heed the call to action to the “inconvenient truth”, an account of “hell is truth seen too late".
There is hope as long as there is life. The Sustainable Campus initiative at RHU is an expression of that hope and a genuine commitment to shaping a sustainable community.
Transforming RHU campus into a standard for learning, loving, and living the values of sustainability.