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| Students visit wind-power
operations in Denmark. |
Last summer, three McIntire students spent four weeks traveling through Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Germany. The students weren’t simply sightseeing in Northern Europe. Instead, they were engaging in the intensive study of a topic that’s lately been receiving a lot of attention: sustainable development.
Two of the students, along with 10 students from the College, were participating in Professor Mark White’s May 14-June 2,
2005, “Investing in a Sustainable Future” program. Professor White coordinated the program as part of his preparations for a
spring 2006 course of the same name. In addition, a sole Comm School
student attended the July 2-15 Universitas21 2005 Summer School in Lund, Sweden, themed “Sustainable Development of Global Society.” White also attended the U21 conference.
Universitas21, in which the University of Virginia is a member, is an international network of 17 leading research universities in nine countries. Its purpose is to facilitate collaboration and cooperation between its member universities and to create entrepreneurial opportunities for its member institutions.
U21: Global Conversations, Global Issues
Participants in the U21 Summer School, who came from countries as wide-ranging as China, New Zealand, and Nigeria, worked in small, diverse groups at three tasks. First, they were to choose a country of interest and study the various environmental and health risks associated with the major emitters of greenhouse gases (energy production and use, transportation, agriculture, and waste) in that country. Next, they were to discuss the ways in which such risks might be addressed at a global level. Finally, they were to strive to learn from intercultural and transdisciplinary communication.
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| Travis Triplett (McIntire ’06)
(center) is featured in a Swedish newspaper during the U21
Summer School. |
“The first thing students learned,” White says, “is that not everyone thinks like they do. It’s one of the most important lessons you can learn.”
“It definitely gave me a broader perspective,” says Travis Triplett (McIntire ’06), who attended the summer program with four other U.Va. students. “I saw that people were thinking about global issues with various goals in mind—and from a variety of political and cultural backgrounds. I was more of a capitalist, but one of my group members was from Sweden, and he was definitely more of a socialist. Then there was another group member from Nigeria, who was critical, on behalf of Africa, of the West in general.”
Says White, “Students were challenged to reach a consensus with people of different cultures, of different opinions, and of different viewpoints.”
Economy Meets Ecology
As a student of business, Triplett says he found himself in the minority; most of the Lund attendees were students of environmental science. “For me,” Triplett says, “the issue was, how do business and commerce fit in? Environmentalists and scientists can come up with ideas and solutions for bettering the environment. But the people who’ll be putting those ideas into practice are going to be businesspeople.”
Triplett says he strived to bring a well-informed business perspective into a conversation that sometimes included economically untenable solutions, such as Europe’s cessation of trade with America in response to perceived U.S. environmental irresponsibility. Other times, Triplett recalls, he found himself explaining such things as the ways in which American commercial development has occurred and the consequent current obstacles to the use of bicycles as a primary means of transportation. “Clearly, we have to think about the environment,” Triplett says. “But we also have to talk about the costs and economic effects of implementing environmental policies.”
Overall, though, Triplett says he was impressed, and moved, by the sentiments expressed at the conference. “There was a tremendous concern for humanity—for the survival of human beings,” he says, “and for what we should do to help the poorest. It was awesome to be around a group of people who were really thinking hard about how to do things better, and how to improve the world.”
Investing in a Sustainable Future
What do Icelandic geothermal energy plants, an ecologically responsible fishery, fields and fields of Danish wind turbines, a “clean coal” plant, and state-of-the-art, super-clean, German automobile factories have to do with one another? Answer: They were all on Professor Mark White’s “Investing in a Sustainable Future” itinerary.
The trip was funded in part by $150,000 in curriculum development support that White recently received from longtime McIntire corporate partner Procter & Gamble, who gave the money so that White could design a comprehensive, innovative sustainable development curriculum.
White has been doing just that, taking students to see some of the most cutting-edge examples of environmentally sound industry, such as the Kalundborg “clean coal” plant. Kalundborg minimizes its environmental footprint by reusing and recycling industrial byproducts that have typically been regarded simply as industrial waste. White describes the plant as “one of the most important examples of industrial ecology—it’s an entirely integrated industrial ecosystem.”
The trip also included some classroom time with Professor Edeltraud Guenther, an expert in environmental accounting at Germany’s Dresden University of Technology. Professor Guenther and her husband, Thomas, will act as visiting professors at McIntire during the spring 2006 semester, joining Professor White in teaching the inaugural “Investing in a Sustainable Future” classes.
Speaking of the two-week trip through Scandinavia, White says, “I designed the program to open students’ eyes to new possibilities for development and energy production. I wanted them to have the chance to see what other countries are doing to plan for their economic and environmental well-being.”
Crossing Oceans, Crossing Disciplines
The students’ eyes seem to have been opened, indeed, irrespective of discipline. Lauren Bruch (McIntire ’06) commented that the trip broadened her perspective on effecting pro-environmental change. “I’m interested in working internationally,” she said, “probably in developmental economics. I had never thought before of working with local governments worldwide to effect change—but it seems like it might be the most efficient way to tackle some of the world’s major problems.”
Tyndall Ellis (Engineering ’07) had a somewhat different take on things. “If only the United States could be more supportive of new energy sources,” he commented, with some degree of frustration, after visiting Danish wind-power operations. “Compare our resources to Denmark’s—anything is possible!”
Brooke Yamakoshi (Engineering ’06) voiced similar opinions. “We need to be doing this in the United States,” she said. “What do we do with all the cities and suburbs we’ve already built with so little regard for sustainability? What about the exurbs and the big box commercialism and the sprawl and the giant freeways? What will it take? Will a transition to a sustainable way of living happen out of necessity, stem from a crisis?”
Of course, it wasn’t all serious business. Students also had plenty of time for sightseeing, which included indulging in a Viking-style feast (read: dried shark meat and lamb testicles), relaxing at a geothermal spa, visiting Denmark’s famous Kronborg Castle, and of course, sampling the region’s famous beers.
All in all, the trip seems to have been a smashing success—not only from an academic standpoint, but also from the standpoint of social, cultural, and global awareness.
“I told my mom that I loved Copenhagen and that I was moving there,” said Margaret McInerney (Engineering ’06). “She freaked out a little…so maybe I won’t move there, but I’m definitely coming back.”
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