It's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine

The Trump administration is expected to announce plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement right about now.  The headline implications of this are on the surface, hard to fathom. Run-away climate change will cause immeasurable suffering and economic decline.  If this move leads other countries to back away from their commitments, we could lose what may have been the very last-minute last change we had to avoid really devastating climate impacts.

On the other hand, much of the rest of the world, and much of the US will not let this ill-considered move slow them down.  In fact it could help us all redouble our efforts.

In the US, leading companies, cities, states, colleges and universities, faith groups, and others see the benefits of accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. The market forces are there.  By giving up our leadership role, the US may miss some opportunities, but others will take advantage of them.

The Low-Carbon USA initiative has been tracking businesses and cities committed to creating a sustainable future. Recently our friends at Second Nature looped in the colleges and universities that we have been working with on this for 10 years -- with over 600 committed to carbon neutrality, and making great strides in that direction.

Groups like the Climate Leadership Council, conservative Republicans, and the Citizens Climate Lobby are working to enact smart carbon fee and dividend programs.  States like Mass and California are considering ways to advance and expand their carbon pricing initiatives.  With long-standing leadership from the likes of Michael Bloomberg, mayors and cities have been working on these issues, and aren't going to stop.

Investors see where we the world is going. Most of the world's largest asset owners are taking action on climate risk and moving to greener investments. At the Intentional Endowments Network we're supporting endowments in keeping up with this trend.

While the climate challenge requires all oars rowing in sync -- and Trump's rowing backwards will hurt Americans, our children, and people everywhere -- my message to the rest of the world would be that the US is still with you, and we will now accelerate our work to address the climate crisis. We have no other choice.

Stay going.

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The Intentionally Designed Endowment: A Primer

What is an “intentionally designed endowment”?  Earlier this month, with support from a high caliber Steering Committee, we convened a group of representatives from endowed institutions and the finance industry to explore this question. The event was a partnership by Second Nature and Hampshire College intended to open up a constructive conversation around the opportunities in sustainability investing for non-profit institutions.

We developed a primer for participants to establish a baseline understanding of key issues related to aligning investment practices with institutional values. It provides a high-level overview of sustainability investing, including a brief history, and a select list of key resources and relevant organizations.

Any non-profit administrator or trustee with fiduciary responsibility or involved with investment policies should be familiar with this rapidly evolving field: Intentionally Designed Endowment Primer

While we are all aware of the fossil fuel divestment movement – which has been instrumental in bringing increased attention to endowment investment practices – this was not a meeting about divestment.

We learned about the broad range of socially responsible investing (SRI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing strategies now available, many of which now have long track records with performance equal to or better than conventional investment approaches. We heard from investment professionals about a range of implementation strategies for aligning investment practices with institutional values. A panel of legal experts clarified the issues of fiduciary responsibility as they relate to integrating ESG criteria into investment decision-making.

Risks and opportunities related to environmental challenges, social issues, and corporate governance are increasingly relevant to investment portfolios as society’s sustainability challenges become more acute. Non-profit endowments have a tremendous opportunity to avoid losses and maximize returns, while better aligning their investment practices with institutional values.




Stay going.
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Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards 2013

Second Nature has just announced the winners of this year's Climate Leadership Awards -- "an award program that recognizes signatory institutions of the ACUPCC for their innovation and excellence in climate leadership." 

Click on the following links to learn more about what's happening on these campuses, and watch videos from each. 

Winners of the 2013 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards

Associate's Colleges

Bellevue College

University of Hawai'i Kaua'i Community College

Baccalaureate Colleges

Middlebury College

Oberlin College

Master's Granting Institutions

Chatham University

Goddard College

Doctorate Granting Institutions

Missouri Institute of Science and Technology

Portland State University

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry


Special Focus Institution 

Pratt Institute


Finalists in the 2013 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards

Associate's Colleges Glendale Community College Saint Louis Community College at Florissant Valley Baccalaureate Colleges Carleton College Hobart & William Smith Colleges Master's Granting Institutions American Public University System Western State Colorado University Doctorate Granting Institutions Georgia Institute of Technology Indiana State University Special Focus Institutions Massachusetts Maritime Academy University of Massachusetts Medical School

Stay going. 

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After Five Warm and Stormy Years, Higher Ed Leaders Keep Commitment to Confront Climate Change

The following is a re-post of an article published in The New England Journal of Higher Education on May 21, 2012.  Click here for the original article. 

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Preparedness. Opportunity. Innovation. These words capture the essence of higher education’s critical role in creating a healthy, just and sustainable society.

Leaders in higher education are standing up to the greatest challenge of our time by providing education for sustainability, preparing graduates to create a sustainable economy. They are providing the opportunity for more students to access higher education by reigning in costs through energy efficiency and smart building. And by demonstrating sustainability solutions on campus, through research, and in partnership with local communities, they are driving the innovation needed for a true and lasting economic recovery.

Five years ago, a small group of visionary college and university presidents gathered to initiate the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). They were motivated by their conviction that higher education had the capacity and responsibility to make a significant commitment to climate and sustainability action for the sake of their students and society.

As the ACUPCC celebrates its fifth anniversary, 675 colleges and universities are currently active members of this dynamic network, representing more than one-third of U.S. college and university students. These institutions across the country have completed hundreds of projects to reduce energy use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save money in the process—demonstrating powerful and necessary leadership-by-example for the rest of society.

At the same time, higher education is in crisis. Challenges of accountability, affordability, workforce preparation and relevance are sweeping the sector. The volatile global economy remains unpredictable, with ramifications for every campus. And despite our best efforts, the climate issue becomes more daunting daily.

In June, presidents, provosts and business officers will gather at American University in Washington D.C. for the 5^th Anniversary ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit. The summit will directly respond to these challenges with a theme of Economic Renewal: Jump-Starting a Sustainable Economy Through the ACUPCC.  To register for the June 21-22 summit, visit: www.acupcc.org/summit.

Our institutions can lead the way in promoting sustainable approaches to the major economic and social issues of our time. We can do this by cultivating preparedness, opportunity and innovation. How do we best connect education for sustainability with the evolving job market? How can sustainability initiatives cultivate cost savings and new funding sources? How can we effectively build partnerships with the corporate sector? How can our institutions be centers of innovative sustainability research and demonstration?

Preparedness

Understanding sustainability is required for career preparedness in the 21st century. Representatives from the ACUPCC’s corporate sponsors—which include large and small companies from Honeywell, Siemens, and Lockheed Martin to Organica Sustainable Water, Calstar Products, and GreenerU—along with many other business leaders have made it clear that they need graduates from all disciplines who understand sustainability. To date, higher education is has not delivered on the scale needed. However, there are more and more exciting efforts in this arena.

In 2009, the ACUPCC released a guide—Education for Climate Neutrality and Sustainability—to help schools tackle the academic component of the commitment. The latest reports from the network indicate that a subset of just 163 institutions now offer just under 10,000 sustainability-focused courses. There are so many new sustainability centers, institutes and degree programs that it is nearly impossible to keep up. Large universities like Arizona State and Florida Gulf Coast have embedded sustainability into their core mission. Higher education is stepping up to the challenge of creating new ways of teaching and learning that address the complex and discipline-crossing nature of “education for sustainability.”

Still, there is much work to be done. The vast majority of teaching and learning still reinforces ways of thinking that lead to unsustainable systems in every sector. The vast majority of students still graduate without a deep understanding of sustainability principles; without fully appreciating how the decisions they make in their person and professional lives impacts – directly and indirectly, now and in the future—the social and ecological systems upon which our civilization depends. Our graduates cannot know everything about everything. But to avoid unthinkable health, social and economic tragedies associated with sustainability issues like climate change, toxics, and extreme wealth disparity, they must know enough about how human activities—at today’s scope and scale—interact with the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles and affect communities around the world.

Earlier this year, a group of chief academic officers met to build on existing work and take it to the next level by mapping out a five-year strategy for integrating a sustainability perspective throughout higher education, which will be released in June. The ACUPCC network, and the learning community it represents will play a key role in catalyzing this work, and ensuring that higher education is fulfilling its societal obligation to graduate citizens who are prepared to run a thriving democracy. In the 21^stcentury, on a small planet with more than 7 billion people, that means understanding sustainability, and entering the workforce motivated to lead the creation of a sustainable economy.

Opportunity

Higher education is under pressure to improve access and affordability to ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to earn a degree. It’s critical to our economic well-being and competitiveness. The Obama administration has made it a priority. In this year’s State of the Union address, the president cut to the chase, stating: “Of course, it’s not enough for us to increase student aid … States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down.” Sustainability efforts are one effective, and essential, way to reduce costs now and mitigate financial risk for the future.

Through climate and sustainability efforts on campus, colleges and universities have avoided billions in operational costs. From the most recent ACUPCC reporting, 82% of signatories affirmed that theirClimate Action Plan has saved their institution money. To date, 99 institutions have reported financial savings from climate action projects within a range: the cumulative total of the low-end of the range for each shows savings of more than $100 million. William Paterson University secured $1.2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants for its Smart Buildings Project. Massasoit Community College secured funding to support energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives, including $4.3 million for switchgear projects from the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management, and $1.6 million for solar PV systems from ARRA funding and Clean Energy Renewable Bonds. The University of Vermont raised $4.1 million in private donations for its new LEED Platinum Aiken Center. In total, 84 institutions have reported securing funding from outside sources totaling $170 million.

These financial benefits are critical to keeping tuition costs down. With volatile and increasing fossil fuel prices, investments in reducing energy use and generating safe, clean, renewable power will shield institutions from greater financial risks in the future. Perhaps more importantly, doing so creates powerful experiential learning opportunities, and creates an authentic culture of preparing students for relevant career opportunities in the 21^st century. For example, when students live and study in green buildings and can touch and interact with the energy system generating power for them, they develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the economic, health and environmental benefits and take that with them into their personal and professional lives.

Innovation

In campus operations, ACUPCC institutions across the country have accomplished amazing things. Butte College in California became the first “grid-positive” campus, generating more electricity from solar panels than it consumed. Ball State University is completing the largest geothermal energy system in country, which will save the institution $2 million per year. In New England, the University of New Hampshire’s landfill gas project provides the campus with 85% of its power and will pay for itself in 10 years. Mount Wachusett Community College in Massachusetts and the University of Maine at Presque Isle have installed wind turbines on campus. Biomass plants have cut campus greenhouse emissions by 40% at Middlebury College and more than 50% at Green Mountain College.

With regard to research, ACUPCC institutions are advancing cutting edge technologies that will be critical to weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. Cornell University received an $80 million donation to create the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, which is involved with research efforts across the institution on clean energy solutions from solar, wind, geothermal, battery storage, fuel cells, biofuels, and more. During 2009-10, the University of Maine received nearly $50 million in external funding to support sustainability-related research, including the Maine Sustainability Solutions Initiative, UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, and UMaine’s Offshore Wind Laboratory and Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative.

By taking innovative approaches to engaging with communities beyond campus—locally, regionally, nationally and internationally—colleges and universities have gone further to advance the shift to a low-carbon, sustainable economy. The commitments to climate neutrality by Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College, were driving factors in the establishment of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative, which coordinates cross-sector efforts to marshal the complex, systemic changes needed to move toward sustainability. Through the program, students have developed leadership skills working with community members in reducing energy use and saving money. The region secured significant state funding to drive economic development by expanding these efforts. Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi of the University of California Davis is heading up the academic partnerships for the R20 Regions of Climate Action initiative—an effort of subnational governments around the world to make meaningful progress in reducing emissions. In Washington, D.C., nine institutions recently signed the Mayor’s College and University Sustainability Pledge aimed at making Washington the nation’s greenest city through goals related to energy and buildings, jobs and community development, water, transportation, green education and training, research and innovation.

Economic renewal

The impacts of climate disruption and the suite of other interrelated symptoms of our unsustainable systems threaten the very viability of our complex global economy and civilization. These are not “environmental issues”—they are human issues. Higher education has a very real responsibility and moral obligation to continue and accelerate its leadership for sustainability, with institutions working together and beyond their campus borders to lead the systemic shifts needed.

Through the ACUPCC, higher education is the only sector with a cohesive critical mass committed to the scientifically necessary goal of climate neutrality. While many businesses, communities, and government agencies have targets to reduce emissions, none have sector-wide initiatives like the ACUPCC providing a common framework with the ultimate target of net-zero emissions. This is particularly important with the inability of the federal government and the international community to make meaningful progress. Since failing in Copenhagen in 2009 to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, international climate negotiations have made little progress in securing binding treaties for emissions reductions, and federal climate legislation in the U.S. hasn’t been seriously considered since the Senate failed to pass a climate bill in 2010.

Of course the climate crisis is just one component of the sustainability challenge; the multifaceted, interrelated sustainability issues related to water, soil, toxins, peace, social equity and more, must be addressed in concert. But mitigating and adapting to climate change is an urgent matter. It is one that touches all of these other sustainability issues, and serves as a window to addressing them. The timeline for realizing this transition is short. A recent report from the International Energy Agency puts a fine point on the urgency, concluding that we have just five years to make major changes to avoid locking-in runaway climate change.

As the ACUPCC network celebrates its first five years of climate leadership in 2012, it is also launching ambitious goals for the next five years. These goals include expanding the reach and impact of the network, executing a strategy for accelerating education and research for sustainability throughout the sector, and advocating federal investments and policy changes to support higher education’s sustainability leadership.

Colleges and universities have the means and the mandate to lead the creation of a sustainable economy—an economy that more effectively meets the needs of more people for generations to come. Success will require continued bold leadership, increased collaboration across the sector, and new ways of thinking about how we teach, learn and operate for a healthy, thriving and sustainable future.

Georges Dyer is vice president of Second Nature.

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Stay going. 

It's happening: Being prepared for climate change

Over the past year at Second Nature I’ve been coordinating the “Higher Education Adaptation Committee” – a group of college and university administrators, climate scientists, sustainability professionals and educators exploring higher education’s role and responsibility in ensuring that society is prepared to weather the storms of climate change.

On Monday at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference at the University of Maryland, I co-facilitated a session on this topic with David Caruso, President of Antioch University New England (who serves on the Adaptation Committee). 

It proved to be a timely event.  On the day of the session, temperatures in New Hampshire were expected to reach the 90s (in April!). It’s been a warm spring all over the northeastern US.  And it was a warm winter.  Not really a winter at all in many places. Here, the mild weather doesn’t feel all that bad.  But if you understand the implications of climate disruption, it’s pretty horrifying. 

I won’t run through the usual list of climate impacts – but here are just a few of recent headlines:

• Drought Expands Throughout US
• Drought, Flooding And ‘Multiple, Combined Outbreaks’ Of Pests Threaten To Reduce Asian Agricultural Output 50%
• Hansen et al.: "Extreme Heat Waves... in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010 Were 'Caused' by Global Warming"
• Is Climate Change Bringing the Arctic to Europe? 
• Arctic Warming Favors Extreme, Prolonged Weather Events 

The following video does a great job of explaining how increases in the global average temperatures (global warming) drives all kinds of complex climactic changes - what's become known as "global weirding":

On May 5, 2012, the global network of concerned citizens under the 350.org banner will be “connecting the dots” between these impacts of climate change and what they represent in terms of economic damage, ecological destruction and human suffering.

To minimize this damage, we need to continue to create better ways of doing things.  We need to eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions and land-use changes that are driving climate change. 

We also have a moral obligation to prepare our society the best we can for the impacts of climate change that are already happening and will continue to happen based on changes already “locked in” from past emissions.

Higher education has a particularly critical role - and responsibility - with regard to climate preparedness, which brings me back to our conference session:

I provided a quick overview of the Adaptation Committee’s work and the report we published in November – Higher Education’s Role in Adapting to a Changing Climate – which provides a high-level look at what colleges and university are and should be doing through education, research, community engagement, and campus operations to prepare society for the impacts of climate disruption.

Dr. Caruso spoke about the role of presidents and senior administrators in this process – emphasizing the need to engage governing boards in the process.  He also provided compelling examples about how Antioch is weaving climate mitigation and adaptation through cross cutting activities that encompass curriculum, research, campus operations, and community engagement.

With the average tenure of a college president around five years, it’s important to ensure continuity and long-term commitment via the trustees.  In most cases, it will likely require a few years of persistent and skillful leadership from the president to really integrate this understanding and perspective throughout the Board.  But Trustees need to understand the risks climate change poses to their campus – they have the fiduciary responsibility for the institution.  If they don’t understand these risks, they aren’t fulfilling that responsibility.

The economic damages to campuses from stemming from climate impacts can be enormous (for example, see "Learning from Disaster" (pdf) - a report by UNCF on the impacts of Hurricane Katrina).  More important than the costs, they pose serious health and safety risks to the students, faculty and staff.  These could be direct impacts from extreme weather events on campus, or indirect from disruptions to agricultural production, supply chains, or critical infrastructure.

Beyond the responsibility to their own campuses and constituents, colleges and universities have a responsibility to all of society to provide the education and research needed to prepare for climate impacts.

During our session, we engaged the group in a dialogue about what was happening on their campuses, and around ways to teach students in all disciplines not just about climate adaptation, but for adaptation – so that it’s not just climate scientists and ecologists who understand the importance of adapting to these changes, but also economists, policy-makers, city planners, journalists, teachers, and so on. 

We spoke about how low-income communities and communities of color are often more vulnerable in the face of climate impacts, and are often hit “first and worst” by them.  This dynamics brings up important social justice issues that must be front-of-mind in this work.

While many universities are conducting important research to help communities in their regions understand the expected impacts and how to respond to them, more comprehensive approaches are needed to ensure the level of response that this challenge demands. 

On the bright side, a recent poll shows that most Americans link these extreme weather events to global warming, and intuitively understand - at least to some degree - the risks.  It's on all of us to ensure that we translate that understanding into action so we are as prepared as possible to minimize the damage and hardship.

Stay going. 

New Data Quantifies Sustainability Leadership of Colleges & Universities

Feb. 16, 2012 - The American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an agreement between nearly 700 colleges and universities to promote sustainability through teaching and action, today released new data on the positive environmental impact of colleges and universities across the country in reducing their carbon footprints.

Among the findings:

• The 599 colleges that submitted greenhouse gas inventories reported CO2 emissions of 28m metric tons, roughly as much as 2.58m homes or 5.2m passenger vehicles emit annually
• 306 institutions set a target of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 or before; 93 pledged neutrality by 2030
• Collectively, the ACUPCC network has purchased more than 1.28 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy credits (RECs), making it the third-largest buyer in the country

Avoiding catastrophic climate change will require transforming our economy, our institutions, our daily lives within a generation.  Only higher education has the influence, the critical mass and the diversity of skills needed to do this.

John Olson, associate professor at Villanova University, an ACUPCC signatory, explained the value it derives from the network.

"The fact that Villanova is a signatory of the ACUPCC has helped focus our efforts in many ways. It has prompted us to collect data that are crucial to monitoring our progress. It has also forced us to set milestones for achieving specific and concrete goals and serves as a touchstone for developing academic programs on campus. Finally, the pledge we made when signing the Commitment has allowed us to join the broader coalition of institutions that have similarly committed to climate neutrality and sustainability; such collaboration is energizing."

The ACUPCC has fundamentally shifted higher education's attention on sustainability from a series of excellent but distinct programs to a strategic imperative of presidents, academic officers, business officers and trustees - becoming a key lens for measuring success. It represents a cultural shift to focus on all aspects of social, economic and ecological sustainability.

"This wealth of data speaks to the enormous commitment and impact our member colleges have made," said Dr. Anthony D. Cortese, president of Second Nature, the lead supporting organization of the ACUPCC.  "The ACUPCC truly is an example of courageous leadership by college and university leaders. This is the first major U.S. Sector to commit to climate neutrality and the first time since WWII that higher education in the US has collectively stepped forward to take on a major societal challenge without waiting for some external entity to request it or fund them."

ACUPCC data shows that signatory schools have secured on average $2,343,787 from outside sources to support efforts related to the Climate Action Plan.

The data is publicly available on the ACUPCC's online reporting system - www.acupcc.org/reportingsystem - a platform that enables schools to quantify the sustainability activity that is taking place on their campuses, and hold themselves accountable by sharing their progress in a transparent way.

The full data set addresses current emissions levels, target dates for emissions reductions and climate neutrality, sustainability-related courses, degrees, and research initiatives, sources of funding, projects recently completed, and a wealth of other newsworthy information. The data is available in a variety of formats; contact Ulli Klein for more information. 

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About the ACUPCC 

The ACUPCC is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments from college and universities to accelerate the education, research and community engagement to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate, and eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations.

Learn more at: www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org.

About Second Nature

Second Nature works to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society by transforming higher education. Second Nature is the lead supporting organization of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, a growing network of over 675 signatory higher education institutions in all fifty states that have made a public commitment to transform the educational experience for all students so they are prepared to solve the climate crisis.

Learn more at:  www.secondnature.org.

Stay going. 

For the love of Baramaasis…

This is a re-blog of a post by Ashka Naik, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Second Nature as part of a weekly series by the Second Nature team about why we do what we do.  See the original post here. 

One late evening, around dusk, my mother and I were walking into our house, making a beeline through my grandma’s garden. While we were passing by some neatly laid flowerbeds, I saw a pink Baramaasi (a perennial flower, which literally means “perennial” in Hindi, Bara=twelve and Maasi=months) on the side of the brick path leading to the patio. My mother was holding my hand to balance my little figure as I paused and started to bend my knees to pluck that beauty from its stem. My mother, not a very vociferous person, watching me do what I was about to do, very lovingly said, “Ashkee, do you know her mother puts her to bed every night, just the way your maa does? Imagine how she must feel when she doesn’t find her baby in the bed tomorrow morning.”

I often saw my grandma worship random shrubs in her garden. One specific day of the Hindu calendar she would worship one plant, and on a different day she would worship another. I always wondered why one needed to venerate rather unattractive shrubs to understand the mysteries of the universe or to please the Gods above. However, I did understand why we worshiped Ganesha (the Elephant God) and Naagraaj (the Snake God), as I was informed that these creatures were embellished with bizarre powers to wade off evil forces and misfortune. Looking back at the time when I truly believed that a species other than of Homo sapiens could ever have such power over others, I find myself succumbing to the naïve imagination of a child’s mind.

Anyways, as Hindus, we were also to follow vegetarianism. We were to give bird food to birds even though they smeared our verandah with their mucky droppings, because it was drilled through our brains that one of those could be our brother or a sister from a past life. We were to take a few morsels out of our dinner to offer to the wandering cow or a street dog (same logic about past lives, brothers, sisters, etc.).

We had a different cuisine for each season, and sometimes even for each month. We had and still have hundreds of festivals, days on which one can only consume certain things, each festival having its own menu of delicacies and rituals. How else could all this have evolved, if not in respect of and in response to the rich diversity of crops and life in general in the Indian subcontinent! We even have a million and a half Gods, pick one that suites your taste the most. One size fits all just wasn’t the way.

All in all, we didn’t need Greenpeace to tell us that whaling was bad and Food Inc. to tell us that monocultures were unhealthy.

One day in school, and there were indeed many such days, when I hadn’t finished my homework, the teacher punished me by asking me to sweep the classroom floors for two consecutive weeks. Nothing unusual about the punishment though, since every student had to sweep and mop the floor for one week in a year in spite of an impeccable homework record. I must have been in the 5th grade then, so you could argue how a 12-year old could be punished in such an uncaring manner. I can imagine repercussions of such punishment in the US of A! Anyways, a little background on my school, I received my K-12 education in an institution that espoused the Gandhian thought – the institution was founded during the British Raaj by a small group of freedom fighters. Self-reliance was Gandhi’s mantra, and asking a child to sweep the floor wasn’t an inconsiderate act. As part of our education, we were to clean our classrooms, we were to sow the seeds and follow their growth in the hundred acres of farmland that encircled our school building, we were to spin cotton on a spinning wheel – the spool with the finest thread was used to make garlands for guests and the rest were taken to the loom to make our uniforms – we were to bow down to our teachers with a formal gesture of Namaste (“I bow to you”) every time a teacher entered the classroom.

That was then, when it was difficult to distinguish where spirituality blended with daily chores to concoct a wholesome life.

In the past two decades things have changed. Everything, good and bad, rich and poor, old and new, was somehow interwoven before India opened its door to globalization – the trees, the school uniforms, the education, the Elephant Gods, the Baramaasis – all seemed connected. Now the trees are gone, clothes come from Bangladesh, education is for sale to help one compete in a high yield job market of developed countries and Baramaasi, this perennial flower blooms very rarely (mainly due to severe water shortage and changing weather patterns).

However, the irony is that today more people use the word “sustainability” in India, just like everywhere else in the world, than ever before. If you had asked us then, we wouldn’t have known the meaning of it. It wasn’t discussed in the way we refer to the subject today. There were many different nuances of it, but no names. It could have been thrift for some, and religious practice for someone else.

Sustainability was a novel word to us as students of country’s premier architecture school, when the first time I heard the term being used in the context of buildings – Sustainable Buildings. These were not the LEED certified, Energy Star buildings. They were vernacular dwellings of indigenous peoples of the desert regions of Kutch and the forests of Daang and the mangroves of Sundarbans; buildings built by communities that have evolved to build, sustain and flourish with the land, and not off it.

Once I went through higher education, especially after my education in the UK where I studied Sustainable Product Design, then I understood what sustainability actually meant. The absurdity was that by then I had been pushed as far away from a sustainable lifestyle as I possibly could’ve been.

However, I returned home to India after two years, when reality hit me head-on.

This was the first time I was seeing what I had seen for twenty-five years, but in an entirely different light. Hunger stricken children with skeletal bodies begging on the streets, plastic bags clogging sewage, concrete forest replacing my school’s farmlands… Though nothing seemed that new, since the poverty had been in India’s veins for ages, and the physical transformation had already begun a few years ago. However, what was new was me suddenly finding every brand of luxury SUV on those same tiny streets where children still begged for food, school kids not being able to ride bikes to school because to let them loose in the maddening swarm of cars and trucks was nearly fatal, McDonalds and Starbucks being erected where once stood the street vendors who served scrumptious seasonal delicacies, monstrous shopping malls replacing the greens of the town, and my Grandma going to Wal-Mart like chains to buy her groceries? Until then the change that some call “progress” had stopped at my doorstep, but now, it had reached the heart of my home. It was unacceptable for me not to find the snack-vendor and to actually see my Grandma walk into a Reliance-Mart to buy vegetables that she had been buying at a local farmers market for last seventy years. Not only that, everyone, and I mean everyone, I knew now had a cell phone. But when I went to the fruit market to buy seasonal fruits, I wondered how a middleclass family could afford those? (But of course, they could afford the cell phones.) Even worse, I only found kiwis and strawberries on the shelves, hardly any babugoshas and chikoos. Kiwis and strawberries?! In Ahmedabad? There was certainly something wrong with this picture.

The interconnectedness was lost.

Sanskrit, the classical language of Hinduism, from which many Indian languages have evolved, has 65 words to describe various forms of earth, 67 words for water, and over 250 words to describe rainfall; each word depicting the myriad of nuances of that specific element of nature, each word capturing the context, the importance, the beauty, the usage, the geography, the climate, the ecology, and even the personality of that element. The way water would mean differently to a man of the desert than to someone living in the flood zone, these words emphasized the relevance and interconnectedness of objects. But now, that context has vanished, rather, there is a new context; the context of how eminent, lucrative and globalized a company that manufactures water is. And, based on this logic, we have a new set of words for water, “Dasani,” “Evian,” “Fiji,” “Aquafina.”

So, I may say that I work to make people forget about Aquafina.

As a society, we may just need anterograde amnesia to overcome the ways of life popularized by industrialization in the last hundred years and reminisce what we once already knew. Instead we have the retrograde type, where we have forgotten the very lessons our ancestors had learnt after living with the nature for eon after eon.

So, I see my responsibility as first reminding myself that there could be another reality and then sharing that vision with others. Vision of an alternate reality where the fabric of life is woven in veneration of mother earth, with the warps of natural principles, and wefts of sustainable choices, and embroidered with the splendor of diversity and preserved by the species with the intellect to get the job done.

What Second Nature offers in this journey, is a strategy to help the society realize this vision. I have heard a few times how the organization gets its name, and in my mind its mission, hence our mission, is to second nature… to re-connect the pieces to create a beautiful portrait of a life that I was fortunate to live as a child and am confident that my children will live one day.