ABSTRACT
The lack of connection among campus greening, Education for Sustainability (EfS), and sustainability science initiatives magnifies the challenge of teaching sustainability in academia by creating a structural trap. In practice, the priority is given to a going-green approach to improving infrastructure efficiency, which promotes a one-sided understanding of sustainability among faculty members and students. The greening, EfS, and sustainability science movements at universities throughout the United States are based on the assumption that once we introduce people to a sustainability concept and show practical solutions to sustainable living, they will change their ways and the whole institution will become sustainable. Such a linear approach makes synergistic implementation of sustainability in teaching, learning, research, and campus operations particularly problematic because faculty members and students undergo separate teaching and learning curves. This creates a structural trap by simultaneously introducing sustainability at all levels of academia within an educational system that is not designed for holistic transformation. How can universities escape this trap without transforming their entire educational system? How can we merge the fields of campus greening and EfS in one model that would ignite changes in the minds of students and faculty members?
