Cultivating High Impact Sustainability on Campus, for the World
Shana Weber, founding director of Princeton's Office of Sustainability, opens InFocus 2016-17
As a child, Shana Weber loved to explore her backyard. She searched for birds’ nests in the overgrown hedges, watched squirrels scramble up tree trunks and along branches, observed ants marching in linear formation across the ground as they foraged for food. Weber developed a strong connection to the natural world, which led to a career in ecology and eventually to her current work as the founding director of Princeton’s Office of Sustainability.
As an ecologist, Weber preferred field 
work in the most remote locations.
“I found people perplexing,” she says. “They had no affinity with the land
and were exiles from it. I didn’t understand that.” Weber almost wrote off humanity, but as she matured, something shifted. “What if we
thought of ourselves as partners
rather than exiles?” she wondered.
That question turned her toward people and to the work she does now, which focuses on creating an ethos of sustainability—a mindset, a different way of thinking, a dynamic process that answers to the question: How do we become an enhancement to the life support systems of this planet?
Weber shared this goal at her presentation, “Cultivating High Impact Sustainability on Campus, for the World,” here at Moravian University last month, in which she pointed out that the most effective way to create a global ethos of sustainability starts by building that ethos at our colleges and universities. “When you combine research and teaching with campus operations and demonstration systems, you get innovation and a dynamic learning environment,” she explains.
And she’s found that even the smallest actions can grow to have significant impact. Weber tells the story of how when she started work at Princeton, she would keep the lights off in her office, and she noticed over time that more and more of her coworkers adopted the same practice. Each of us can model behaviors that enhance sustainability whether that’s turning lights off when not in use or tossing plastic and other recyclables into recycling containers. Our individual actions reinforce a mindset that contributes to a greater ethos, and campus operations play an essential role as well.
As we contemplate, teach, learn, and practice this year’s InFocus theme of sustainability, let’s acknowledge the work we’ve already done toward nurturing an ethos of sustainability. Throughout campus you’ll find recycling bins, LED lights, and water fountains with signs pointing out that drinking from a reusable water bottle can prevent the disposal of hundreds of plastic bottles in a year. Still, much more action needs to take place on campus and globally. Weber warns that if we don’t heed more seriously our responsibility to the planet, by midcentury, humanity will face a global convergence of critical breakdowns in food, water, and climate systems. By acknowledging that we are capable of regenerative rather than destructive acts, we stand a chance to thrive on this planet. “Humanity is extraordinarily creative,” says Weber. “There is hope in what we are capable of.” As partners in the abundance of nature, we can work together to move toward a mindset of sustainability for the health of the whole planet.