References

Increased awareness of environmental degradation and concern for its rehabilitation have prompted colleges and universities to green their campuses. A green campus is “a place where environmentally responsible practice and education go hand-in-hand and where environmentally responsible tenets are borne out by example" (NEIWPCC n.d.). The green campus institution is a model environmental community where operational functions, business practices, academic programs, and people are interlinked, providing educational and practical value to the institution, the region, and the world.

Greening initiatives, although challenging and demanding, yield significant benefits in the long run: • Environmental and economic sustainability. A system-wide culture of sustainability helps preserve and enhance what the institution values today as well as for the future. • Reputation as a leader through example. As colleges and universities offer courses in environmental management, engineering, laws and regulations, and assessment, greening initiatives provide them opportunities to practice what they preach and make their mark as environmental leaders. Colleges and universities need to examine their own organizations and implement on their own campuses what they and the public expect their industry to do. • Economic benefits. A routine, curriculum-based, environmental audit program that reveals waste and inefficiency associated with campus activities, coupled with the identification of environment-friendly alternatives, can yield significant cost savings for the institution. • “Real-life" work experience for your students. Environmental audits and pollution prevention evaluations can be integrated into the curriculum, providing students with hands-on investigative and problem-solving experience that they can take with them when they enter the workforce. This experience not only makes your students more marketable, it also provides them with the kinds of broad- thinking skills that allow them to succeed and thrive once they are employed. • Improved quality of life in the campus. A Green Campus is a cleaner, safer, and healthier place to live and work.

Ecological literacy is a form of transformative education that requires shifts in three related areas: (1) perception (seeing), (2) conception (knowing), and (3) action (doing).

In schools, teachers are also required to shift emphasis through the following: • From parts to whole - Subjects are to be taught as integrated, not as isolated units in the curriculum.

• From objects to relationships - An ecosystem is a community.

Communities are characterized by sets, networks, or relationships.

Schools put premium on relationship-based processes such as cooperation, collaboration, and decision-making by consensus. • From objective knowledge to contextual knowledge - This shift requires one to explain properties of the parts within the context of the whole or in terms of environments and systems. • From quantity to quality - Assessments have traditionally emphasized standardized testing in terms of quantities, numeric scores, and measurements. Schools are challenged to design assessment more adequate than the standardized tests if they are to practice this principle. • From structure to process - Systems are dynamic and evolving. Thus, the understanding of living structures is linked to understanding renewal, change, and transformation. This shift is embodied in project- based learning, which highlights the application of knowledge within evolving real-life contexts. • From contents to patterns - When we draw maps of relationships, we discover certain configurations of relationships that appear again and again. We call these configurations patterns. Instead of focusing on what a living system is made of, we study its patterns. Pedagogically, the shift reminds us of the importance of integrating art into programs of study. This enables children even at young age to recognize and express patterns whether we talk about poetry, literature, visual arts, performing arts, and music.

Wrap Up

• Ecological literacy refers to an individual’s understanding not only of ecological concepts, but also of his or her place in the ecosystem. • Ecological literacy is a form of transformative education that requires shifts in three related areas: (1) perception (seeing), (2) conception (knowing), and (3) action (doing). • The ecologically literate person of the 21st century has a positive view of life, grounded on the faith of interconnectedness, and has the capacity to competently perform significant life, work, and related tasks.