Is St. Olaf College a sustainable campus?

IS ST. OLAF COLLEGE A SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS?
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Is St. Olaf College a Sustainable Campus?
Sustainability is a broad discipline that encompasses the development of viable to guarantee the survival of both planet Earth and the human race. Precisely, it is a balancing act that ensures current development does not compromise the welfare of upcoming generations (Ralph and Stubbs 2014). Colleges such as St. Olaf have for several years’ now embraced ecological responsibility and sustainability as part of their core tasks. St. Olaf community has been practicing considerate environmental stewardship by ensuring proper maintenance of the institution’s natural surroundings even before the current sustainability trend across the country’s campuses. The institution has always been at the forefront of discovering new strategies related to advancing the welfare of the planet through its diversified curriculum, energy conservation, local acquisition of food products, and natural land preservation.
By embracing practices associated with restoration of natural lands and developing new buildings and renovations, the institution embraces both modernism and traditionalism sustainability. Gilligan (2012) associates modernism sustainability with appropriate technology solutions such as wireless soil sensors aimed at encouraging a greener economy. On the contrary, traditionalism sustainability revolves around old-fashioned conservative values (Gilligan, 2012). For several decades, St.

Olaf has participated in the restoration of natural habitats in lands owned by the institution, which is a traditional approach to sustainability. Likewise, by encouraging renovations, developing new buildings, and curbing its carbon emissions, the school has demonstrated its affection for modernism sustainability.
The other practices that substantiate St. Olaf as a sustainable campus include recycling and composting. The school reprocesses food wastes to generate manure that is used on college-owned land. St. Olaf also purchases its food supplies from local service providers to promote organic farming. Importantly, the institution has invested substantial amounts of resources in ecological education and research (Ralph and Stubbs 2014). Besides regular environmental studies courses, students and faculty members can partake in the Geophysical Studies of Ice and Climate program, which focuses on climate change in the Arctic, Antarctica, and Alaska regions.
Reference List
Gilligan, Christine (2012). Can postmodernism contribute to saving the world? In: McClean, Rachel, (ed.) ECRM 2012 Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies, Bolton, UK. Reading, Academic Publishing International Limited, 461-469.
Ralph, Meredith, and Wendy Stubbs. 2014. “Integrating environmental sustainability into universities.” Higher Education (00181560)67, no. 1: 71-90