The following obstacles and suggested solutions are among the most common we have heard from independent school faculty and staff attempting to start or strengthen their sustainability efforts. In some cases, obstacles are described in different ways but revolve around one fundamental problem. In these instances, we’ve tried to summarize and present one obstacle to avoid repetition. Note: If you experience an obstacle or devise a solution that is not described here, please send it to Wynn Calder (consultant with NAIS) at wynncalder@aol.com. Thank you.
(1) Obstacle: Lack of institutional commitment / There’s no mandate.
Solutions:
Build a critical mass – Encourage students to voice their concerns (get them in front of trustees); work on expanding the nucleus of folks who embrace the process; speak at division meetings and meet with grade team leaders.
Raise awareness through public events and outside speakers.
Work hard to get administrative support. Ultimately, the head, trustees, business manager and others must stand behind the school’s position on sustainability. That position must take written form, either as a mission statement, action or strategic plan, with an accompanying mechanism for implementation.
Work on communicating the sense of urgency without the shrillness.
Send a team of staff/faculty to a professional development workshop on sustainability.
Patiently usher families and faculty along with regular, nonpartisan communication.
Pick a few issues (such as waste reduction, recycling improvements, energy saving projects) and experience some early and well-documented successes. Focusing on energy usually has a big impact and draws in a lot of supporters right away.
(2) Obstacle: Diffuse power and unclear decision-making.
Solutions:
(3) Obstacle: Difficult to balance energy and exhaustion.
Solutions:
This means you are probably doing too much. Find other allies and/or delegate tasks to more people.
Lower your expectations, try to slow down, and be more patient.
(4) Obstacle: Lack of strategic vision.
Solutions:
Meet with the head and with trustees to advocate for incorporating any sustainability planning into long-term strategic planning.
If you haven’t already, form an environmental or sustainability task force, with representation from all constituencies, and combine your sustainability planning with long-term strategic visioning.
(5) Obstacle: Lack of historical continuity.
Solutions:
Go back to your mission statement, the school’s recent history, and the story it tells about itself, and make a clear connection between this information and your sustainability plan.
Bring the school veterans together and ask their advice about how to integrate sustainability more effectively into the fabric and history of the school.
(6) Obstacle: “It’s too expensive.” / Perceived cost of sustainability initiatives and budgeting.
Solutions:
(7) Obstacle: Resistance to change (both internally and externally) / Consistent struggle and negativity of some staff members to contribute / Unwillingness to change the way things have been done in the past.
Solutions:
Try different communication approaches: Learn some “change agent” techniques to better engage those who are resistant – building relationships is a key strategy, but doing so takes time; speak at faculty/staff division meetings; meet individually with grade team leaders to explain what you’re trying to do and to get their advice.
Stick to working with those who are on-board.
Tone down the goals of your action plan (initiative or committee) for the first year.
Slow down your approach to make it more workable for the members of your community who would like to be part of this process. (Example: “We've had to go slower on implementing our green purchasing guidelines. We're a small school, vendors are sometimes not responsive to us when requesting data, and it’s hard for our lone purchasing agent to do all of the research.”)
Look at which of your initiatives can generate a near immediate cash flow - so that sustainability is not seen as a burden to bear but rather a change of culture that enables the school to do what it values and reap rewards.
(8) Obstacle: Lack of time and delays from committed individuals / Lack of time even to meet as a committee.
(Example: “We work on sustainability and then get behind on other projects.”)
Solutions:
Regarding the committee, meet with committee member individually.
Lower expectations and/or revise your action plan to allow for more time to accomplish tasks.
Meet with head (and others as appropriate) to discuss creating a full- or part-time sustainability coordinator position or giving two faculty and staff members release time to be co-coordinators.
(9) Obstacle: “We don’t want another add-on.”
Solutions:
Change the frame: Explore ways that you can make cumulative changes in “the way we do things” over time, rather than try to “add” to what is already happening at school.
Think in terms of “changing” and “modifying” rather than “adding” on to.
(10) Obstacle: Lack of understanding of sustainability on part of staff and/or faculty / “It’s too hard to understand, so I don’t try.”
(Example: “I am confronting some faculty who don’t understand what sustainability is and don’t want to be bothered with 'another' initiative that takes away from their primary job of teaching, coaching, being a dorm parent.”)
Solutions:
Since ecological and sustainability topics often require some degree of integrated and/or systems thinking to understand, hold a half- or full-day faculty/staff in-service to explore these topics with an outside consultant.
Find a teacher who is eager to integrate sustainability (or sustainable development) concepts into his/her course, implement the changes, and then demonstrate the methods and results to other faculty.
Take small visible steps in “greening” campus operations (with student engagement) to begin demonstrating sustainability through real action.
Give it time: The global trend and importance placed on sustainable practices is becoming commonplace and will help.
Raise awareness through public events and outside speakers.
(11) Obstacle: Competing or conflicting priorities.
(Example: “We created an Institute for Teaching last year and are developing a program to reevaluate science curriculum in our school this year. Both of these ‘academic’ initiatives are the main focus of the school at this point. These programs are fully funded and academic positions have been created to focus solely on these areas. Sustainability gets sidelined in this case.”)
Solutions:
Maintain some quiet enthusiasm among the sustainability “champions” (including students) and focus on small, visible accomplishments (such as improved recycling with better signage, battery and toner cartridge collection).
Find creative ways of incorporating sustainability goals into the competing initiative. For example, there are numerous ways to incorporate environmental and sustainability themes into the science curriculum.
(12) Obstacle: Inherent stress involved in the paradigm shift to sustainability.
Solutions:
Emphasize the long-term benefits for the school – relevance to education in the 21st century; leadership among independent schools; enhanced student learning and staff productivity and satisfaction (particularly with green construction and renovation); moral vision.
Emphasize the joy and hope that is part of building a more sustainable school.
(13) Obstacle: Things don’t get done as quickly or as effectively as they should.
(Example: “Some of the faculty are very knowledgeable about the problems and what needs to be done. My challenge is to use their knowledge and passion effectively.”)
Solutions:
Make sure you have people who get things done on your sustainability team or committee. Delegate to them where possible.
Organize colleagues to work together in a coordinated way. Doing so can be complex and time consuming.
Take very clear, small steps at the beginning. Work with a small committed group to develop an effective plan and approach. Find out what people have the energy to do and where their passions lie, and then create a set of clear and realistic goals.
Communicate progress to the whole school community as the initiative moves forward. Occasionally present results to the school in assembly.
Set regular meeting times for your sustainability committee to develop a consistent dialogue between those who want to be active in the process.
(14) Obstacle: “I’m more concerned about people than the planet.”
Solutions:
Sustainability (and sustainable development) is about people AND the planet. Furthermore, since we depend on the environment for our survival and well-being, our only choice is to protect it.
Simply telling the cradle-to-grave story of an institution’s energy, water, food, and material can go a long way in shifting the perspectives of people at the institution.
(15) Obstacle: “Sustainability doesn’t fit with the school’s college preparatory curriculum.”
Solutions:
Show that sustainability (or sustainable development) concepts are relevant and inherent to most disciplines. Use existing sustainability related curricula (see list of organizations who develop these materials at
www.nais.org/sustainable/article.cfm?ItemNumber=148208).
Identify a selection of teachers who want to demonstrate the value of sustainability (or sustainable development) concepts in their college preparatory courses.
Make the case that colleges and universities are leading in the promotion of education for sustainability, and that they would welcome such efforts at the K-12 level.
