Teaching sustainabilityBY Bob Norberg
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Students in a Sonoma State University course are studying how to build sustainable communities, dealing with issues that range from ecology to economics.“We are drilling into transportation, land use, housing, food, energy and water,” said Rocky Rohwedder, an SSU professor of environmental studies and planning. “What are the equity issues, the economic issues. It is very theoretical and hard to wrap your hands around.”To bring it down to earth, the class looks at examples of what some cities and countries are doing.“You can have a sustainable world and still have a warm shower and cold beer,” Rohwedder. “But we have to think differently.”Students are looking closely at Sonoma State’s own practices as well.“The university needs to be a model of responsibility, of sustainability,” Rohwedder said. “If not here, then where? How can we expect communities around us to have sustainable policies and programs if the university doesn’t do it?”The class is adhering to the United Nation’s proclamation of a decade of study of sustainable development, running from 2005 to 2015.Its title, “Planning for Sustainable Communities,” is meant to be a step beyond Earth Day.“Earth Day has been about endangered species and about recycling,” Rohwedder said. “This class is asking the bigger question ... what next ... looking at structures and change for communities and not just green consumerism.”People must make substantial changes in how they live to bring the earth back into balance, so that they are not consuming more resources than the earth can supply, he said.“The bottom line here is we can’t just tweak the edges and get to where we need to be. We need an 80 percent decline in carbon dioxide in the next 20 years,” Rohwedder said. “You can screw in only so many fluorescent light bulbs and drive only so many Priuses. We need new structures and new models.”Rohwedder said the living conditions of residents of developing countries are important.“You can’t tackle ecological problems without addressing economics. We have to address the impact of poverty on how people treat the ecology,” he said.“If we can’t get them out of the $1 a day economy, we can’t get them to address their water and air.”Rohwedder said there are examples of cities and countries that are doing good things.In some parts of the Netherlands, there are separate bicycle lanes with their own traffic signals, and hundreds of public bicycles are ridden and then left for someone else to use.In Curtiva, Brazil, impoverished residents are being put to work cleaning parks and handling recycling programs, improving their economic status.For transportation, the city has roadways that change direction according to the time of day.Students also see some successes at Sonoma State.The university gets high marks for it renovated Salazar Hall. When it was remodeled, the building was fitted with a rooftop photovoltaic array, evaporative coolers and an advanced, computer-controlled energy management system, decreasing energy use by 40 percent.At the new student recreation center, the basketball court is made up of ground-up vehicle tires, the seats are webbed with the end rolls of seat belt material and gray water is used for the toilets and urinals.The university has its own sorting center for recycling, composts its yard clippings and uses native California and drought-resistant plants.Students want the university give out free bus passes, do more to support car and van pools, build more secure bike racks, and put individual water and electric meters in the dorms.You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com

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