Center for Study of Brooklyn Has "Vision" of Green Future

Gretchen Maneval

On June 30, the Center for the Study of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn College Sustainability Committee convened the first of several "visioning sessions" planned for the next few months. The sessions will allow the College community to contribute ideas necessary to inform the CUNY-mandated Brooklyn College Sustainability Plan.

The first session focused on food, health, and nutrition.  Some twenty College staff, faculty members, and students attended, including Associate Professor Annie Hauck-Lawson, a CUNY liaison for that area of study. Future sessions will address water and energy, curriculum and student engagement, procurement, transportation, and waste management.  Feedback from the visioning sessions, as well as survey data, will be used to draft the ten-year plan.

Gretchen Maneval, director of the Center for the Study of Brooklyn, and Casey Miller, a research associate at the center, facilitated the two-hour session.

"The key to crafting a sustainable sustainability plan is to ensure that all voices on campus are heard," said Maneval.  "The ideas for Brooklyn College going green need to be generated by the people who are actually doing the work every day of maintaining campus facilities, teaching courses, and attending classes."

She added: "Hats off to CUNY for giving each campus the autonomy to draft their own plans, and to President Kimmich and the Brooklyn College administration for seeking input from such a vast cross section of the College community. The Center for the Study of Brooklyn is fortunate to be involved in this process and continues to be impressed by the significant 'green' work that is already happening here on campus."

Any member of the College community seeking additional information or wishing to be included in these visioning sessions should contact Casey Miller, Center for the Study of Brooklyn, 1209 Ingersoll Hall, 718.808.5465 or cmiller@brooklyn.cuny.edu.