Category

Blog category: Director’s Corner

Reflections from a seasoned sustainability professional.

Director’s Corner: What should college graduates know about sustainability? Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 13Updates

Blog post title: Director’s Corner: What should college graduates know about sustainability?

“…a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.” Albert Einstein First off, there is no consensus on an answer to the question posed in the title of this column.  I sure don’t pretend to have a complete answer, but I do…
Mike Kensler
November 7, 2022
Director’s Corner: Less Bad Isn’t Good Enough Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 12Updates

Blog post title: Director’s Corner: Less Bad Isn’t Good Enough

“This is the ultimate failure of the ‘be less bad’ approach: a failure of the imagination.” - McDonough and Braungart, Cradle to Cradle I recently gave a presentation about mental models, which are unexamined and systemically flawed assumptions that blind us and limit us to familiar ways of thinking and…
Mike Kensler
October 4, 2022
Director’s Corner: A Bicycle Friendly University Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 11Sustainable Development Goal 3Sustainable Development Goal 9Updates

Blog post title: Director’s Corner: A Bicycle Friendly University

“Young adults want to ride more and drive less, and with defined borders and high-density environments, university campuses are ideal settings to cultivate a culture of biking.”  ~The League of American Bicyclists     Bicycle Friendly University Silver Designation The League of American Bicyclists has certified the Auburn University campus as…
Mike Kensler
September 6, 2022
Director’s Corner: Sustainability & the Goal of Human Wellbeing  Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 3

Blog post title: Director’s Corner: Sustainability & the Goal of Human Wellbeing 

“The foremost concern is the wellbeing of humanity and the planet we inhabit.”   ~ The Dalai Lama  Sustainability means so many different things to different people.  Definitions and descriptions are all over the place.  In my humble opinion, some of them are much better than others.  That’s why here at…
Mike Kensler
August 12, 2022
Regeneration: Reversing Global Degeneration Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 11Sustainable Development Goal 13Sustainable Development Goal 7

Blog post title: Regeneration: Reversing Global Degeneration

“If putting the future of life at the heart of everything we do is not central to our purpose and destiny, why are we here?” Paul Hawken In a 1946 New York Times article, the eminently quotable Albert Einstein said, “a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is…
Mike Kensler
March 2, 2022
Clean Water, Sanitation, & Human Rights: What Do We Owe Our Neighbors? Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 1 - No PovertySustainable Development Goal 11Sustainable Development Goal 3Sustainable Development Goal 6

Blog post title: Clean Water, Sanitation, & Human Rights: What Do We Owe Our Neighbors?

Directors Corner, February 2022 “Our collective failure to invest in adequate sanitation, clean drinking water, and effective response to pollution is taking life from the most vulnerable and marginalized among us.”  Bryan Stevenson What do you think?  Is access to clean water and sanitation a basic human right?  One would…
Mike Kensler
January 28, 2022
Addressing ‘the Greatest Human Rights Challenge in the World” Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 5

Blog post title: Addressing ‘the Greatest Human Rights Challenge in the World”

“I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. … We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” ~Malala Yousafzai The 193 nations that created the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) determined SDG 5, Achieve Gender…
Mike Kensler
January 12, 2022
Is the Response to Climate Change a War? Yes. And No. Director's CornerSustainable Development Goal 13Sustainable Development Goal 16

Blog post title: Is the Response to Climate Change a War? Yes. And No.

As I write this, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties – COP 26 for short – is about to convene in Glasgow Scotland.  It opens on October 31 and ends on November 12.  Before 1995 when COP 1 was convened we already knew that planetary warming…
Mike Kensler
November 2, 2021