Updates

Employees Welcomed & Encouraged to Engage with Office of Sustainability

Given Auburn’s commitment to sustainability as a core value and guiding principle for its operations, instruction, research, and outreach, it makes an excellent topic for Auburn faculty, administrators, and staff to explore as a part of their professional development. To get you started, we have assembled some resources you may find useful…

Jen MorseSeptember 20, 2022

Director's Corner SDG7

To achieve clean energy, let’s rethink carbon

“So, when you asked, ‘What is the next big opportunity?’ it is design. It is design for next use in the circular economy. But safe and circular.” Bill McDonough Clean, renewable energy is the only energy path to a livable future. In 2015, 193 nations agreed that a shift to…

Mike KenslerMarch 2, 2021

Director's Corner SDG15 SDG2 SDG7 SDG8 SDG9

Director’s Corner: Innovate, Or Else

"The Stone Age did not end because humans ran out of stones. It ended because it was time for a re-think about how we live." ~William McDonough Photo credit: Haiku Deck This month in our exploration of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, created by 193 countries under the auspices of…

Mike KenslerJanuary 5, 2021

SDG9 Sustainability in Action

Campus Changemaker: Benjamin Burmester

Campus Planner, Benjamin Burmester Benjamin Burmester has a long history with Auburn University. A former student, Burmester, has worked with the University since 2013, where he was originally hired to be a Campus Planner. Last year, Burmester’s position was reclassified, and he now works as a University and Transportation Site…

adminDecember 13, 2020

Director's Corner SDG SDG10 SDG16 SDG5

Director’s Corner December 2020: Concentrated Wealth or Democracy?

“We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” ~ Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice Goal 10 of the 17 international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is Reduced Inequalities; specifically, income and wealth distribution…

Mike KenslerDecember 1, 2020

Director's Corner SDG11 SDG16 SDG17 SDG9

Director’s Corner: Healing the Heart of Democracy

“The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in…

Mike KenslerOctober 6, 2020

Books & Ball Caps Videos

Books & Ball Caps: Healing the Heart of Democracy & The Tennessee Smokies

Mike recommends reading Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer and shares the story behind his Tennessee Smokies ball cap.

Mike KenslerSeptember 29, 2020

Guest Posts

We Must, & Will, Do Better

This year has been a challenge for a plethora of reasons. 2020 has brought a global pandemic, a national racial reckoning, and a national financial crisis among so many other things. However, I am a believer that everything happens for a reason, and this year has brought many issues to…

adminSeptember 29, 2020

Guest Posts SDG14 SDG15 SDG16 SDG5

Conflict in the World’s Most Important Wilderness Area: The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis & the Need for Community Participation in Conservation of the Congo

By Dr. Kelly Dunning, Assistant Professor of Conservation Governance, College of Forestry and Wildlife. The Congo Basin Rainforest is the world’s second-largest rainforest at 500 million acres, it is larger than the U.S. state of Alaska. It has over 10,000 species of plants, and many charismatic species like my personal…

adminSeptember 29, 2020

Director's Corner SDG14 SDG15 SDG2

Director’s Corner: Hunger – There is No Excuse

The international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created by the nations of the world under the auspices of the United Nations. Tapping experts across the globe on a range of disciplines, seventeen goals were established with a deadline of 2030 for achieving each goal. The seventeen goal topics were identified…

Mike KenslerSeptember 10, 2020