Sustainability Mash-Up
Posted: 3:58PM November 9th, 2011 | Comments
By Kathryne Auerback
The longer I live in Madison, the smaller it gets. I’m always so pleasantly surprised when I run into people I know out and about around town. This sense of connection and belonging comes to life at this week’s Badger Bioneers Conference, hosted here at Edgewood College by our Sustainability Leadership Graduate Program. It’s an exciting opportunity to live into our Edgewood promise to connect learning, beliefs and action in order to create a more just and compassionate world.
The Sustainability Leadership Graduate Certificate Program is in its second exhilarating year, with this new cohort of students already reaching out into the community, partnering with various individuals and organizations to effect real and meaningful change. Their capstone projects will create local solutions to global issues of environmental, social and economic justice and sustainability. They are already making a difference and realizing new possibilities.
The students in this program come from a wide range of academic, professional and cultural backgrounds. Some are just beginning their careers and others are farther along or even retired. Their diversity exponentially increases the quality of our learning community. One thing they all share is a passionate commitment to leading the transformation to more resilient organizations and communities.
Among the many things they’ve learned already is the value of collaboration in realizing such transformations. Partnerships between educational institutions, corporations and social enterprises, non-profit organizations and local governments open infinite possibilities for new ideas. Sustainability mash ups, if you will, that work together to bring forward bold, new ideas better than the efforts of any individual or single organization ever could.
We hope you’ll join us to see this mash up in action at the Badger Bioneers Conference.
