We’re going to start to work towards what will become your final paper, which wi

by Caaltu · June 1, 2024

We’re going to start to work towards what will become your final paper, which will be the most significant assignment in this class for this semester. This “quiz” is important too, though, in that it will act as a starting point, and ask you to consider a handful of questions about the place you work, would like to work, or build for yourself and others.
Since I work for GVSU, I’ll use that as an example of what I mean (bear in mind that GVSU, as a public university, is legally a not-for-profit, and that difference will matter as you work out your own first take on these kinds of questions).
Grand Valley’s mission is to “empower learners in their pursuits, professions, and purpose. The university enriches society through excellent teaching, active scholarship, advancement of equity, and public service.” (GVSU Home page)
So GV has both individuals (“learner”) and the broader community in mind (“society”). I think I know what we mean by excellent teaching and active scholarship, but I’m less clear on “advancement of equity and public service.” I’ll need to do a little more research on GV’s website or talk to someone in administration who can help me out with that – what do they mean? “Equity,” for example, can have a number of meanings, some of which might flow from ethical commitments or a fidelity to social justice. What does GVSU actually do to promote equity? Then I probably want to compare what I’ve learned with what other similar universities say about themselves. After that, I probably want to ask myself if I think this mission is one I’m on board with. If so, why? If not, why not?
It turns out that at Grand Valley “sustainability is one of our core values. We value the guiding principles of sustainability in helping to meet the current needs of our faculty, staff, and students without compromising the needs and resources of future generations. We model best practices and provide our students with excellence in sustainability education by imbedding theory, systems-oriented thinking, and service learning into our curricular and extracurricular programs.” (GVSU)
That’s a bit jargonny for me, though I need to be fair: GVSU does rank high, nationally, when it comes to sustainability. It is recognized by any number of agencies for its effort and results in that area, variously defined. So in this case I need to root around in that particular website more carefully, as well as look at some external reviews. Again, I’d like to know what they (we) mean by the term, and what actions are taking place to bring those goals about? For example, we are committed to being carbon-neutral by 2045 – how will that happen?
And it may sound stupid to ask well, why do we want to be “sustainable” in this way or that, but I think at least some of you (and of course many people in the larger community) are skeptical about the whole sustainability business, and so people who claim that it is important should be able to tell you why. The bigger question I might ask GV is, OK, good for you that you are in the top 15% of universities when it comes to being green, but how does that stack up against what consensus science is telling us we need to be doing to achieve actual results vis a vis the viability of the environment? In other words, we can all hand out trophies to ourselves for our good efforts, but if we still end up doomed what was the point? In other other words, how radical do the changes need to be as compared to what they actually are? Maybe everything squares, maybe it doesn’t – I’d like to get a handle on that.
Again, to be fair, from GVSU’s Sustainability page: During the last 15 years, Grand Valley has implemented more than 250 energy-savings projects, which total more than $2 million annually in cost avoidances from long-term, energy-efficient projects and $1.5 million in cost avoidances from energy conservation programs and initiatives, which change each year, such as the Energy Competition.
Great news, and we are to be congratulated. But is it enough? Are we being honest with ourselves? What other opportunities do we have? Is a public university part of the “regenerative capitalism” that Elkington is hawking? Should it be?

OK, so that was about 700 words right there. You can approach this assignment as either a)doing what I just did but with your business – what do you know about it and what critical questions can you ask of it? Or b) you can begin to write out at least some tentative answers to the kinds of questions you want to ask of it. Do not take on everything in this short paper – the “Everything” paper is for later. This is your thinking-out-what’s important-to-know-and –what-to-ask-and-to-research paper.
Keep the readings in mind. You don’t have to agree with everything in them, of course, but if they help you frame up some of your questions or investigations, great. And finally, and this is inspired by a few of you who are making this point in your writings to me, ask if it is even possible for your business to be truly sustainable, or ethical, at all. The argument was that Patagonia, if it really cared in the ways it says it does, would get out of textiles altogether, since that is an especially dirty, resource-dependent industry. You don’t have to take this question on right now, but file it away – are there some businesses that just have to go IF we are going to talk about ethics or sustainability with any integrity?
Let me know, as you get started, if you have questions.