Be the We

This column features the We Conserve program and its work on campus.

Certain topics are so large and interdisciplinary that they are best covered by a series of specialists, each imparting their own particular insights.

“Why We Conserve,” a three-credit course led by professor Tracey Holloway and Lewis Gilbert of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, is providing students with an introduction to the increasingly important field of conservation, one expert at a time.

This fall, 220 students have been encouraged to think outside their majors and engage with other departments.

Each class welcomes a different pair of professors from different departments or community leaders to explain the relevance of conservation to their particular field, as well as to discuss the practical application of conservation techniques and strategies.

The main objective of this course is to encourage students to think about the choices they make and their relationship to broader elements on a campus, regional, national and global level. Students will also learn about conservation efforts on campus and what individuals can do to make a difference.

Subjects as diverse as food production, transportation, mechanical engineering, nuclear science and public policy are all covered within the framework of responsible consumption. This approach allows conservation to be recognized as an important part of any discipline, rather than an abstract concept that stands on its own.

For example, professor Frank Pfefferkorn from the College of Engineering recently discussed new pressures to use recyclable materials in the manufacturing process.

Because output is ultimately driven by consumer demand, the shift of environmentalism into the mainstream has forced producers to reconsider the ecological impact of their goods and services. This means that students interested in designing computers, for example, have to understand the entire life cycle of their product and not just what goes into getting that product to the consumer.

Perhaps the most admirable quality of this class is its commitment to breadth of knowledge, emphasizing the fact that choices about energy use are made all over campus.

Faramarz Vakili, director of the We Conserve initiative and organizer of the course, says he wants students to learn that “waste prevention is a state of mind.” If students take one message away from the class, it should be that conservation is not a concept limited to environmental studies, but one that is equally applicable to many fields of study.

For more information, visit We Conserve.