1 8 EDUCATIONAL PROCUREMENT JOURNAL

R O A M I N ’ W I T H Y E O M A N

July 2006

by Brian Yeoman

I ’m not amazed when individuals expressanger over efforts on campus to “green”anything from the food in the vending ma-

chines to the activities of their power plant.Greening campus operations, buildinggreen buildings, and buying green materialsare not top-of-mind issues among campusbusiness leaders. So, to hear some criticismis not unexpected. What is surprising is thedepth of the misunderstanding, and some-times, that is truly frightening.

In a related way, it reminds me of justhow important listening is to all of us. Lis-tening and trying to understand just whatthe sticking points are in this topic of“greening” has been instructive for me, andit may be for you too. In aggregating thesepositions in my mind, no intentional liter-ary license has been taken. It took melonger than it should have to realize that itwas important for these opinions to be cod-ified and shared.

Many purchasing people believe environ-mental issues belong to others on campuswith the time and/or the inclination to takeownership. Among these others are the sen-timental, “rock-sucking tree-huggers”. Toomany purchasing professionals, like othersin society, refuse to accept personal ac-countability for today’s environmental is-sues. Unfortunately, they do not understandthat the environmental issues of today arediffuse and ubiquitous molecular events,not the Exxon Valdez running aground inPrince William Sound of Alaska. We seem toreadily embrace the notion that science istoo complicated to understand, and there-

munities, missing the diversity that is na-ture and which is invaluable to the socialand intellectual health of any community.We create weak monocultures poised to col-lapse, clinging to the belief that there is aplace to get away to. But there is no “away.”

We simply don’t get it! Human impact onthe environment is 17 times greater nowthan it was a hundred years ago. Imagineconsequences to any system of a 1,700 percent increase in demand? Solutions toenvironmental degradation and resourcedepletion escape us because we cannot getover the first “cost” mindset, which is reallya misnomer for first price. “You get what youpay for” and “the privatization of profit andthe socialization of risk” are legacy para-digms difficult to shed. We continue to failto recognize the large-scale damage we havedone to our ecosystems. The logging clearcuts made for cheap building materials andthe expanding deserts created by fertilizingand herbiciding cotton crops are visiblefrom space. Can this really be smart growth?

We do not appreciate the extent of thedamage being inflicted on the biosphere.Perhaps it would help to know that 15,000people died in France in the summer of 2003from the heat, or that 80,000 people in Eu-rope died last year from automobile pollu-tion, or that asthma accounted for much ofthe sick time in the public school systems inNorth America, or that American hospitalskilled 108,000 patients with infections con-tracted in the “safest, most secure, bestmedical system in the world.”

Sustainable development remains anambiguous buzzword to many people. Thatis largely because it is seen as an antidote

fore only nerds would want to understandit. That excuses us.

The principles of Sustainable Develop-ment are counter to our conventional wis-dom, which celebrates the fatalistic individ-ualism in which success is defined byquarterly earnings reports and to the victorsgo the spoils. Making routine decisions in a framework which forces us to consider theimplications for future generations is a foreign notion to us. We are “Social Darwin-ists,” preferring personal control and profit-making (at least until we retire and pay$3.00 for a gallon of gas) to sharing risks andbuilding a future long term. Short-termthinking and short-term acting are the dominant model.

Let’s face it. Human beings like stuff. “Af-fluenza” is a disease that reigns supremeeven (or especially) among the youngest.“He or she who dies with the most toys wins”is a widely held and celebrated paradigm.Keeping up with the Joneses is driving ourchildren’s behavior as much as our own. Weare increasingly more willing to identifywith our inanimate stuff than with the earthor any other living things. Stuff counts!

We really do not get it. We send ourgarbage far enough away to not see or smellit. We delude ourselves that the stuff we dis-card is gone...that is, until a permit is filedto put a landfill in our part of town, and thenall of a sudden we remember it has not goneaway at all. We live where we live to get awayfrom the mess. By the time we die, most ofus will have absorbed so many toxins thatour bodies will be too toxic to touch and thegraveyards of the future will be hazardouswaste sites. We exile ourselves in gated com-

Raging Inexorable Thunderlizard for Change

Is Greening on Campus Hard to Do?

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to conventional economic development,and that frightens people. “Sustainable” isbeing applied as an adjective to nearlyevery concept in most professional set-tings. As we go about creating this tangledweb, the most important victims of the de-ception are ourselves. Many among ushonestly believe that we and our fellowhumans are not causing serious problems.We argue that global warming is just oneof nature’s cycles, ignoring the CO2 wehave put into the atmosphere the last 150years. Many do not understand that theirhouse pollutes more than their car, andthat it is impossible to see their car’s en-gine’s harmful emissions. Those twosources of carbon emissions are meltingglaciers and both polar caps at a recordpace, and significantly contributing toglobal climate change.

I have been told many times that manyof us lead lives too exhausting and confus-ing to enable us to envision any differentway of living. Our natural intelligence,goodwill, and creativity are undermined bythe efforts necessary for survival. We holdon with a death grip to things familiar. Ourmindset becomes, “if it ain’t broke don’teven think of fixing it.” But it is broken.So...the greening of the campus languisheson the long list of missed opportunities forhigher education to lead large-scale socie-tal change.

Our economic system ignores humanneeds in favor of unbridled economicgrowth and thereby ensures continual anxi-ety. The feeling of helplessness and hapless-ness is growing and causing the greening of the campus to be overly microfocused on

initial price, ignoring the total cost of own-ership. This false bottom-line mentality hasled to layoffs, outsourcing, and the rejectionof the social contract with fellow Ameri-cans. There are many among us who arehonestly afraid that living more simplywould reduce our competitive edge, and sothey resist the ideas behind the greening ofthe campus.

We are pessimistic about change. Veryfew people fail to mention this when theyspeak of the greening effort. We believethat the democratic process on campus ispowerless because financial interests con-trol campus and community development.Too often we look to others to take the lead.I have been told that until my presidentstands up and makes it a priority, it won’tmake any difference what the studentswant and what the faculty want.

But Wait!Change is on the horizon. The greening

of the campus is coming, and it is comingquickly. There are large and importantstrides being taken, and federal legislationis in the pipeline. I truly hope that we canramp ourselves up quickly enough to be-come a major player in the greening of thecampus effort. There is tremendous mo-mentum. I would encourage you to set aGoogle Alert for Green Buildings to watchworldwide and national trends. I know weare going to play an important role in theimplementation. It is simply a matter ofunderstanding that the tipping point hasbeen reached and that it is time – as it always is and has been – for us to do greatthings!

Brian K. Yeoman,Director of Educationand Development atNAEP, is the retiredAssociate VicePresident for FacilitiesPlanning and CampusDevelopment at the

University Texas Health Science Center atHouston. He received his B.A. and M.A.degrees from the University of SouthDakota. He has been a public servantdedicated to “doing the right thing.” He isauthor of numerous articles and lectures ona broad range of topics. As a futurist, Brianhas a keen interest in the environment andsustainable development. He has writtenextensively on incorporating sustainabilityprinciples into business operations, the needfor individual initiative as opposed togovernmental programs, and as a proposedcourse of action. Brian has an interest inChange Management, Continuous QualityImprovement, and Principle-CenteredLeadership. He has served as a consultanton the automation of purchasing, facilitiesmanagement, sustainable development, andother business functions for public-sectorinstitutions, private-sector firms, and not-for-profit organizations in the United Statesand Canada. e-Mail: byeoman@naepnet.org.

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