Guest editorial

Citation

Koester, P.R.J. (2002), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 3 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2002.24903baa.001

Guest editorial

About the Guest Editor Robert J. Koester is a Registered Architect and tenured Professor in the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University. He is licensed to practice architecture in Indiana and Ohio and holds an NCARB certificate. He received his BARCH degree from the University of Kentucky and his MARCH degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has participated in post-graduate workshops at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Oregon.

His teaching experience includes wide-ranging responsibility during employment at the University of Kentucky, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Ball State University. His professional experience includes employment in a number of mid-western architectural firms, a three-year founding partnership in Design America and sole proprietorship of his own practice. He has consulted to firms in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and New York. His professional commissions include residential and commercial projects and collaboration on an industrial design project for a Swedish-based stainless steel manufacturer.

He has served as editorial advisor or reviewer for journal publishers, technical reviewer for professional conferences, state and federal agencies, Board Member of national, regional and local organizations, and participant in the Wingspread Design Conference on Sustainable Community Relocation. His publications include a computer software manual, several curriculum packages, several monographs on energy and environmental systems education, numerous refereed academic papers and an interactive CD-Rom for Johnson Controls International.

Moving to the mainstream

The papers published in this issue of IJSHE have been selected from the compiled proceedings of the fourth international Greening of the Campus Conference hosted by Ball State University in September 2001. Some 200 participants from throughout the USA and other countries gathered to share their experience in trying to move concerns for greening of the campus into the mainstream. As noted in the introduction to the proceedings, "As universities move to embrace more fully their many stewardship roles in the greening of the campus, the opportunity to share experience becomes evermore necessary". Ball State has hosted these conferences approximately every two years, as a means to establish such sharing and with a vested interest in learning what we can from universities around the world that are actively engaged in this mission.

The papers selected for inclusion in this international journal address a wide range of concerns, including values and ethics, political aspects of campus greening, curriculum transformation, the campus setting as a teaching tool, facilities planning and physical plant management, energy conservation, model practices, and student initiatives and projects. While each paper is shaped to share experience that the authors have had in this movement, some focus specifically on activities at the home institution of the author, whereas others provide more sweeping reviews and reflections on campus initiatives worldwide. In that regard, this compilation provides a quick read on the breadth of efforts universities are making around the globe to attend to their implicit and explicit stewardship roles as institutions of higher learning – as communities in-and-of-themselves with substantial economic impact and environmental presence, globally and locally.

This conference series, hosted by Ball State since 1996, is unique in drawing participants from every sector of university life – students, faculty, administrators, facilities managers, operations officers, members of oversight boards as well as professionals who provide services to universities as clients. While this mix of audience participation can make navigation through paper presentations sometimes difficult, it reflects the chaotic and complicated nature of the university structure and admits to the importance of having all stakeholders at the table to assure responsible stewardship by the campus as a community of the whole. The conference series has included, of course, keynote presentations by internationally-renowned leaders in the field and selected workshops designed to build skills and share effective methodologies for participants to become agents of change as they return to their home institutions. As noted by Dr Warren Vander Hill, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, in his opening remarks to the conference, "We hope that you too will find the shared information of value as you return home to reach for the goal of 'moving to the mainstream', the greening of your campus and its surrounding community". In similar fashion, we appreciate the opportunity to provide these excerpts from the conference proceedings for your evaluation and look forward to participating further in this emerging global effort by universities as they seek to get the concerns of sustainability and environmental stewardship "moving to the mainstream".

Professor Robert J. KoesterBall State University,Muncie, IN, USA