December 18, 2008
New SPPD Sustainability Class Inspires Students to Think and Act "Green"
By Anna Cearley-Rivas
A new class at USC’s School of Policy, Planning, and Development gave graduate students an introductory overview of key sustainability issues along with the chance to meet with environmental policymakers, chat with “green business” entrepreneurs, and measure their own carbon footprints.
Taught by SPPD professor Daniel Mazmanian, “Environmental Governance and Sustainability” attracted twenty-eight graduate students this Fall semester. Its creation reflects a growing trend of USC students interested in studying sustainability issues.
For graduate student Jeff Lord, the class was a chance to tackle the bigger questions of sustainability issues – global warming and environmental impacts of development – that start with a much smaller question of how individuals can make a difference. The carbon footprint exercise drilled home the challenges of that.
“I consider myself pretty green. I try to do all of the ‘green’ things like recycling, eating local and organic when possible and so on, but that wasn’t enough to offset my ‘normal’ behaviors as much as I would have liked,” said graduate Lord after doing the carbon footprint exercise.
Elizabeth Graddy, senior associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, said a third of a pool of top-ranked students who applied to the 2008-2009 SPPD graduate programs indicated they were interested in studying sustainability issues.
“This is one of the overarching concerns of our time and we foresee a demand for trained professionals who will be able to understand the challenges,” she said. “Our goal is to provide these students with a dynamic learning environment and access to top-notch experts so they can question, explore and put into action the solutions that are needed to address these complex, global issues.”
SPPD has traditionally taught sustainability within the framework of various other classes, but “Environmental Governance and Sustainability” is meant to tackle the subject head-on. The class provides the groundwork for students who want to build a more specialized curriculum through their majors in Public Policy, Planning or Public Administration.
Students are introduced to issues as far ranging as their own environmental footprint, greening of businesses, climate change, and a variety of public policy strategies for addressing environmental pollution and the depletion of natural resources. Unlike other classes he has taught, Mazmanian said the material presented and policy strategies considered are not derived from any single or conventional theoretical approach to the policy process.
“The 21st Century challenge is that we don’t have any simple roadmap to guide us in the transformation to a more sustainable world,” he said. “Therefore, in the class we address the long-term challenges in terms of values and choices that we make individually and as a society, and discuss ways to use those policy tools and approaches likely to move us in the desired direction.”
Mazmanian brings an extensive background in sustainability issues. He is co-author of “Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy,” published by MIT Press, a book that was originally published in 1999 that explores how environment policy has evolved over three decades. The book is being updated for re-release in May 2009.
Guest speakers to the class, such as Ventura’s Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton provide real-world examples of how sustainability issues are woven into community affairs and are both affected by and prove to be inspiration for politics, governments and private enterprise.
During his November visit, Fulton explained to the students how communities tend to address environmental and development issues on a local level, rather than considering wide-scale implications. A decision to keep housing densities down in one community, for example, can lead to an unequal distribution of these densities in other parts of the community — and that means more traffic and pollution.
Politics and voting rights figure into the discussions, and radical solutions are encouraged for analysis and debate.
One student, for example, suggested during a class discussion that voting clout could be distributed by generations. According to him, younger generations should get more voting points since they are the ones who ultimately have to live with the decisions that seem to be made by their elders. The discussion evolved towards considering ways to motivate more young people to vote and get involved in government decisions.
Another student, Elena Maggioni, said the class helped students grasp the complexities of sustainability issues.
“I think that the most important nugget that I'm taking with me is that, to address climate change and environmental problems, our way of life will have to change a lot and that California is at the forefront of this change,” said Maggioni, a Ph.D. student in Public Policy. “It is a big challenge, but also a very exciting one. “
SPPD expects to offer the graduate course again in Fall, 2009.