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Sustainability and Environmental Ethics

I applied to Valley & Ridge to learn more about how to incorporate sustainability principles and practices into my “Environmental Ethics” course. In particular, I had two aims: (1) make meaningful connections between sustainability education and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants (2013) and The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (2024); and (2) incorporate place-based opportunities for students in the class to engage with the Center for Sustainability Education and the Dickinson farm. As a result of participating in this faculty professional development opportunity, I achieved these two aims in “Environmental Ethics.”

In The Serviceberry, Kimmerer writes, “The practice of observing the living world and taking inspiration for human ways of living from its model is an essential element of Indigenous science. It embraces the reality that there are intelligences other than our own, from whom we might learn” (2024, 67). Our class visited the farm to learn from and with the living world. As a result of my participation in Valley & Ridge, I offered the students opportunities to consider the relationship between sustainability education and various approaches to environmental ethics, including pointing out some tensions between views. We spent time learning from the land and caretakers of the land. When we covered climate ethics, we engaged directly with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Finally, when we covered the relationship between scarcity and abundance in The Serviceberry, we visited the Free xChange and thought critically about our own consumption practices including clothing, food, water, waste, and energy. I am grateful for the opportunity to have engaged with such thoughtful colleagues during the workshop.