Social Justice Is Core to Sustainability Efforts at Carnegie Mellon
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Many initiatives across Carnegie Mellon University show a commitment to sustainability when it comes to areas directly related to the environment.
However, preserving and conserving natural resources are only part of the university’s Sustainability Initiative(opens in new window), based on a framework backed by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals(opens in new window).
“Underlying inequities are challenges across social, economic and environmental justice,” said Alexandra Hiniker(opens in new window), director of the Sustainability Initiative. “These cannot be solved by carbon emissions and recycling alone. We need to look at the broader factors addressed by the sustainable development goals in order to really make any progress.”
The 17 Global Goals, cataloged in-depth through dashboards and the annual Voluntary University Review, include working toward reducing inequalities (Goal 10) and poverty (Goal 1) while achieving gender equality (Goal 5) and promoting peace, justice and strong institutions (Goal 16).
Social good through the lens of sustainability is the focus of several educational courses and programs, academic research opportunities and ongoing efforts.
Community Engagement Fellowship puts concepts into practice
“The Sustainable Development Goals, or just this idea or concept of social justice, it can seem really overwhelming and hard to connect to,” said Kimberly Piatt(opens in new window), director of experiential learning with the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences(opens in new window).
To help students overcome this challenge, the college offers the Dietrich Community Engagement Fellowship Program(opens in new window), allowing students to explore projects related to social change as they complete five course blocks and a capstone project.
“The students in this program have learned that they can make local-level impacts and changes in ways that have a ripple effect,” she said. “It brings these higher-level goals and ideals down in a manageable way that they can actually operationalize it and make a difference.”
Sustainability doesn't "fit into just ecology, or just chemistry, or just engineering or just finance. It’s all of it. The way we approach those problems at @CarnegieMellon is to recognize their interdisciplinary nature and build tools that reflect that.”https://t.co/IxFARRksI0 pic.twitter.com/MwNitd8NYY
— Sustainability at Carnegie Mellon University (@sustainCMU) May 21, 2024
The program, which accepted applications for its third cohort this spring, focuses on the development of leadership skills and community engagement.
Each 12-student cohort is introduced to the Global Goals during the first course in order to consider which social issues they want to focus on before completing a community-based experiential learning activity, and then developing and implementing a capstone project.
The project includes research and work with a community partner in order to ensure that the impact is lasting, Piatt said.
“Having the hands-on approach and being able to actually be doing things rather than just studying them allows students to more concretely understand the ways in which social justice and social change can occur,” she said. “The stakes are much more authentic and much greater, so you have to think beyond yourself, be humble and engage in your project that way.”
Student projects have included working with the Forbes Funds to connect the Global Goals to the work of local non-profits; establishing a high-school STEM leadership institute for girls, developing a trauma-informed resource guide for working with survivors of child abuse and domestic violence; producing a video to highlight a community garden; and reviving a city-wide hip-hop dance competition, among others.
“One of the things we work through is how students are going to interact with a lot of different people within the community and the students need to recognize that these community members have expertise that is beneficial in different ways,” Piatt said. “Even though you may have been studying this in class as a student, they are living this and so how are you engaging with them to help better understand their experience?”
Taking an active role in student groups that pair sustainability with social good are other ways to connect with the community through Carnegie Mellon.
For example, CMU Sustainable Earth(opens in new window) and Thrifty Mellon(opens in new window) collaborated on a March event called Slaystainable Styles(opens in new window), a second-hand clothing pop-up on campus with students’ outfits photographed and compiled into a lookbook(opens in new window) to encourage sustainable shopping.
And, in order to facilitate projects like those, student groups and community members alike are encouraged to reserve the Nexus of Civic Engagement(opens in new window) space inside the Cohon University Center.
"Our aim with the space is to encourage students to raise awareness about social issues or participate in service projects with members of the Pittsburgh community, so sustainability and equity are a part of that," said Meggan Lloyd(opens in new window), assistant director of the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement office (SLICE(opens in new window)), which oversees the space.
Hands-on service projects, reflective learning and cultural experiences are also the focus of Pittsburgh Alternative Break(opens in new window), a weeklong program through the SLICE office, meant to allow CMU students to experience social issues impacting the city.
How does sustainability relate to coffee? This class explains
Engaging social justice can also mean considering the impacts of decisions on those who might be hundreds of miles away.
Pouring themselves coffee from cardboard carafes, a group at a recent event led by John Soluri(opens in new window), associate professor of history in the Dietrich College, discussed topics including how the beans are farmed and harvested abroad before being shipped to the United States to be roasted locally.
The “Crafting Coffee” discussion(opens in new window) was part of the Coffee Break(opens in new window) program through the Hospitality Initiative(opens in new window) of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for the Arts in Society(opens in new window) (CAS).
“Sustainability is a focus for everyone,” said Scott Miller, head roaster at 19 Coffee Co., who participated along with roasters from La Prima Espresso Co. and De Fer Coffee and Tea. “It’s definitely on everybody’s mind.”
Soledad Cabezas, director of Building New Hope(opens in new window), a nonprofit that partners with sustainable coffee farmers, asked the roasters if they prioritize coffee that has received designations such as shade-grown or bird-friendly.
“There are more certifications every day and we’re always checking them out,” said Chuck Connors, head roaster of La Prima, which sells coffee(opens in new window) in Wean Hall and the Gates-Hillman building. “It’s important for people to show that they’re doing something to care for the people producing their coffee.”
Soluri also teaches Coffee and Capitalism, a class where students pour themselves some java before fostering a better understanding of how it got to their cups. The course is supported by a CAS grant.
“After taking the class, I’ve realized there’s so much more to sustainability than just the environment,” said Minyi Ren, who graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.
Microcourse in collaboration with University of Pittsburgh considers responsible technology
Korryn Mozisek(opens in new window), special faculty in the Department of English in the Dietrich College, teaches a course on Technology, Humanity and Social Justice(opens in new window) in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy(opens in new window).
The collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Global Studies Center(opens in new window) considers a broad definition of technology, led by guest speakers, such as Christopher Phillips(opens in new window), a professor of history who will be the next head of the Department of History(opens in new window), who explained the history of chalkboards.
These weekend microcourses came about in order to be responsive to topics that are multidisciplinary and fast-developing, and are intentionally wide-ranging, she said.
The format allows students from across both Oakland campuses as well as different colleges, majors and class standings within CMU to all participate together.
Each semester, the intensive course, taught over one weekend, focuses on a particular topic related to technology. In addition to the environment, past topics have included governance, health, criminal justice, education and work.
“The guest speakers are able to present their research to a very diverse set of students, offering how the promises of different types of technology have been achieved, while at other times establishing concerns and how they should be regulated,” she said.
Students’ final paper topics have included the impact of data storage on energy consumption and considerations when recycling electronic waste.
“They are using the courses to really think about social justice very broadly and the equitable impacts on people,” she said. “How does technology improve the livelihood of some and harm others?”
Through the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research(opens in new window), students can major or minor in environmental and sustainability studies.
Or, first-year students can focus on sustainability topics during a Grand Challenge Seminar such as a recent one discussing health disparities(opens in new window), specifically the ways prejudice and complex social dynamics impact health.
Promoting energy justice through research
To achieve social justice, whether inside or outside of the classroom, efforts have to be intentional, said Destenie Nock(opens in new window), assistant professor of engineering and public policy and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering(opens in new window).
Research and engagement have to go further than only examining disparities or quantifying impacted populations, she said.
“Social justice is about understanding systematic inequities, finding those inequities, and then coming up with a solution to rectify those inequities,” Nock said. “And so I don't think that it's possible to do it by happenstance.”
Public policy professor leads charge to connect universities and the Sustainable Development Goals
Sarah Mendelson(opens in new window), co-chair of the university’s Sustainability Initiative(opens in new window), serves as distinguished service professor of public policy and head of the Heinz College in Washington, D.C. (opens in new window)
As a nonresident Senior Fellow with the Center for Sustainable Development(opens in new window) in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, her current work centers on researching the ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals align with human rights, along with colleagues from a Community of Practice dedicated to growing the next generation of human rights experts, activists, practitioners and scholars.
She has explored the connections between sustainability, socioeconomic inequalities and social justice as the 2030 target nears for reaching the Global Goals:
- "The US is leaving millions behind: American exceptionalism needs to change by 2030(opens in new window)" — examining how the SDG principle to “leave no one behind” is not being realized in the United States, where many people are living without their basic needs being met, as shown through data including large gaps in life expectancy rates, poor maternal mortality ratios, and significant food insecurity.
- "Paradigm shift: Creating more just societies with the SDGs, human rights, and innovations in higher education(opens in new window)" — encouraging universities to lead the way in localizing and translating the Global Goals in ways that increase the relevance of rights for communities and stimulate policy innovations to reduce inequalities.
- With these objectives in mind, she led a convening of the Community of Practice(opens in new window), made up of rights experts and data scientists from several universities across the country. This Community of Practice is united by the mission to elevate the relevance and effectiveness of the Global Goals(opens in new window) through action-oriented research such as developing people-centered, open-source data portals; examining local reviews of the Global Goals to find evidence of advancement of socioeconomic rights; and engaging students through coursework and related programs outside the classroom.
Nock studies energy justice, developing metrics to identify people experiencing energy poverty and insecurity, and optimization models to design more equitable power systems.
“In the sustainability space, there’s so much talk about greenhouse gas emissions, but an overlooked area of need are the millions of people struggling to pay their energy bills,” she said. "That’s who I am trying to advocate for."
Questions surrounding housing quality, energy use, and appliance and technology use all led Nock, and her research group of 12 graduate students, to use mathematical modeling tools to address societal problems related to sustainability planning, energy policy, equity and engineering for social good.
Through her work Nock has found that low-income households use less energy throughout the summer months to save money on their bills, which could put these households at risk of heat stroke. There is a need to find these households to connect them to energy services such as bill assistance programs, she said. To accomplish this, Nock has spun-out a company, Peoples Energy Analytics(opens in new window), which finds vulnerable households and connects them to services that can help them pay their energy bills.
“How we think about technology and energy efficiency deployment, while also considering housing upgrades will be very important for addressing our energy transition challenges,” she said.
Sustainability needs to include social good alongside environmental and economic justice in order to be most effective, Nock said, because improving the environment without improving people’s lives will only lead to short-term solutions and may erode long-term support.
“Social justice is an integral part of sustainability that has often gotten sidelined,” she said. “The goal is to make sure that pillar is at the forefront of what we do.”
In order to achieve that goal, Nock said she appreciates the role the university plays in connecting her and other researchers through several resources such as the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation(opens in new window), as well as building bridges to decision- and policymakers across western Pennsylvania and beyond.
“Carnegie Mellon is really good at interdisciplinary work, which has really benefited my research because addressing social inequities in engineering systems requires you to work across departments, disciplines and technical fields,” she said. “At the same time, being connected to the community and getting feedback from people in industry is very important when you want to have societal impact.”
