School of Global Environmental Sustainability
A first for the state, the School of Global Environmental Sustainability is an umbrella organization that encompasses all environmental education and research at the university.
Addressing global challenges
The school will position CSU to address the multiple challenges to global sustainability through broad-based research, curricular, and outreach initiatives. Areas emphasis will include food security, poverty, inequality, water management strategies and desertification, globalization, industrial ecology, sustainable engineering, population growth, and urbanization.
This approach will capitalize on the University's historic strength in environmental research and education, and will build upon the education and research that already exists within all eight colleges on campus; from the Warner College of Natural Resources to the College of Business.
"This new school builds on CSU’s long history as a world leader in education and research on issues that affect our land, water, and energy supplies," said U.S. Senator Ken Salazar.
"The university’s new programs will help train the next generation of researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and big thinkers who will help propel the clean energy revolution that is already underway."
Mission
To develop new strategies for global sustainability that will address environmental and human- environmental grand challenges and inform solutions to global environmental problems. The School of Global Environmental Sustainability will accomplish this mission using a sustainability human-environmental framework that will advance scientific understanding while supporting the generation of new science and linkages to economics and society. This will be enhanced by engaging CSU's world-class expertise in innovative ways that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Our vision is to:
- conduct the innovative research that transcends boundaries that will lead to the knowledge and understanding necessary to solve our most pressing global problems;
- provide a challenging, integrative, and provocative education to provide the foundation, principles and the practices to ensure long term environmental sustainability while meeting the needs of people around the earth;
- engage with the public and policy makers in translating our discoveries into practical solutions to environmental problems as befitting a great Colorado land-grant institution with a global perspective.
And to:
- be a magnet for excellence at CSU, and will provide both an external and an internal focus for activities in global environmental studies;
- provide an organizational structure that can link the proven talent in residence at CSU in focused and dedicated ways to tackle the most pressing issues related to Global environmental challenges;
- provide our best faculty with the resources and time necessary to be successful in solving these pressing problems; and
- support our faculty in creating and sustaining outstanding educational and outreach programs addressing environmental topics, in partnership within CSU and with the public, with a view to translating research into positive and practical change.