As we enter Earth Month, there is much to be appreciated about the boundless beauty of this Earth and how it supports us in a rapidly changing world. Just as important, we should consider the ways we can support the Earth. It goes beyond recycling and reducing our negative impact that will long outlive us. Both of those are important in our sustainability efforts. However, there is a lot more that contributes to our ecosystem. Imagine a world where a walk in nature is void of bird songs? The ever looming possibility of extinction threatens the pleasure of sound. I had the honor of conversation with award-winning biologist and writer David George Haskell. Haskell has dedicated his expertise to the sonic ambience of nature and how it is at risk of being lost. 

“It’s about being generous beyond our own species.”

Do you have any theories, philosophies or general ideas on sustainability and what that means to you? 

It means being a good neighbor. Not only to our human neighbors but also the non-human ones like trees, birds and all living creatures inthe seas and rivers. It’s about being neighborly beyond our own species and encompassing the idea of living a good life. The idea that we should be respectful to others. Sustainability has this built-in idea in the word:  sustain. For me, living well and thinking about the future is noble. We can plan for a better future but what we control is the present moment. What do we do with our days? What do we do with our time and talent? That’s where sustainability becomes really relevant. What are the things in this world that I want to be investing my time and energy in? 

I love that your work overlaps with sustainability in this unexpected way. It also combines meditative writing and nature; it’s a blend of disciplines. How did you come to mesh these disparate topics and then proceed to put that work into the world? 

So my background is in science. I studied biology then went on to get my Ph.D studying animal behavior and conservation. I started off very much focused on animals, especially birds and their conservation. Then I began to teach on the subject and the questions that students would ask, compelled me to think more deeply. Through thinking deeply, I realized everything was connected. You can’t only think about bird conservation without thinking

 about how that connects to humans. Now, I work mostly as a writer and science is in my writing. Writing allows me to bring in more human interest. What happens to the birds in a region is tied up with human well-being. I live in Atlanta and some neighborhoods had roads and highways built through them that destroyed the neighborhood. That has an effect on the birds. The primary problem there is that it’s an unjust way of treating people. But also, by adding this traffic noise it intercepts with bird communication. When you stop focusing on just one thing you can see how human music fits with bird music. Some of the sounds of a city can be a beautiful thing, the sound of lots of good energy but it can also be terrible like too much noise. As a writer I’m not constrained by just having to write a scientific paper, essay or book. I can weave different strands together and I really enjoy that. And I don’t pretend to have the answers. We’re in a time of crisis and trouble. We’re not going to solve the problems by looking at things in isolation. I think we should think about interconnectedness and synergies more. 

Your writing is really exploratory and I enjoy that aspect of it. I was particularly intrigued by your work in The Forest Unseen. You take this therapeutic approach to understanding the natural world. Another thing that stood out to me was The New York Times review of your book where they called you “a laureate of the Earth.” How does that review of your work resonate with you if at all.

Yeah, I was obviously delighted they had such kind things to say about my work. I think we’re all laureates of the Earth, right? We’re all living beings who are trying to find our way through life. And we’re all creative right? Even if we’re just telling a story to our friends over dinner, we’re interpreting and we’re making and trying to figure out the meanings of stories. I’m delighted the reviewer thought that some of the stories I told were worth honoring that way. I also think it’s a danger in picking out individuals in that way because we’re all in this together. The challenge for all of us is how do we find meaning? How do we find the right parts moving forward? 

What are some of the ways you think humans can positively engage with their neighbors of other species?

The first thing is to take time and enjoy the gifts we’ve been given. Even though there’s a lot broken, it’s springtime and there are flowers blooming and birds singing. We should take time to enjoy and celebrate that together. It gives us a reason to care and restore our soul. It restores our spirit and it’s good for our mental health. So that’s the first thing, actually taking time to appreciate. The second thing is to engage our gifts and talents to become part of the solution. Writing is not enough. Education isn’t enough. I think we have to engage politically. Politics is really uncomfortable for me but I think it’s important because it matters who we elect. Sure, we’ve got some imperfect choices but it’s still important to be involved. Candidates may not speak on bird conservation but may have more to say about building highways, for instance. That’s relevant. Our political leaders shape the policies that determine how cities are built. That affects whether there will be bird songs for our kids and grandkids to enjoy. 

I’d like to get back into some of your ideas on sonic exploration. Can you talk a bit more about the importance of music in nature and how you found your way to that particular topic? 

I think we have two main problems with sounds in the world. One is that, in some places, we are making so much noise that we’re drowning out other species. In these places we have so much industry or highway noise, that birds and other insects can’t hear each other’s mating songs. So even if there’s food and habitat for them, they can’t thrive in that environment. And the other thing is we are basically silencing habitats. When we totally clear forests, a tropical forest for instance, we eliminate most of the species there. So when you walk into this forest it’s complete silence. 

How does the sound of nature affect human psychology?

It’s pretty good psychological evidence now that both sounds and also the sight of greenery and trees are good for our mental health. So if we lose that we have a tendency to become more anxious and depressed. We’re also less sociable. Studies have shown that when people are in nature they are more likely to be open and friendly strangers. Whereas in a place with more traffic, we subconsciously become more closed off. The sounds of the world actually affect human social dynamics. 

Going back to The Forest Unseen, you went into the same spot everyday for a year? 

Well, nearly every day. 

I find that kind of devotion admirable. How did that transform you and change your idea of Self and your environment? 

It messed me up (laughs). No, it was really interesting and I learned a lot about the forest. I noticed all kinds of interesting things about forest animals that I hadn’t before. Beyond that, it kind of gave me the sense of how small I was in the bigger scheme of things. In a way that made me feel irrelevant. And I felt in my bones that the world doesn’t revolve around me. It doesn’t revolve around any of us. It doesn’t even revolve around our species. This world isn’t older than any of us. There’s something kind of beautiful about being in relationship to a creative force. That transcends you. And that, to me, was reassuring. I also felt joyous in contrast to this sadness of what we’re doing to this world. When you’re in a place and become connected to it really well, you feel the wounds as well as the joy. 

“The world doesn’t revolce around me. It doesn’t revolve around any of us…it doesn’t even revolve around our species”

I’m a huge believer in nature as therapy. Do you have any thoughts on the therapeutic properties of nature? In general but also from your experience. 

I experience some level of anxiety. To me, that sensory connection of being in nature helps. Being able to breathe in the smell of soil and see some colors and hear some birds. So instead of just living in my head I actually come back into my body in a way that is relaxing. A lot of the world can feel threatening with crazy news stories but being in nature helps ease that. 

What is one pressing environmental or sustainability issue that is of special concern to you?

One place that we often forget is the oceans. There’s so much shipping noise and noise from seismic exploration for oil that it is quite literally killing some marine animals. It stresses them out and degrades their ecology. We’re on land and don’t hear those sounds yet we’re the ones creating it. Every time I fill up my gas tank or buy something from another continent, I’m putting sound in the ocean. That’s an issue that we tend not to think about but it is a sonic crisis.

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of videos about marine animals washing ashore. I saw one where sea lions  flooded a beach in San Diego and another where millions of sardines washed ashore. What do you think the sea animals are trying to tell us? 

Quiet down humans! Just let us get a little bit of peace. The other thing is to stop using the ocean as a trash can. All the pollution and runoff is killing a lot of these creatures. It’s easy for us to forget but if someone dumped trash in our front laws we’d be upset about that. 

David’s Top 5: 

Favorite past time: 

Gardening. I love to grow food and flowers. 

Favorite band or musician: 

One that has blown me away is listening to a reconstruction of Paleolithic flutes played by Anna Patenkowski. She took the first known musical instrument on Earth that are 40,000 years old carved from mammoth ivory. She plays these simple melodies but for me they blow me away and transport me back in time 

Favorite snack:

I love a nice handful of mixed nuts and dark chocolate because it’s crunchy and sweet.

Favorite tv show or movie: 

I like Verna Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It’s kind of quirky but I like most animated things, especially claymation. It’s such an exciting visual world.

Favorite self-care activity:

Playing music. I’m not a great musician but I play as an amateur guitarist and violinist. To me, it’s another activity that gets me out of my head and back into my body. 

Favorite snack:

I love a nice handful of mixed nuts and dark chocolate because it’s crunchy and sweet.

David Haskell is a writer and biologist. His latest book, Sounds Wild and Broken, was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award. The New York Times listed the book as an “Editor’s Choice”. Sounds Wild and Broken explores the story of sound on Earth. Starting with the origins of animal song and traversing the whole arc of Earth history, he illuminates and celebrates the emergence, diversification, and loss of the sounds of our world, including human music and language.

(a cardboard pallet that’s been flattened, bound and ready for shipping)

Connie was introduced to recycling at a young age. Both of her parents recycled as well as her grandmother. “My grandmother never wasted anything. A shirt would wear out and she’d take the buttons off; she’d make he shirt into a rag” recounting her family’s legacy of recycling. Connie carries on that spirit by appreciating nature and doing her part of preserving the Earth’s integrity. “I would never throw away a leaf because it could be part of my garden. I look for ways to reuse everything” Connie states. She is also a gracious tour guide who welcomed me into the Oxford Recycling Center on a warm fall afternoon to get an inside look at the facility. 

“Whether or not we like it, plastic is here. We could stop making plastic today but we’d still have to do something with the plastic’s that’s here.”

 

Tell me about yourself and your background:

I’m an educator and a retired schoolteacher. For 25 years, I worked at North Mississippi Regional Center helping individuals with developmental disabilities. I taught them about recycling but I also helped them with daily living activities such as dressing themselves. Now I work at Oxford Recycling part time at the facility but also helping to educate the public and schools. 

Can you talk about the operational aspect of the recycling center?

We are the recycling branch for the city of Oxford. We get all the residential recycling (with the exception of glass). Our metals are sold to Pea Ridge Recycling down the road. As far as actual facility operations, individuals with developmental disabilities are the ones doing the sorting by hand—all of our recycling is done by hand. 

Let’s talk about what materials are accepted at the facility and what isn’t. A lot of people aren’t educated on what’s recyclable.

We accept plastics, metals and cardboard. In addition, the city of Oxford also picks up rubbish. So there’s a recycling pick up day and a rubbish and waste pick up. 

What exactly is rubbish? 

Rubbish is things like couches and appliances. For instance, if someone passes away and has to get their homes cleaned out there might be a lot of rubbish. Things like estates and moving out tend to see a lot of rubbish. 

What other services does the facility offer?

So Oxford Recycling is under the Environmental Services Department. We are responsible for garbage pick up as well as lawn maintenance along the highways as and cemeteries. Additionally, we are partnered with a program called Terracycle. It’s essentially a corporate recycling program that allows certain materials to be recycled such as toiletry packaging or certain plastics that may only be useful to a grocery store for example. So that grocery tore will pay for those materials to be recycled and shipped back to them. 

Connie’s Top 5
Fav Snack: Ice Cream specifically Private Selection chocolate chip
Fav musician/band: Brazilian musician Daniel Bonaventura; I discovered him on Facebook.
Fav TV show or movie: Ted Lasso because I just love his positive attitude
Fav place in Oxford: Oxford University United Methodist Church (OUUMC)
Fav hobby or past time: Gardening, birding and anything in nature

Faith Young (left) with a representative of the Mississippi Recycling Coalition

Faith Young brings her artistry to recycling efforts in Mississippi. She enjoys singing and uses that same passion to address sustainability. She is a mother, wife, educator, and activist. Faith was gracious enough to speak with me as she took a break from home schooling her children in her Jackson home. Her days are filled with teaching her children, caring for her home and, of course, running Door2Door (D2D) Recycling along with her husband. Faith understands sustainability as a lifestyle and strives to minimize waste in all aspects of life. She teaches the values of no-waste to her children who have been helping with D2D for years. She educated me on the deficiencies in the recycling system in Mississippi and how D2D is helping to make change. Faith spoke on the ills but, more importantly, how things could be improved. I left the the interview with renewed hope that one person’s actions really could shake up a system for the better.

“It’s about service to our customers. Our customers are loyal and have become like extended family. We also do this to lead by example, to show our children what it means to give back.”

-Faith Young, owner

Door2Door Recycling

 

Can you tell me a bit about yourself and how D2D was born? 

I’ve been an entrepreneur for about 14 years. I have a background in education as well. My husband Marquette and I started D2D because there was a need for it. We started in Pearl (MS) about 10 years ago and have since expanded to many surrounding cities in Mississippi including Oxford. We have a a loyal customer base that continues to grow. 

You spoke about the values of minimizing waste and recycling. Where did you learn to apply these values to your life?

My mother was a science teacher and my father was a pastor who did a lot of work in the community. My father worked with the state (Tennessee) advocating for individuals with disabilities. My mother recycled when I was young and I remember going to the recycling facility to sort. 

Why is it so difficult to recycle glass in Mississippi?

Glass recycling is simply not profitable. Recycling in general isn’t profitable but glass even more so. It’s very expensive to ship and even harder to find ways to re-use the material. Unless you’re at the top-tier of recycling, turning a profit is hard to do. 

What do you mean by top-tier?

I mean very few involved in the process of recycling actually see profit. D2D would be considered “bottom tier” as we do all the collecting, sorting and shipping. We then send a truck load (40,000lbs) to a company that re-processes the glass into fiberglass and insulation for homes. For quality assurance, we do have a process in which we make sure the glass is being reprocessed as it should. 

You speak about how hard it to make money in recycling. What motivates you to keep going after 10 years? 

It’s about service to our customers. Our customers are loyal and have become like extended family. We also do this to lead by example, to show our children what it means to give back. We think it’s important to leave the world a better place than you found it. We also believe that good comes back to you and money isn’t the bottom line, goodwill and doing something you love is.  

If resources were unlimited, how do you see D2D evolving? 

I would see the process of glass recycling from inception to reprocessing into new material. I would love to see the new material being used for resources within the state of Mississippi. I would love to work with the state to become a hub for recycling.  

Faith’s Top 5

Favorite snack: 

Sweet, hot potato chips 

Favorite place in Jackson:

Home

Favorite Musician/Band:

Nappy Roots

Favorite TV show:

The Voice 

Favorite hobby:

Cooking 

Learn more about Door2Door services here: https://www.door2doorrecycling.com

Written by RT Malone
Graduate Student, Social Work
Sustainability Communications GA

By R. Tiara Malone

Tell us about Grove Grocery and your role there?  

Grove Grocery was established in 2012 as a registered student organization meant to offer food pantry services and to educate our university community about food insecurity in higher education settings and in our state. I have served as the staff advisor to Grove Grocery since 2019. As staff advisor, I have the great honor of supporting our passionate student leaders who run our operations, educate our community, and continue to build our capacity to serve.  

Have you seen an increase in food insecurity amongst college students? 

I began serving as staff advisor just prior to the impacts of the pandemic.  During the pandemic, our utilization soared as students sought support around food insecurity due to lost wages and pandemic shutdowns.  Utilization has increased every year since that time as more and more students learn about our services.  In the last year, especially with increased food costs, we are seeing more and more students that need some assistance with food and nutrition security. 

Do you have any advice for students who are hesitant to use the pantry due to taboos or shame around pantries? 

Food is one of our most basic needs.  We need a diverse nutritious range of foods to maintain our health and to focus as students.  I hope that any student that struggles to have enough food or enough nutritious food knows that our pantry is available for all.  While we have a limit on how much food students can take in one visit, we have no other barriers to access.  We have set up our pantry to feel like a food shopping experience that allows students to access the space and select the items they need. 

How can members of the Ole Miss community get involved?

We are run completely by our student volunteers.  We have volunteer opportunities available for open hours at the pantry, tabling events, fundraising events, Kroger shopping trips, and other committee work.  Students need to participate in a volunteer training via zoom and then can sign up for various volunteer opportunities. This is a great way to serve our community and see the direct impact of our services. 

What are the hours of operation and do you have any social media we can follow? 

Most of our pantry updates are available via Instagram (@grovegrocery). 

Our hours of operation, volunteer information, and other updates can be found there.  At present, our fall hours are Wed-Sat 10-6pm and Sunday 1-4pm. 

By: R. Tiara Malone

The fall feels are abound at Oxford Community Market. I stopped by one Tuesday as director Betsy Chapman and a host of volunteers set up ahead of the 3p opening. Betsy is speaking to the jovial Mr. Aldridge, an anchor vendor at OCM. He’s been a faithful vendor for 8 years providing fresh eggs, home-baked goods and canned jams. Betsy is excited to tell me about the burgeoning fall harvest consisting of leafy greens and roots vegetables. She is truly a burst of fresh air, speaking passionately about her work. This is Chapman’s 9th year as director and she, nor the market, show any signs of slowing down. My motive for speaking with Betsy was to learn about her efforts at the market. What I received was an invaluable education on food sustainability, economics, and grassroots movements. Betsy’s service goes well beyond food marketing jargone.g. “slow food” and “farm to table.” A teacher, community organizer and advocate, Betsy courageously does her part to combat food insecurity. With a host of cheerful volunteers, she makes change happen in Oxford.

“(the market) is a chance to talk to people growing your food. Why and how they grow what they grow…what their values are as stewards of land.”

–Betsy Chapman

Director, Oxford Community Market

 

Tell me about yourself and the Oxford Community Market?

We are, essentially, a year-round market. We’re open every Tuesday with our busiest seasons being spring and summer. There has also been a lot of growth in our fall and winter seasons. Initially, we started as a 32 week market, then 36 weeks. Finally, we decided we needed a market that reflects the long-growing season that we have in Mississippi. This allows growers to increase revenue so they won’t have to rely solely on tomato season, for example.

Can you talk a bit about the process of choosing vendors?

We have an accessible and affordable application process, it’s simple. Our market is intentionally a food market so we’re looking to fill our space with farmers and small food producers. We’ll accept a small number of handmade items but we need those goods to relate to home and garden. We’re really trying to create a space for the promotion of our local food system. There is a small booth fee that covers logistics as well as promotion and marketing. There are also opportunities for vendors to teach cooking classes, providing additional revenue. So we are constantly looking to make the market more valuable for our vendors beyond just market days.

On the outreach initiatives

The very heart of our mission is to improve access to local food. That is why we do it. We are attempting to create a local food system that is not just about farm to table. High quality accessible food should be accessible to everyone in our community. We continually strive to challenge the notion that good things cannot be accessible to everyone. We’re only doing our job if our customer base reflects the entirety of our community. We will do whatever we can to make sure everyone knows about the market and feels comfortable coming here. There are many barriers to accessing healthy, local food.

What are some barriers to healthy, local food that you’ve seen?

The biggest barrier is economics:  you eat based on how much money you have in your pocket. Our job is to incentivize and make it possible for all community members to have access to healthy and local food, without regards to their economic status. Our market accepts SNAP benefits, WIC and Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition Voucher Program. Additionally, we also have created our own voucher program which we call gift certificates. We give these to people facing food insecurity especially seniors. Finally, we deliver meals every Friday afternoon; this past Friday we delivered over 200 meals to 3 neighborhoods.

In an ideal future with unlimited resources, what role do you see farmers markets playing?

I think what we’ve been doing so far, just on a wider scale. We scale up our existing practices to increase the demand for local food. We’ve seen our market expand gradually and reach more people. If we have more people shopping at farmer’s markets, we’re going to start producing more. It follows the supply and demand model.

What’s been the biggest challenge of running a farmer’s market?

We need a permanent location so we can grow over the next few years. There is a waiting list for vendors and local food is becoming more popular so we need space to keep up with demand. The key thing we need for our market to continue to thrive is a permanent location.

Betsy’s Top 5

Fav dish: Good ol’ country cooking:  chicken and dumplings, purple hull peas with bacon, green beans, sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper, cornbread...I associate those foods with comfort and family.

Fav musician band: In my wilder years it was the Rolling Stones. As far as singer-songwriters Tom Waits, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt—they really get to my heart

Fav past time: Recently, it’s been daily walking. I have time to think, decompress, clear my head and get fresh air. It brings a little more balance into my life.

Fav spot in Oxford: OCM because it is the most unique experience I‘ve ever had. It draws people from all walks of life. No other gathering do you get this kind of diversity. Every week it’s like a family reunion.

Fav sports team: Hotty Toddy! Go Rebels!

To learn more about the Oxford Community Farmer’s Market, visit their website here or join us Thursday, Oct. 19th for the Fall Campus Market on Galtney-Lott Plaza, from 10am-2pm.

The UM Office of Sustainability is hosting an OXCM Low-Carbon Shopping Night to highlight the sustainability of shopping locally and the amazing work OXCM provides for our community. The Oxford Community Market is a passionate nonprofit organization focused on food access. Their programs make healthy, local food accessible to all people in our community, especially those facing barriers of cost and transportation. There are several reasons to support OXCM, read on to learn more.

Low Carbon Shopping Night Menu

Sustainable Farming – OXCM Vendor Highlights

Sustainability and Social Responsibility

Written by: Allegra Latimer

Allegra Latimer is the Fall 2022 Compost Collective Intern. She has worked at the Office of Sustainability since 2019.

As we transition from long, sunny days and the verdant green of the Grove towards more fluctuating temperatures and autumnal colorings of reds, yellows, and browns, one becomes acutely aware of the unwavering fluidity of our environment. It is in this way that our environment plays a critical role in how we structure our day. Conversely, our role as humans in a progressing society has a large and intrinsic role in the pace and magnitude of these environmental changes. While these changes are woven into long-term climate effects, there are often short-term impacts that we as humans have in contributing to variances in these environmental patterns. Quantitatively, the extent of this impact can be measured through our individual carbon footprint. True to its name, carbon footprints are just that, a measurement of the magnitude of individual consumption. These steps, whether big or small, contribute to the emissions of fossil fuels. This can exist in the form of transport, food consumption/disposal, purchasing, and a wide variety of other actions. 

Just as no two people are the same, no two footprints are the same. If we equate steps in reverse as a form of social responsibility, it can be concluded that while we all have an intrinsic partnership with our environment and an obligation to act in the best interest of society and the environment as a whole, carbon footprints and social responsibility are more aptly defined on a graded scale. 

So what does this look like?–a student perspective.

To live a sustainable lifestyle, do I have to be vegan, drive an electric car, compost, recycle, buy solar panels, AND never shop big business again?

While there are endless options to living a more sustainable lifestyle, each with its own merit, no one individual is responsible, yet alone capable of participating in these choices in the same way.  Each of us must make these choices based on our own capacity. One way to avoid sustainability burnout and guide us through these choices is to consider our personal scale of consumption versus contribution. It is simply impossible for each of us to transition in the same way, sustainable transitions must be both economically and personally equitable for each individual. Given two hypothetical scenarios, we can better understand what is required of individuals to contribute to a sustainable future. 

Scenario 1: A student lives on campus. They walk to their classes and regularly use public transportation or their bike for personal travel off-campus. This student does not buy food or clothing beyond the basic necessities and does not travel beyond what is required for school, work, etc. 

Scenario 2: A student lives off-campus and drives their personal vehicle to and from school, work, as well as extracurricular activities. This student regularly travels for school, work, and leisure activities and also regularly purchases clothing and technology. 

Given the resources available to Student 2 as well as their increased consumption, it would be apt to say that their level of social responsibility is greater. If they wish to contribute to a sustainable future, they may consider purchasing locally, and if faced with extra food/packaging waste, they could consider composting and recycling. As a frequent traveler both for school and for leisure, Student 2 could consider contributing to carbon offsets and if looking for a new vehicle, could consider an electric alternative. Because Student 1 does not economically consume as much as Student 2, it is not necessary that Student 1 consider themselves as having the same level of obligation to contribute to more financially linked forms of sustainability. For example, Student 1 does not have a personal vehicle or does not use their personal vehicle; therefore, it is not necessary that they consider buying an electric vehicle. 

A similar comparison can be made with regard to the fashion industry. There is increasing dialogue around businesses moving towards sustainable fabrics, more equitable working conditions for employees, and sourcing locally. While all of these factors contribute to a higher quality and more sustainable product, this often comes at a cost. For someone who regularly purchases clothes and is interested in fashion beyond wearing clothes as a basic utility, purchasing from more sustainable brands is an element to consider; however, if someone maintains a smaller wardrobe and does not consume much from this sector, then purchasing higher priced sustainable clothing is less of a factor of concern.

These are merely examples of how to begin conceptualizing your own social responsibility to sustainability. One of the first and greatest steps in sustainability is to simply be conscious and knowledgeable about the world in which we live. Being aware of the interconnectedness of humans and their environment allows for the dialogue of sustainability to continue and the initiation of remedial action both on personal and social scales. While it is important to consider this hierarchy of sustainability, particularly in relation to social responsibility and financial obligations, there are countless other ways to contribute to sustainable efforts. These examples are such that can be incorporated into any lifestyle with low commitment and high benefits. 

One of the easiest ways to incorporate sustainability into your everyday life is to save and reduce. Reducing meaning to reduce overconsumption of food and other forms of purchasing. Overconsumption stems from overproduction and leads to excess amounts of waste. This cyclic effect leads to environmental impacts such as land-fill build-up and greenhouse gas release. Saving can equate to reusing or opting for purchased materials that can be used multiple times such as reusable water bottles and packing lunches rather than purchasing from outside. Walking or using forms of low-emission or shared transportation are all great ways to lessen your individual carbon footprint. 

Within Oxford and on the Ole Miss campus, most everything is within walkable distances and otherwise has an available bus route. If you are a student and looking to get involved locally, joining sustainable and environmentally oriented organizations is a way to contribute to sustainable action and discussion both academically and socially. This list is non-exhaustive and can vary from person to person. Our impact as consumers, students, and humans has a profound impact on the world in which we live. There are endless options for living a more sustainable lifestyle and no two individuals’ social responsibility, carbon footprint, or capacity are the same. Being mindful of our impacts and responsibly choosing sustainable actions within our means is what will keep us moving toward a brighter future for tomorrow and future generations (rather than blowing all of our income on an electric vehicle we don’t use or can’t afford).

Written by Fall 2022 Compost Collective Intern, Allegra Latimer

Environmental Sustainability

In April, Earth Month, we will be completing our serious on the three dimensions of sustainability by discussing environmental sustainability. In previous columns, we have discussed the economic and social dimensions of sustainability.

There are several ways to define environmental sustainability, but Sphera, a company that helps mitigate environmental impacts, summarizes it as:

“the responsibility to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems to support health and wellbeing, now and in the future.”

Dr. Ann Fisher-Wirth

Understanding environmental sustainability requires us to understand science, but the arts have allowed us to understand it on a more personal level. That is why this month we have chosen to speak with a professor who has dedicated their life to understanding the environment through the Arts, Dr. Ann Fisher-Wirth.

Dr. Ann Fisher-Wirth has worked at the University of Mississippi for 33 years as a professor in the Department of English and has been the director of the Environmental Studies Minor since its inception. She has received fellowships from the Black Earth Institute, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Mississippi Arts Commission, among others. In 2006 she received the Mississippi Humanities Teacher of the Year and College of Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year. She has received numerous awards for her work, which appears widely in journals, online, and in anthologies (Find her list of selected publications here).

How have your life experiences shaped the way you understand the environment and sustainability?

I think a number of things allowed me to connect the dots. First of all, I was an army brat and traveled a lot as a kid which means I saw a lot of different places. I remember, my father was stationed in Japan in 1955 and we joined him there. And that was not long after WWII and Japan of course was pretty devastated. So I remember being a little kid driving in a Taxi somewhere with my mom, my sister, and my dad. And I saw this hillside or rather cliff side with a cave in it with a quilt hung down in front of the opening of the cave along with a women and some kids. And I said to my mother “what are they doing?” and she said “honey, they live there.” And I thought ‘oh my goodness’…so that was the first jolt I can remember to my idea that everybody had a kind of Dick and Jane childhood with a home and a dog and a mommy and a daddy. Because I grew up in a very safe, well cushioned environment.

So that was one thing that made me start thinking, as a child does, about the fact that there are such differences in the world and that there can be such a thing as poverty, destitution, incredible need, and incredible damage.

And then later, I grew up in Berkeley and I was really lucky to grow up in Berkeley as I did during the late 50’s and early 60’s because I had friends who were pretty political and I was dating this guy who would lecture me about the inequities of capitalism and so on and that got me started thinking about that too.

And I remember, so I was an English major at Pomona College and we were assigned to read Walden and I had not really spent that much time in the natural world, but I stayed up all night reading Walden and I was absolutely transfixed. I was so blown away by the combination of this retreat, this solitude, this spirituality to be found in that kind of view of the natural world. I was just profoundly moved.

So that was one thing, and then later, much later, I lived in Belgium and traveled Europe and I just saw a lot of things that didn’t really feed into my environmental consciousness, but just an awareness of the world. The incredible beauty of the world. 

Then a much later I moved in with my husband on a farm south of Charlottesville in this little guest cottage, and we had 5 kids between us. The house was tiny but the farm was big and so the farm sort of became our extra rooms. It was beautiful and you could just send the kids out to wonder around and there were barns, lakes, peach trees, apple trees, forest and so on. I learned a lot more about just being in nature and I felt like this is something I have always longed for, but I didn’t quite know it.

My husband Peter is a passionate walker, he loves to walk and he loves forests and he loves trees and so I started learning a lot more about the natural world by being married to him. And we started vegetable gardening and so on and so forth. Also Peter is very political and we would talk a lot about political issues and I started following environmental issues. So when we came down here, I knew that we needed an environmental group. Students needed to be able to share that interest and share that knowledge. So for a while we had these tiny tiny groups, I’m talking one or two people, that worked year after year to create the Environmental Studies Minor. Once it came into being, I became the Director for it and have been ever since, it has just been a really consuming passion for me. I really love it, I really do.

Can you describe the interdisciplinary work you have experienced?

I am not a trained scientist and as an undergrad at Pomona College I was so not a trained scientist that I didn’t do my assigned experiment to pass Botany, I just hated it. But I’ve learned a lot from teaching Environmental Studies 101 and I’ve learned a lot from reading science writing, I have good friends who are science writers, as well as my colleges like Jason Hoeksema and Steve Brewer in biology and Cliff Ochs, who I’ve done collaborative work with, and I’ve just learned so much from them. 

So actually to my delight, I am a part of a a new book edited by a woman in California named Lucille Lang Day, called “Poetry and Science: Writing Our Way to Discovery.” So we each wrote an essay and we each had some poems in this book. Environmental Writing needs to be knowledgeable about the world. Not all environmental writing needs to involve a lot of science, but it helps if you can write knowledgeable and in a real sense not just a fanatical sense about the world you are focusing on. That knowledge has been important for my poetry, I write an awful lot about what I would call poetry of place, because I’m not from Mississippi, although I’ve lived here for 33 years and it fascinates me, and I write a lot about, for instance, the Whirlpool Trails (South Campus Rail Trail) or the Catalpa tree on campus or my yard, the birds and trees and flowers in my yard. That is all interwoven with the lives of people.

I’ve worked with Maude Schuyler Clay who is a photographer to collaborate on  a book of poetry and photography called “Mississippi.” It’s her gorgeous photographs and then through those photographs I was able to, almost literally, hear voices that would tell me stories about people who aren’t in the photographs but people who were conjured for me by the photographs. They are poems about the Bayou about the trees or the waterways and the land or the ruined buildings and the lives that are connected with those places. 

And so it is all interdisciplinary, it’s all collaborative, the boundaries are nowhere. That’s what is so exciting about it. You can be interested in absolutely anything.

As you prepare to retire, what do you hope your legacy will be on our campus?

At the end of Environmental Studies 101 I ask students to write an essay about the course, just a personal essay, and it’s 5-7 pages. They talk about what they’ve learned and the books we’ve read and so on, but so many of them have said Environmental Studies 101 should be a required course for everyone on this campus. And I’m not asking them to say that, they are just feeling like we are learning stuff that really matters, we are learning stuff that is shaping our lives. And we are responsible for helping shape the world. And they are saying that they want this to be more widely a part of this campus culture.

That is the legacy I would like to leave. That there has been, oh I don’t know, a few hundred students that have taken my course and whose lives have really been changed. They have gone into career paths based on that or they have live differently, but I would like to see that much much more widespread. It is just so important. It might not be fun to think about but it’s reality. It doesn’t just go away by being ignored. And by it I mean, for instance I just read yesterday that something like 55% of all rivers and lakes in this country have water that is unfit for drinking and that’s not going to change just because we don’t want to think about it.  The damage caused by over use of pesticides and herbicides and so on that’s not going to change just because we don’t want to think about it. So it’s important to know. It’s important to know what’s involved with deforestation or with the pollution of rivers or toxic runoff and then find the energy and the courage and the knowledge to change it.

That is what I have found that is so meaningful about this minor and about these courses. As well that it is just so fun. It’s fun to take students to a farm or a nature walk or have them have to write nature journals and be quiet for an hour a week. And they often have said “this is the most peaceful time of my life”, “this is the time I can really rest”. Just because they have to not be using their phone, not be talking to their friends, just be under a tree quiet and it is just a healing experience. So there is all kinds of healing that is possible, all kinds of fun that’s possible and there’s all kinds of hard work that is possible.

What work has been most meaningful to you here at UM?

Creating the minor, definitely creating the minor. But I’ve also been involved with the MFA program since its inception, the MFA program in the English Department. And I’ve loved that too, teaching a lot of poetry workshops and so on has been a lot of fun. And since I have my PhD I can also teach graduate level seminars and I’ve done a bunch of those and I really loved that. I’ve taught eco poetry and the american long poem and women poets and that has been really rewarding for me.

Where do you find positivity in environmental sustainability work?

[Belly laughs] I’ll just have to choke a little bit. I don’t even know how to start answering that. I do see more people caring more. More young people caring more. The students I teach, caring desperately. I was just at the Associated Writing Programs conference, and I was on a panel again, and a young women stood up and said I’m apart of the Sunrise Movement, and I’m like yes that’s great. I think it’s great that young people are coming out, taking to the streets making their angers and their hopes and their determination known.

The woman said “you all have been talking about joy [in the natural world] but I want to talk about grief.” She said “where is the literature that is talking about grief that we feel?” Well there is plenty of it, but she wanted to insist on what’s called solastalgia, which is this great feeling of grief for the loss of a beautiful environment.I do think that our environmental situation is disastrous. I think it’s only made worse by this horrible war in Ukraine. I would like to think that raising gas prices would cause people to turn away from fossil fuels rather than turning away from the people they are angry at in the government. I think there is a lot more lip service than action when we have these climate summits and so on. People keep saying that great progress is being made and then you have to ask yourself “Well, how slowly do we slide backwards?” Well quickly or slowly it still is sliding backwards. I’m sorry if that’s not the hopeful answer you may have been looking for.

One thing I do think is really good is when communities spring up. For instance what the [Oxford Community Market] does here in Oxford, I think, is just phenomenal. It’s a real outreach program that is not only helping people have better food and more sustainable food sources but also educating people about raising food, eating in a nourishing way. There is a big economic component to that too. You know, reaching out  to people who have less money and just trying to provide really good food for them. That kind of thing I think is terrific. Things like Hill Country Roots with tree planting out at the Biological Field Station. I think that that is absolutely phenomenal. So sure there are things to feel really good about and take pride and take hope in, but at the same time with global capitalism, it’s not designed to provide sustainability. It’s designed to provide profit and there are a lot of governmental structures in place that help sustain that profit motive.

Sustainability work has no shortage of tasks in the coming years. Dr. Ann Fisher-Wirth is an example of someone who, despite all odds, continues to push for sustainable progress. While the task seems insurmountable, we can all do our part in creating a better tomorrow.

–Story by OOS Project Manager, Kathryn Kidd

Economic Sustainability

Our society has experienced rapid changes in just the past century. Since 1950, the population has more than doubled, global consumption of water has more than tripled, and the use of fossil fuels has quadrupled (Robertson, 2021). The driver of all of this change is economic; namely, the economic growth model that has been core to human economic activity since World War II. This model is linear with resources going in and waste coming out, but this economic system has consumed resources faster than can be replenished and released waste into the environment much faster than the natural system can process. Several ecological economists and other academics have recognized the flaws in the current economic model as not only bad but perhaps physically impossible to maintain (Daly and Farley, 2003).

Economic sustainability generally seeks to responsibly manage the planet’s finite resources in a way that is mutually beneficial to society and the earth system. It acts as the capital connection between the social and environmental pillars of sustainability.  The Oslo Symposium in 1995 defined sustainable consumption and production as:

“The use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials, and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations.”

UM Associate Professor in the Department of Economics: Ms. Sharon Hayes

It’s only relatively recently that we have come to recognize the real limitations of our consumption and explored economic alternatives. Therefore, sustainable economic research is new in relation to social or environmental sustainability. It’s often the least understood dimension and most abstract in terms of solutions or action. That is why we have chosen a long-time ecological economist and University of Mississippi professor, Ms. Sharon Hayes to help us contextualize economic sustainability.

Professor Hayes is a full-time online instructor at the University of Mississippi since 2018. She has expertise in environmentally sustainable business, policy, and management with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Dole Food Company, Inc., and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. With this background, we knew Professor Hayes would be the perfect person to ask a few questions about sustainability and the economy.

We first discussed her background and her familiarity with sustainability. She highlighted three work experiences that shaped her understanding of sustainability. First, she described her 23 years working with the EPA and said that her work with the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 was her first introduction to the notion of sustainability. She explained that this act “really introduced the concept of reducing waste at the source and not generating any residuals at all if you can help it.” Professor Hayes also explained that it wasn’t until the early to mid-2000s that the EPA explicitly decided to “go green” and formed a committee that she sat on to start working towards responsible consumption.

Next, she was the director of Global Social Responsibilities and Environmental Affairs with the Dole Food Company. She described her work there as the perfect integration of all three aspects of sustainability; working to improve the social and environmental aspects of Dole while balancing the economic demands. And last, she discussed two classes she has taught on ecological economics and specifically sustainable economics at Dominican University. It was there that she wrote an article titled “Accounting for Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability: Linking Ecosystem Services to Human Well-Being,” published in 2010 by Environmental Science and Technology. In sum, she is extremely familiar with sustainability work. Fascinated by her background I had to know how she got started in all of this, she states:

“I was just a champion for the underdog. I actually first got into womens rights and I taught at the University of Maryland when I was getting my graduate degree. I taught the economic problems of women and the economics of poverty and discrimination, and then when I was doing my dissertation, environmental issues interested me more and I kind of got pulled toward that and that was my field.”

She explained that before she was introduced to ecological economics, during her dissertation research she constantly was looking for ways to “draw the natural world into what’s called neoclassical economics, which believes that there are no limits to growth. Ecological economics and sustainability both recognize that the planet is limited.”

With her vast experience in the public and private sector, Ms. Hayes explained that her view of sustainability has grown and it has become more obvious that “the economics, the social, and the environment are all intertwined.” She also learned that we have to give people a chance, “most of the people that worked in the organization [Dole] were just people, just like us, good people. They wanted to do the right thing, they just didn’t know what the right thing was.” It was her job to show Dole what the right thing was. She explained that showing social and environmental benefits of change was simple, but the economic side…” you know all these things had to pass the bottom line.” She had to find ways to quantify the benefits of lowering insecticide use, implementing better child labor laws, or improving working conditions. This is one of the primary topics discussed in subjects like environmental economics: How do we calculate the true costs? Professor Hayes explains that economic sustainability requires “benefits to be described as comprehensively and as completely as they can be, and they are described in quantitative terms.” She describes economic sustainability as: “Making sure all the benefits are described qualitatively, if not quantitatively and described personally, locally, community-wide, statewide, nationally and internationally.”

Throughout the interview, Professor Hayes described benefits as both the solution and the biggest challenge to economic sustainability. In her 2010 article, she attempts to take a stab at this challenge by providing a “relatively easy and cost-free way to measure environmental benefits.” Solving this issue means helping companies meet their bottom line AND raise the standard of living in both an environmentally and economically sustainable way. Not a simple task for anyone. Ms. Hayes did provide one example of how environmental benefits can become easier to quantify, “Actually, in Europe, the better Dole got environmentally, the more revenues went up there. And so, there were grocery stores that would buy Dule products just because we were working on environmental and social stuff.” While this is just an anecdotal example, it is important to remember that each of us has buying power that can be used to create the market we would like to see.

In conclusion, we asked Professor Hayes what we can do to create a more sustainable campus economy and she first and foremost explained, “I have no contacts with other folks in the university that teach environmental issues. I would like to see some interactions, you know. I have my own thoughts, I have no idea what anyone else’s are.” She suggested creating a committee/interest group of students or faculty to discuss and promote environmental research, policies, etc. Sustainability is a diverse topic and people from every field have to work together to come up with sustainable progress. If you’ve felt the same way Ms. Hayes has,  please contact our office with any questions, suggestions, or concerns and we’ll be happy to help get you connected.

About The Three Dimensions of Sustainability Column

Fig. 1: Frequency of papers published that include sustainability or sustainability in the bibliographic records over time (Kajikawa et. al 2014)

Sustainability made its grand entrance into American culture alongside the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s. In the past 20 years, we have seen a considerable uptick in publications on ‘sustainability’ (Fig. 1) and it has rapidly transformed into distinct fields of study (i.e. Sustainability Science & Sustainable Development). Within its brief 50 years of study sustainability’s meaning has been highly scrutinized, redefined, and refined.

Sustainability in the broadest sense means the ability of something to maintain or “sustain” itself over time. Academically, its precise definition has varied from person to person, field to field, but by and large, all definitions include three distinct “dimensions”: social, economic, and environmental. Some academics call these dimensions the three pillars, three components, or three aspects and make attempts to diagram this broad topic (Fig. 2). When attempting to define sustainability academics have found themselves teetering back and forth between vagueness and incomprehensibility. It’s no wonder people get confused!

Fig. 2: Common Sustainability Diagrams. Left, three intersecting circles, Right, literal ‘pillars’ and a concentric circle approach.

It is important to have a strong understanding of sustainability in order to make meaningful progress towards it. Without fully understanding what sustainability is and is not, we run the risk of trivialization and manipulation by those who have something to gain from its misunderstanding. I am sure we all can recall a company that has used sustainability buzz words to grab our attention while they stand behind their Green Washed curtain perpetuating the unsustainable status quo. This is why for the Spring 2022 semester, the Office of Sustainability will be tackling the meaning behind the three dimensions of sustainability. We will review the key points of each dimension as well as interview professors on campus that we believe will help contextualize each dimension of sustainability. We hope to leave you with resources to learn more, campus-specific examples of each dimension, and actions you can take to work toward sustainability.

Our office defines sustainability as:

A multi-disciplinary, problem-solving approach to creating a social system that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations or the needs of the ecological system in which huamsn exist.

By fostering education that encourages reponsible and equitable management of our envrionmental, social and economic resources, the sustainability framework challenges our university to consider the interdependent nature of our lives, the natural environment, our communities and the economy and especially the improvement of these relationships.

Key Terms:

1. Sustainable Development-development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Robertson, 2021)
2. Sustainability Science-a field of study devoted to tackling the challenges of sustainable development in the transition toward sustainability. This field is interdisciplinary, defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs. (Kates, 2010)

Resources & Recommended Reading:

Kates, Robert W., ed. Readings in Sustainability Science and Technology. CID Working Paper No. 213. Center for International Development, Harvard University, December 2010.

Robertson, Margaret. Sustainability Principles and Practice Third Edition. Routledge, Abingdon, OX & Routledge, New York, NY. 2021