Contemplative Approaches to Sustainability in Higher Education

"This inspiring volume responds to the emerging awareness in higher education of the need for student skills to maintain personal resilience, cope with complexity, and respond constructively to the challenges of our time. Every teacher who has ever faced student discouragement and despair needs this book. "

--Peggy F. Barlett, Goodrich C. White Professor of Anthropology, Emory University, USA

""What a wonderful, insightful, wise, and caring approach to sustainability in higher education. Many fine books discuss sustainability as a way of life, but few get to the heart of the matter—how sustainability awareness can open deeper levels of mindfulness, contemplation, and service. This provocative volume provides superb hands-on approaches, philosophical depth, and curricular guidance. The activities and suggestions in this book should be widely shared, both in university settings and beyond."

--Mitchell Thomashow, Author of The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus and Former President of Unity College, USA

"A timely and rich set of contributions highlighting the need for inner emotional work as a significant part of responsible environmental citizenship. Chapter authors share contemplative practices to engage the challenges of denial and despair that confront today’s concerned students. The book makes the case for the deep importance of this work and the need to build a culture of listening as a foundation for resilience. It calls for confronting the high carbon lifestyles of the privileged and the systemic injustice underlying climate debt. These thoughtful reflections by experienced teachers offer valuable new frames for learning and a call for discernment and creative response in the sustainability classroom."

--Stephanie Kaza, Professor Emerita, Environmental Program, University of Vermont, USA