http://www.airamerica.com/ecotalk/node/255

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University
by Philippe Boucher on October 6, 2006 - 12:24am.

  Michael M'Gonigle, coauthor of Planet U: Sustaining the World,
Reinventing the University talks about what huge contribution they could
make toward sustainability.
LISTEN (12 min)

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University by Michael
M'Gonigle and Justine Starke. New Society Publishers, 2006.

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University explores the
unique nature of the university as a vehicle for becoming an integrated
model of place-based sustainability. Each university is different, but each
has attributes that no other institution has, collectively equipping these
places with an unparalleled potential for ecological innovation and ability
to drive regional sustainability. The historical role of the university as
a site and catalyst of social critique and change is evolving, and Planet U
addresses the university as the object of change as well as the agent of
change.

Touching on everything from the development of complete campus communities
to food security programs to innovative transportation systems, M'Gonigle
and Starke weave together a series of best practices and examples from
around the world. Alongside this comprehensive survey of the sustainable
campuses movement is a narrative focus of the authors' struggle at the
University of Victoria to catalyse complete community at their university.
Planet U puts forth a place-based strategy to integrate everything from the
development of green buildings to local reinvestment strategies to
governance structures into an integrated approach for university
sustainability.

  Distinctively, Planet U includes both a discussion of technical
possibilities and one that addresses the underlying power issues necessary
for "ecological governance." Universities must engage in democratic reform
of their governance structures to enable the high degree of ecological
innovation that they are capable of. Planet U provides the movement with
the inspiration to begin addressing this too-often overlooked aspect of
sustainability.

Planet U is of interest to a wide audience -- environmentalists and student
activists, academics and administrators, business people and politicians,
and to anyone concerned with how we can think our way out of the
ever-escalating crises of global sustainability, and how we can act right
now. To sustain the world, we must reinvent the university, one place at a
time.

Michael M'Gonigle holds the Eco Research Chair in Environmental Law and
Policy at the University of Victoria and is the founder of the POLIS
Project on Ecological Governance.

Justine Starke has recently completed a Master in Arts in Planning at the
University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning.

For more about Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University
and the Planet U movement check out: www.planetaryuniversity.org