By Sustainability Research Fellow, Katie Koenig<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Storytelling is a major part of my own life, but it\u2019s not the only career out there, let alone the only career that Emerson students are heading into. In my last post, I asked Christine Casson for her thoughts on writing and book publishing. Speaking with Alireza Raisi, affiliated faculty with Emerson and a researcher at Northeastern, has provided insight into writing and research at the university level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alireza teaches classes on international politics and sustainable development, with a research focus on environmental politics and foreign policy. Just by looking at the content, it\u2019s clear how his work centers around the environment. However, there are connections even beyond the obvious. From traveling for research, coordinating with other experts across the world, and even looking for funding specifically for sustainability-related topics, researchers have to contend with plenty of occasions that impact the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alireza put it succinctly: sustainability is a soft science\u2014one that doesn\u2019t wholly rely on quantitative data\u2014that is massively interdisciplinary. Researchers in this field can study changes in the environment to track and predict the effects of climate change, or they can study how business practices, even on a small scale, benefit or harm the environment, or even the social and community aspect of climate advocacy and environmental impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve ever glanced through the United Nations\u2019 seventeen Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>, you will have noticed that many of them relate to community welfare, political action, and infrastructure development. Of course, while these SDGs are interdisciplinary from the beginning, every goal has a multitude of topics that relate, which becomes clear from the moment you look at each goal\u2019s specific targets. Goal seventeen, for example, which involves improving global partnerships to implement and support every nation in working towards these goals, has nineteen total targets<\/a> that range from improving an international, equitable trade market to improving communication and individual sustainability goals between nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alireza summarized sustainability efforts as existing in four interconnected elements: the social aspect of sustainable development, economic development, the state of the environment itself, and political efforts related to combating climate change. When it comes to studying sustainability, he explained that it\u2019s necessary to integrate these elements into a holistic approach. To neglect one aspect is to weaken any research conclusions or strategies developed from them, particularly if we ignore the political aspect of sustainability efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a university researcher, Alireza confirmed something I already had an inkling of; many colleges have sustainability hubs with a good awareness of and motivation towards reducing the institution\u2019s environmental impact and promoting sustainable living on a larger scale. From events to required programs, each institution takes a different approach to advancing sustainability research and awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This topic is woven directly into institutions\u2019 daily processes, too. Take a look at Emerson\u2019s own Dining Hall, for example, where Bon Appetit reaches out to local farms to source some of our food. Even several political issues that are currently being debated on a national level, like the DEI initiative, not only relates to acceptance rates and faculty hiring practices, but also to institutional support offered to people who have suffered discrimination and discriminatory policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a researcher, Alireza offered some unique insight towards the trends of sustainability efforts outside of universities, too. It\u2019s easy to see stories online about how businesses greenwashing<\/a> their practices, but in reality, the situation is optimistic and productive. Especially in the last few years, more and more businesses have become involved in green initiatives, whether they label them \u201cgreen\u201d or \u201ceco-friendly\u201d or not. Hazel, another Sustainability Fellow, regularly posts about her Sustainable Sundays, so check out Emerson Sustainability\u2019s Instagram for reviews about some low-waste coffee shops<\/a> and other content!<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the priorities in the federal government have shifted with the most recent election, there\u2019s been pressure to cut funding for a variety of programs, so business action is likely to become even more relevant. Certain industries, like I covered with the publishing industry, are already massive contributors to water waste and pollution, so it\u2019s important to see that there is a shift with greater business awareness of their pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alireza also pointed out some trends state-wide, like a boom in clean energy in Texas. Although politics may not have had a large sway in this trend, business efforts and contributions have a large influence over consumption and consumer products. In California, too, there\u2019s an initiative among public universities to divest from environmentally unfriendly businesses, which would also push more businesses to take action and integrate more green practices, or even just switch to using green energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the situation among universities can still be improved. Emerson is a teaching institution, unlike other universities that have large research divisions, so integrating more sustainability and environment related courses into required curricula would improve the overall awareness and importance of \u201cgoing green,\u201d so to say, at the institution. Coordinating with current faculty also allows them to implement their ideas of bringing sustainability into the classroom, since plenty have amazing ideas but no opportunity to implement them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alireza specifically pointed to the largest issue as being a lack of awareness towards environmental issues and the ways we and others can improve the situation surrounding climate change. Lack of care is a much smaller concern. Improving the curriculum, supporting green businesses, and even just keeping in mind how sustainability intersects with your own life and work is crucial in improving overall awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although sustainability at the global and national level is very disheartening, since the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement several years ago, individual states have committed themselves to continuing to work towards those goals. Still, with our current administration focused on the economy and trade over the environment, this just pushes us to take action right now. By Sustainability Research Fellow, Katie Koenig Introduction Storytelling is a major part of my own life, but it\u2019s not the only career out there, let alone the only career that Emerson students are heading into. In my last post, I asked Christine Casson for her thoughts on writing and book publishing. Speaking with Alireza Raisi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3066,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innovative-industries","tag-by-katie-koenig"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3066"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites.emerson.edu\/sustainable-emerson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}University Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Support is Key<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Among us students, there are ways for us to get involved before we begin our future careers. I cover that very topic in my Colleges, Now series, but there are also many opportunities for student activism, especially in Boston. One example is the Sunrise Movement<\/a>, a student climate activism organization, which, although we don\u2019t have a branch at Emerson right now, reveals that there\u2019s always ways to get more involved and better organized when it comes to sustainability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"