Sustainability Living Learning Community

This guide is intended for members of the Sustainability Living Learning Community. It includes resources to get started exploring various sustainability topics. 

Questions about this guide? Looking for additional resources? Contact librarians Kate Bellody (bellodyk@newpaltz.edu) or Chrissy O'Grady (ogradyc@newpaltz.edu.) 

What is sustainability?

There are many models and definitions of sustainability. The Office of Campus Sustainability has collected various sustainability frameworks and approaches to conceptualizing and thinking about sustainability. 

Frameworks and complementary approaches featured on the Office of Campus Sustainability website:

• The Three Dimensions of Sustainability from Bemidji State University influenced by Anishinaabe culture
• “Bruntland Definition” of Sustainable Development  from the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (1987)
• Principles of Environmental Justice (1991) from the First People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit
• John Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet & Profit of 21st Century Business (1997)
• Earth Charter (2000)
• Julian Agyeman’s Just Sustainabilities (2003)
• Kate Raworth’s Doughnut of Social and Planetary Boundaries (2012)
• Global Goals for Sustainable Development (2015)
• Drawdown Climate Change Solutions (2017)
• TEDx Talk by Elizabeth Sawin: The Power of Multisolving for People and Climate (2019)
• Just Transition - Articulated by Movement Generation of Oakland, CA and the Climate Justice Alliance

The sustainability frameworks page includes a wealth of additional resources related to these approaches. If you know of any additional frameworks or resources you would like to share, email  sustainability@newpaltz.edu.