Emily Wilmsen
Posted: Monday, October 20, 2008 9:37 pm

 Colorado State University has unveiled plans for the state’s first School of Global Environmental Sustainability to streamline the university’s internationally recognized environmental research and to prepare students for the growing “green” workforce.

The School of Global Environmental Sustainability is an umbrella organization that encompasses all environmental education and research at the university.

World-leading environmental researcher Diana Wall (featured on the front cover) will serve as founding director of the school. Over the next year, Wall will form advisory committees to help create curriculum and programs for the school, which could start offering new courses as early as 2010.

“As a national leader in addressing the global challenges related to sustainability, Colorado State University is taking the next logical step: Using a campus-wide approach to help solve these challenges through environmental research and educational opportunities,” said Larry Edward Penley, president of Colorado State University. “Under Dr. Wall’s leadership, the school will ensure that students leave CSU with the creative, critical-thinking skills needed to solve the globe’s greatest environmental problems and successfully contribute to the emerging green workforce.”

The school will act as a clearinghouse for the hundreds of university faculty in all eight colleges already studying the environment in areas such as atmospheric science, environmental politics, wind engineering, agricultural economics, green building, wildlife biology, ecotourism, forestry, ecology, sustainable entrepreneurship and public policy. Students will have the opportunity to complement their majors with environmental courses, which will help prepare them to solve increasingly complex global environmental challenges.

Demand is building for such well-rounded workers: Studies suggest the renewable energy job market nationwide could create 40 million new jobs by the year 2030. At the state level, Gov. Bill Ritter’s Colorado Climate Action Plan calls for integrating sustainability material into classes beginning at the K-12 level so students have the academic and technical skills needed by employers.

Wall will create advisory committees that include faculty and leaders from such areas as business, environmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations to develop courses that help meet the needs of the New Energy Economy.

At Colorado State, environmental classes and research concern every college — from Liberal Arts to Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Examples include changes in climate and land use; public policy; biodiversity loss; human, plant and animal disease; crops and global food economies; and water conservation.

As founding director, Wall, a professor in the Department of Biology and senior research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, will look at closing curriculum gaps so that every department on campus offers some type of environmental course or experience for students.

Wall’s research explores how soil biodiversity contributes to healthy, productive soils. She has completed 18 research seasons in the Antarctic Dry Valleys examining how soil food webs and ecosystem processes respond to global change.

“Environmental problems are expansive and require expertise in all disciplines to ensure that sustainable solutions are developed and implemented,” Wall said. “CSU faculty members are leading scholars in environmental research and will provide the education needed for our students to be environmental leaders around the world.”

The school will include some of the same faculty members who participate in the Clean Energy Supercluster. But while the Supercluster aims to more quickly commercialize new technology, the school will focus on research and education and broadening the student experience with global environmental science.

To learn more, visit www.colostate.edu. 

Emily Wilmsen is the senior media and community relations coordinator for Colorado State University.