Sustainable Living (B.S.)
Knowledge for Change
The Sustainable Living program gives you the ability to make a real difference in society and your own life. Our courses provide a mix of theoretical knowledge and hands-on activities to help you become a change agent for sustainable community development.
What is sustainability?
Sustainability is often defined as meeting the needs of the present generation without diminishing the ability of future generations to do the same. But there’s even more to it…
Sustainability is about integrating environmental, social, and economic solutions to create a thriving world in which we lead rich, productive, and fulfilling lives — without depleting the environment or ourselves.
Sustainability or environmentalism?
Some members of earlier movements, such as environmentalism or conservationism, focused mainly on problems. They attempted to minimize the harmful effects of human action — in context of a world defined by limited, outdated, or failed economic and social systems. This was, and continues to be, important work.
Unfortunately, many environmentalists have been viewed as “gloom-and-doom,” confrontational, or guilt inducing. In contrast, the sustainability movement focuses more on cooperative, holistic solutions to local and global issues — in ways that encourage the health of the natural environment, as well as the development of human potential. It’s a positive, realistic, cooperative, and inspirational approach.
Deep sustainability
The early stages of sustainability deal with changes on the margin of existing systems to “make them sustainable.” This typically involves improving efficiency and substituting more sustainable materials and energy. But a deeper look often shows the existing system is inherently exploitative of people and nature — no amount of tinkering (efficiency or substitution) will make it sustainable. In fact, making an exploitative system more efficient can actually make it worse from a truly sustainable perspective!
Holistic redesign is needed to make systems resilient and regenerative. We help you implement efficiency and substitution solutions in the short term, while simultaneously working toward a more deeply sustainable, radical system redesign.
Being in tune with natural law
Sustainability seeks to emulate the “economy” of nature, which uses the daily input of solar energy to renew and restore materials as they flow through the biosphere. Similarly, we must renew and restore human capital — the relationships and communities on which humanity’s economy also depends. This includes getting back in touch with our own inner, spiritual nature — which MUM aims to achieve through Consciousness-Based education.
Pioneering a new discipline
MUM was the first accredited university to offer a 4-year Sustainable Living degree (2003). Like the field itself, our program continues to evolve. This means that learning can sometimes be “messy.” For example, our facilities are part of the curriculum — the Sustainable Living department uses an old building that students are retrofitting with solar, geothermal, and wind energy.
Because it’s so new as a discipline, there are no broadly accepted guidelines about what constitutes a Sustainable Living education. Check out our course listings and degree requirements to learn more. Just to be clear, our program does NOT offer: community college style vocational training, an engineering degree, conventional environmental science education, pollution control training, or how to live in the woods self-sufficiently.
Progressive community
MUM and the city of Fairfield launched a community-wide initiative to incorporate sustainable practices. This Go-Green Plan aims to promote the sustainability culture, create jobs and investment opportunities with sustainable development, and implement sustainable community design.
MUM is committed to creating a campus in harmony with nature and has a full-time sustainability coordinator. Our dining hall serves organic vegetarian meals, including produce grown on our own organic farms.
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