The Sustainable Living Project at OSU
Viviane Simon-Brown, Associate Professor, Forestry Extension
What's sustainable living? A life that is deeply satisfying, fulfilling and appealing, and at the same time, environmentally responsible.
In January 1998, the Sustainable Living Project quietly began at Oregon State University. Since its inception, over 5,500 people have participated in workshops and presentations. Since 1999, over 122,000 people have browsed our website. In 2001, Cooperative Extension Service selected the project as a Natural Resource Environmental Management (NREM) Flagship Program for Oregon.
This program offers opportunities for mainstream adults and older youth to thoughtfully and consciously examine the cultural, economic and environmental aspects of our American lifestyle values. The Sustainable Living workshops
- Create a safe intellectual environment for thoughtful dialogue about quality of life issues.
- Focus on exploring individual values and beliefs in order to make more-informed decisions
- Address the major barriers to achieving quality of life in the United States: time crunch, natural/spiritual disconnect and consumption/materialism
- Act as conduits to other programs, such as Earth Ministry in churches, voluntary simplicity classes and simplicity circles for individuals, and sustainable living discussions for neighborhood groups
- Provide access to research-based information on a variety of traditional Extension topics, such as energy usage, financial management, consumer products, healthy foods and gardening
Oregon State University has a long tradition of educating people to manage natural resources. The Sustainable Living Project focuses on education to manage ourselves. It creates an ethical base on which to support the concepts of sustainable management of natural resources.