By Timothy Den Herder-Thomas

Three Things Mac can do to become more sustainable:1. For students, in whatever discipline you’re in, figure out how your field of study and the career you will be seeking to build will be affected by the instability of an unsustainable global order and the emergence of an ecological one. Pay attention to affected sectors including transport, shipping, building and urban structure, business, low-income housing etc., an unstable economy with rising prices and lower disposable income (this also includes global development, geopolitics, and trade impacts), climate-related impacts on refugee issues, global food production and water availability, disaster related human, health, and economic impacts. If you are planning to enter the workforce, start a family, or have a positive impact on society in the next half century, figuring out how your dreams can adapt to a rapidly changing society and help engage and sustain the green economy (FYI the fossil-fuel based one is going down). This is the most important thing you can do to be more sustainable, planning ahead to fit into the sustainable future.

For faculty, staff and administration: prepare Macalester to be an institution that can guide students through the above process. Preparing us for the world we had five years ago instead of five years from now just doesn’t cut it. Keep up the awesomeness!

2. For those of you looking to be creative and inventive, you can join The Summer of Solutions (www.summerofsolutions.org) this summer. Invent your own summer job, and work with us to create that niche—the way your skills and aspirations fit into a green economy. There are over a dozen sites nationally where you can get involved, and its guided by a bunch of your peers and their allies nationally.

3. Help President Rosenberg grow a PowerBeard by donating money to the fund for PowerShift—he’ll match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1,000. There’s a Facebook group, and events around campus where you can donate. You’ll help send a new generation of Macalester leaders to a national gathering with 10,000 other young people working to build a clean energy future.