2015 Expressions on a Sustainable UMD: The Power to Change May 2015 | Page 5

Dear University of Maryland community,
It was former Australian Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Moses Cass,
who proclaimed “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
When discussing sustainability, it is this very mentality — that our actions, or inactions, will greatly
impact the future — that should motivate our decisions. However, it is often difficult to
conceptualize the impact a single individual can have on the Earth. Thus, it is imperative to
recognize that the people involved in promoting and achieving sustainability are not just world
leaders, dedicated activists, or profiting businesses, but everyday individuals like each of the
members that comprise the UMD community.
Recognizing the power of individual action is why the SGA Student Sustainability
Committee, for the second year in a row, orchestrated the “What Will You(MD) Do?” Sustainability
Pledge. This year, the pledge focused solely on the greatest threat facing our planet, global
climate change, and rather than just engaging students in this pledge, we challenged the entire
campus community to reduce their environmental footprint by making small and simple changes
to their daily lives.
Over the course of one month, over six hundred undergraduate and graduate students,
faculty and staff, alumni, College Park community members and prospective students reduced
their waste, recognizing that every product has a carbon footprint; water use, recognizing that
climate change will make water a scarce and valuable resource in the future; and energy use,
recognizing that the burning of fossil fuels to create energy is the number one cause of climate
change. Though this was only a one-month pledge, and these changes are only the beginning of
what our community needs to do in order to become truly sustainable, this pledge demonstrates
our University’s commitment to achieving this common goal together.
However, community behavioral change is only half of the solution - the other half is a true
commitment to climate action from our University. While UMD has made strides towards carbon
neutrality, it has yet to make fighting climate change a top financial priority, but we hope that will
change. As a University, UMD’s number one goal is to graduate students that are employable and
are ready to create change in the world. However, what will our degrees, internships, awards, and
jobs after college matter if we graduate into a world without clean water to drink, clean air to
breathe, or a stable climate to live in?
In order to capture why members of the University community feel that fighting climate
change is of the utmost importance, the Student Sustainability Committee prompted the question:

Why is it important to you personally to fight climate change?
In the following pages, you will find the top 18 essays, poems, and art submissions that
students crafted in response to this question. These pieces demonstrate individual community
member’s dedication to fighting climate change themselves, but also a plea to the University to
truly commit to joining them in this battle. It is our hope that these responses highlight the
commitment of the student body to fight climate change, and that the administration reciprocate
and ensure that this institution do its part as well.
Sincerely,
The Student Government Association Student Sustainability Committee

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