Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College

Sustainability & the Environment

Sustainability Master Plan

Education and Outreach

A comprehensive plan for sustainability and environmental stewardship requires cultivating a campus community with a deeply rooted environmental ethic. Franklin & Marshall is committed to serving as a model and a resource for sustainability in part through enhancing environmental education, research and outreach opportunities on campus, in the surrounding community of Lancaster and beyond.

The plan sets immediate and long-term goals for education and outreach, including the following:

  • Goal 1: Cultivate a campus community that has a broad and deeply rooted environmental ethic.
    • Strategy 1: Develop an instrument to assess environmental ethos (e.g., awareness, education and behavior with respect to environmental ethics/best practices and F&M's environmental initiatives).
    • Strategy 2: Increase environmental education for students.
    • Strategy 3: Increase behavior by students that reflects an environmental ethic.
    • Strategy 4: Increase environmental education for faculty and professional staff.
    • Strategy 5: Increase the behaviors on the part of faculty and professional staff that will support sustainability and the goals of this plan. 
    • Strategy 6: Use the actions taken in enacting the Master Plan as teaching opportunities whenever possible.
    • Strategy 7: Develop educational strategies that enable the community to understand the College’s sustainability practices and learn about its landscape.

  • Goal 2: Model and cultivate a broad and deeply rooted environmental ethic among the Lancaster community and beyond.

    • Strategy 1: Make F&M an educational resource for the City of Lancaster and Lancaster County. 

    • Strategy 2: Increase environmental outreach to Lancaster community. 

    • Strategy 3: Formally evaluate and define the role of the Wohlsen Center for the Sustainable Environment so that it can become a very effective agent of change. 

  • Goal 3: Create an online presence for the sustainability initiatives at F&M as a main tool for education and outreach.

    • Strategy 1: Comprehensively include all F&M environmental/ sustainability initiatives on one easily accessed webpage.


Existing Initiatives Cited in the Plan
The Environmental Studies and Environmental Science majors at Franklin & Marshall are growing steadily as students pursuing other majors are augmenting their education with classes about the environment and sustainability. 
 
A number of current practices at F&M foster education and outreach around sustainability and the natural environment. A significant development in this area was the 2009 creation of the Wohlsen Center for the Sustainable Environment as the home for the College's sustainability and environmental efforts. F&M has an Environmental Speaker Series, the Environmental Reading Group, a sustainability Week in April, and various student-initiated projects such as beehives at the Baker campus and the Dirt Army, a student-initiated organization that maintains an on-campus organic garden.
 
The College has made it a practice to extend its resources and expertise to the surrounding Lancaster community through efforts such as public workshops, teaching internships, and utilizing space at the Wohlsen Center for outreach.