How can Michigan’s university researchers help the state? A group at MSU has an answer: an approach called “engaged sustainability scholarship.” The Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project (SMEP) says that professors need to work with communities to identify challenges and solutions for Michigan sustainability.

This model was the focus at SMEP’s 4^th annual Academy at MSU last week. SMEP, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, seeks to identify how Michigan can balance economy, environment, and community. It’s led by endowed chairs at MSU; the Academies bring together people from inside and outside MSU to join in conversation.

Sandra Batie, SMEP coordinator and professor of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, launched the Academy by describing how the traditional model of science, with isolated scientists studying problems, doesn’t work when the subject is sustainability. Sustainability is complex, involving many connected issues and touching on people’s individual values. To find the pathway to sustainability, scholars from many disciplines need to come together with laypeople, “co-creating knowledge.” Such a process results in solutions that are more informed and effective.

A proposal made by Dutch academics to reorganize the country’s swine industry highlights the danger of decisions made without public input. Academics suggested putting all of the country’s swine in three huge towers, said speaker Herman de Boon of Transforum, a sustainable agribusiness organization. They argued that the consolidation would free up farmland for development and increase efficiency: pigs would be raised and processed within the towers (“pigs in, meat out”), which would be near a port for easy transportation. The idea was developed without public consultation and met with resistance: no one wanted the towers nearby. “It was not a good solution – it ignored the social component,” said de Boon.

Speaker John Fisk, of sustainability non-profit Winrock, quoted author Bill McKibben: “The technology we need most is the technology of community: the knowledge of how to collaborate and get things done.” This approach is a traditional strength of the land grant university, noted Rick Foster, vice president of the Kellogg Foundation. “Land grant is the higher education model…of the future,” he said, as it represents accountability to the public.

SMEP’s academies and other events explore alternative futures for Michigan; for example, last year’s academy focused on the bioeconomy . Because sustainability is complex and evolving, however, the group also emphasizes the importance of ongoing, collaborative processes. SMEP members recently created a video , available soon, to describe the process of engaged sustainability scholarship. (The video was produced by students and faculty at MSU’s School of Journalism.)

More information about SMEP and its work is available here.

-Maya Fischhoff