Brown, Mary J. (2009) “Campus Triple Bottom Line: College Sustainability and Grand Valley State University,” McNair Scholars Journal: Vol.13: Iss. 1, Article 4.
The author of this work is Mary J. Brown, who is a McNair Scholar at Grand Valley State University. The thesis of this paper is about the subject of campus sustainability, which presents a case study of Grand Valley State University Sustainable Community Development Initiative. Its focus is to bring sustainable practices to both the campus of Grand Valley State University and to wider community stakeholders, meaning that the author’s intended audience is both the college community of Grand Valley State and the outside community near the campus. The author does a summary of literature on campus sustainability, states about the Grand Valley State University Sustainable Community Development Initiative, and focuses on particular aspects of campus sustainability, such as education for sustainability, campus dining and facilities, student involvement, and community engagement.
The bias in this article is that it is pro-sustainability and holds the belief that everybody, whether it is students or the community, should be educated about and enact sustainable practices. A strength about this article is that it mentions that it encourages the community as well as college students to become more sustainable and it mentions the three pillars of sustainability(environmental, economic, and social). The weakness of this article is that it does not really mention much about campus sustainability beyond the Grand Valley State University Sustainable Community Development Initiative. An article about sustainability should span beyond a campus plan. This material is relevant in terms of the project because it could be compared with Brooklyn College’s CUNY Sustainability Plan to determine which one is more effective.
Good annotation, Jackie.