1. TGIF Project: Sustainable Business Plans (and more) This project― to recognize and award sustainable business plans, project proposals, and promotional materials ―will expand student (and Writing Program faculty) understanding of sustainability issues, particularly as they apply to businesses and our local community.

2. WHY We Should Familiarize Our Business Students with Sustainability Sustainability is increasingly important in businesses, for corporate reputation, for investor approval, and for global and local community relations. Therefore, our students should know about it. Sustainability is increasingly part of the college/university’s mission (at least administratively) Sustainability requires an interdisciplinary approach; our discipline is also interdisciplinary, and professional writing courses generally have more flexibility in course readings and written research projects. We are well-suited for this.

3. More Reasons Why Sustainability should be everyone’s business—not just for the United Nations, or some progressive businesses and scientists. As David Orr says, universities “still educate the young for the most part as if there were no planetary emergency.” (Change, 1995). By introducing sustainability concepts, we help create awareness; if we encourage students’ focus on sustainability, we might help them solve the challenges to a sustainable future.

4. Linking with Something Larger By incorporating sustainability principles into our courses, we link our course with larger campus projects and strategies (and even global, planetary concerns). Connecting students with something larger than themselves is a good thing. We might be helping develop “engaged citizens,” an important part of our educational mission.

5. Three Areas for Sustainability Education 1. Initial Workshop and Resource Collection: Writing Program Faculty (11 participants) and Reference Librarians (2) 2. In professional writing classrooms: Writing 109EC, Writing 109ES, Writing 109ST, Writing 109GS, Writing 109HP, Writing 157A (Professional Writing Minor, Business Communication) 3. Through publicity: for contest prizes (3) and award ceremony (public event)

6. A Ripple Effect… Over 1,000 students Association for Business Communication, Conference Presentation (Oct. 11, 2007) Writing Program Faculty, and future courses to be developed UCSB/ Local Community through publicity