Sustainability: Sustainability @ TCC

TCC's 2022-2024 Common Book Program features Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

TCC's Caring Campus Initiative 

At the heart of the organization that developed the “Caring Campus” initiative is a commitment to types of engagement in higher institutions that are shown to overcome some of the consequences of pervasive racism, institutionalized discrimination, and other inequities. Ultimately, students “…come where they are welcome and stay where they feel cared about…” Caring Campus is based on decades of research documenting that students who feel connected to their college are more likely to complete and succeed in their courses, persist from semester to semester, and achieve their educational goals.

Community Is Our Middle Name — We build community, inside and out, through collaboration, service, sustainability, and social and financial responsibility.

What is sustainability? We generally think of sustainability in an environmental context, or sometimes in economic terms. But clean air and water, a livable climate, and a healthy standard of living are not the only endangered elements in our social order that we want to sustain. The broader list includes:

• Community 
• Psychological Health
• Meaningful Work
• Intellectual Openness
• Popular Empowerment
• A Sense of Heritage and History
• Cultural Diversity
• Art and Music

These things are often interrelated. Poor economic policy inevitably damages land use, for example, and energy-efficient buildings only go so far in a war zone. Sometimes sustainable goals come into conflict, as when green redevelopment inadvertently jeopardizes historical preservation or catalyzes cultural, racial, or social conflict.

“We hope this Sustainability Guide will help you better understand the complex nature of sustainability as an overarching concept, and help you to envision your role, too, in helping to assure a sustainable present and future for all.” - The TCC Sustainability Committee

Students at West Campus visit the community garden during their Botany class.

Students in a sustainability-themed Comp II class help out with a waste audit at the Southeast Campus.