I suspect that, for the past decade, I’ve worked more closely with Troy Goodnough than with any other colleague or collaborator. I can’t think of many of my professional projects that haven’t benefited in some way from Troy’s contributions. Troy is the Sustainability Director at the University of Minnesota Morris (and happens to be the first Sustainability Director hired within the University of Minnesota system). In that role he’s helped guide UMN Morris to become one of the most environmentally sustainable college campuses in the United States (for example, the campus has recently become carbon neutral in regards to electricity and generates more energy from wind and solar than any other university in the country). He’s also one of the founders of the Morris Model, a partnership between the City of Morris, Stevens County, a broad range of community and educational organizations, state agencies, and the University of Minnesota Morris that has a mission aimed at: energy conservation, clean energy, community resilience, cultural exchange, and celebration with specific goal areas within clean and efficient energy, transportation, waste reduction and recycling, and education.

The episode that I recorded with Troy differs from the previous episodes of Just Sustainability. Mostly because it was impromptu and unplanned. I had planned (and still plan) to have a more extended conversation with Troy for this podcast (perhaps for season 3) about his extensive work to improve the sustainability of college campuses throughout the Upper Midwest. However, we were invited to record a presentation for the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges 2021 meeting about ISLe, a program that Troy, Tammy Berberi (a colleague of ours), and I created with the support of one of the Institute on the Environment’s inaugural DEI Grants. Our first take ended-up being much longer than it was supposed to be. That being the case, Troy and I thought it would be fun to offer the (too) long version of our presentation for your listening (I hope) pleasure.

Links: https://morris.umn.edu/sustainability/office-sustainability https://www.morrismodel.org/about-us http://environment.umn.edu/news/new-lens-ione-announces-diversity-equity-inclusion-fund-grants/