Welcome and thanks for showing up!  My intention with this blog is to create a forum to share resources and ideas about sustainability education, study abroad, and ecovillages so we can better design, manage, and promote programs that support the environment and encourage students to become leaders of environmental and social responsibility.  A brainstorm of topics I would like to cover include:

• Personal context and history
• The big picture (climate change, peak oil, etc.)
• Sustainability Standards of Good Practice in Study Abroad
• Online (and offline) resources
• A quick history of sustainability in study abroad
• Program design for sustainability
• 10 ways to support students to study abroad sustainably
• Carbon Offsetting vs. Carbon Consciousness
• Ecovillages as campuses for sustainability education
• A how-to guide to virtual tabling
• Sustainable \”Schwag\”
• Calendar of events and conferences
• Greening study abroad offices
• Ten ways to make service learning more sustainable

There\’s more, but that will at least get me started.  Please feel free to add your ideas and topic suggestions in the comments.  I also expect and hope this blog will evolve over time to best meet the needs of reader. Let me know if you\’re interested in Guest Blogging about a particular topic.

Finally, I\’ll share more in my next post, but by way of full disclosure, I want to share that some of what I will share comes from my background as founder and director of Living Routes, which partners with the University of Massachusetts – Amherst to offer programs based in \”ecovillages\” around the world.  We celebrated our 10th anniversary last November and I am very proud of the work we have been doing on our programs and within the field of study abroad.  More to come!