After leading MSU's sustainability office for more than eight years, Terry Link recently left to direct a local food bank. Photograph by Matt Mikus

It’s hard to imagine this office, tucked in a remote corner of Olds Hall, will be empty the next day. The houseplants are watered. Posters for sustainability initiatives remain taped to the walls. Rows of environmental books and scientific reports sit on shelves. Link, his white beard reflecting the sunlight shining through the window, is comfortable sitting at his cluttered desk.

In the late 1990s, Link was an MSU librarian. The school’s foundational principles didn’t mention environmental awareness and the campus lacked today’s recycling and conservation focus.

There was potential for a sustainable future, it just lacked a leader. Link and others lobbied to create the first committee for campus sustainability more than 10 years ago, and he became its chairman. An Environmental Protection Agency grant in 2000 allowed the group to establish a sustainability office which has become one of the most productive of its kind.

In 2008, the National Wildlife Federation recognized MSU as one of the top five universities in the country for promoting and practicing sustainability and conservation.

Sustainability is about more than just being green, Link says.

"It’s a larger responsibility to your local community and even the global community. It’s a fusion of sociological, economic and environmental ideals into one larger vision,” he says. "By looking at the world through this multi-lens perspective, we get a better understanding of what’s really going on and can find more efficient and effective ways of solving problems.”

After directing the office for more than eight years, Link left MSU in February to become the executive director of the Greater Lansing Food Bank in Lansing, Mich. He plans to continue pushing sustainability by finding practical solutions to hunger and poverty.

EJ Magazine sat down with Link, and asked him to reflect on his time at MSU and envision what the future has in store for him.

EJ Magazine: Why did you decide to leave MSU?
Terry Link: "I see terrific opportunity for the ideal of sustainability to be catalyzed by efforts around food and hunger. I told the Greater Lansing Food Bank that I wanted to be a part of their operation if they were willing to be this catalyst, not simply just feeding hungry people, but to change it so that we tackle the roots of hunger and build stronger communities.

"It allows me to do more of what I think is important with my socio-economic justice ideals than I am able to do here at the university. I have always been a volunteer but I have never been in a position to work full-time at this. I want to see if I can do this work in the ways that I imagined I could.”

EJ: What goals do you hope to accomplish at the Food Bank?
TL: "I hope to build on the work of all who have made the Food Bank that anchor of hope and possibility in our community. It is our hope that we can help catalyze the community to work to eliminate the causes of hunger. We’ll need the continued generosity, good will, creative juices and commitment to make this a reality, but I think we can. In fact, I believe we must.”
continued on page 36

EJ: What was the sustainability office like in its early days?
TL: "We were starting from scratch, so we had to fumble our way through it. It was a collaborative effort. Staff and students would volunteer their time and conjure up ideas and try to move these sustainability issues forward. We had to bring people together from different disciplines inside and outside the university to wrestle with complex problems that have social, economic and environmental dimensions. Our struggle was to find progress in a way that includes all three at the same time.”

EJ: What do you consider the office’s greatest success?

TL: "Our recognition from the National Wildlife Federation was a big accomplishment. The area where we have been making the biggest strides is with the concern of our environmental footprint. We are the lowest energy consuming institution per square foot in the Big Ten.

"Overall, there is just more consideration of the impacts we have in our transportation, wastes, food and energy. There are more resources, planning, policies and people looking over these things. You can see that through our switch from diesel to bio-diesel fuels or the partnership between the organic farm and campus cafeterias.”

EJ: What is the best way to create sustainability projects?
TL: "Bring people together and talk about the issues. Our very first experience with the committee about 10 years ago involved a serious workshop on water, solid waste and energy. One of the outcomes we had not even planned for was something that grew into MSU-WATER [Watershed Action Through Education and Research], which is a collaboration of 22 faculty members and researchers who study the local watershed. It was all sparked by bringing people together from different fields and initiating conversation. We were able to see the issues from different perspectives and come up with practical plans for change.”

EJ: What obstacles do campus sustainability efforts face?
TL: "There is definitely a resistance to mandating policies here. There is a culture that says no to new ideas that require a big change. There has been resistance to the idea of offering a degree in sustainability. It took us three years just to get a minor in sustainability approved. It takes a lot of effort for people to become comfortable with even the smallest change in the way we operate. Competing interests and the initial cost of a lot of our ideas has contributed to this, but in the end we are usually doing an economy-friendly service. Most people look through a narrow lens, trying to protect their department or their own personal interests, not necessarily looking at the bigger picture.”

EJ: What immediate changes still need to be made at MSU?
TL: "We should not graduate anyone from this university from any discipline who does not have an appreciation for sustainability and why it’s important. Students do not necessarily have to agree with everything, but they should see how it relates to their specific area of study. We have no program that would guarantee students would leave here with that understanding. MSU is an educational institution, but you can graduate here without an appreciation for what has become an emerging area of scholarship and practice. That, to me, is a major flaw.

"We give degrees in small, specialized areas of study and the focus becomes increasingly small with each advanced degree. What sustainability is and what we need to pay attention to is the broader vision. John Hannah [former MSU president] said something to the effect that the one thing educators can agree on is that the true role of education is to raise good citizens. I would argue that we are not doing that. It’s not that good citizens are not coming out of here, but that raising good citizens is not at the heart of what we do.”

EJ: What about sustainability drives you?
TL: "The idea of sustainability is still infantile. It should make us repeatedly ask ourselves, ‘What if?’ so that we are encouraged to discover its deeper dimensions. But sustainability is not the answer — it’s an avenue to help us think in a more connected way about our complex world.

"There is almost something spiritual about being human and living in the world. We are connected in ways that we don’t completely understand and, when we feel that connection, there’s this resonance of interconnected souls. When we feel that, we know that this is what it means to be alive. We need to share those feelings so people can experience it, whether it’s through conservation or music or just relaxing in your favorite part of the woods. Sustainability efforts today are done in hopes of a life where there is no poverty or poverty of opportunity. It’s a dynamic balance of the sociological, economic and environmental spheres. The ideal goes beyond providing the necessities.”

Eric Freeman is a third-year journalism student at MSU. This is his second appearance in EJ. Contact him at freem185@msu.edu.