01/27/2026
Associate Professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department, Dr. Jeremy Jiménez is a part of the inaugural SUNY Sustainability Faculty Fellows program. Through this program he is working with other faculty to incorporate sustainability and other environmental topics into existing courses and lay the groundwork for a community of practice across the SUNY campuses.
Last year, SUNY’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan was published and outlined the SUNY Sustainability Faculty Fellows program. The work of the eleven fellows' centers on supporting faculty to incorporate sustainability and climate concepts into curricula and course work. “We will need leaders in every discipline to address the climate crisis,” states the SUNY System webpage. Action items to achieve this goal include embedding new applied learning opportunities, including meeting the sustainable learning outcome in the World History and Global Awareness knowledge and skills area of the SUNY General Education Framework.
SUNY Cortland’s Sustainability Fellow, Dr. Jiménez, instructs future teachers about the intersection of environmental justice with race, class, gender and international issues in education. His current research focuses on how to prepare educators and schools for our looming transition towards life after fossil fuels, with special reverence for Indigenous perspectives and conceptions of land stewardship.
He is particularly critical of contemporary schooling's over-reliance on extraction to meet its curricular goals, given that such extraction is environmentally deleterious and that is dependent on rare earth minerals that are both scarce in supply and the pursuit of which will likely lead to increased inter-state violence. "Before we can call anything ‘good’, I think we first have to ask, 'What was extracted for its creation, and who has been harmed by that extraction?”, said Jiménez, “When engaging in this exercise, I find it hard to conclude that global industrial civilization, with its associated digital modernity, is - on net - a good thing."
Through this program, fellows have been able to learn about other campuses' sustainability practices. In October, Associate Librarian at Binghamton University, Neyda Gilman, attended a tour of the with Jiménez and the SUNY Cortland Green Ambassadors of the sustainability practices of Cortland Auxiliary Services employees at The Bistro off Broadway, located in the Student Life Center. Attendees learned about how food waste is handled in front-of-house and back-of-house and about the oil-recycling system. “I'm grateful to Jeremy for inviting the fellows to attend,” said Gilman, “Learning about the sustainability differences and similarities between our two campuses was so informative and inspiring. It was also wonderful to meet others who were interested in sustainability to broaden my personal sustainability network and act as another connection between our campuses.”
In a recent meeting of SUNY Sustainability employees, Dr. Jiménez presented how one can cultivate one's own permaculture garden at home and use it as an educational tool for helping students learn about plants native to Central New York. Through this, students discover the food and medicinal uses of these native plants, "a skill nearly all ‘pre-modern’ humans had”, Jiménez states, as well as admiring the beauty of biodiversity.
If you are interested in learning more about the work being done by the Sustainability Faculty Fellows, they are offering a four-part webinar series titled “SUNY Sustainability Faculty Series: From Foundation to Practice.” This series offers professional development to support SUNY faculty to integrate sustainability across General Education, featuring interactive activities, disciplinary applications from across General Education, and practical implementation tools. The Sustainability Faculty Fellows encourage all to attend, “whether you're new to sustainability education or looking to deepen your practice, leave with ready-to-use resources, a growing community of practice, and confidence to make sustainability relevant in your courses.”
- February 6th, 11am: “Sustainability Across Disciplines: Introduction to General Education Integration”
- March 6th, 11am: “Sustainability in the Arts, Humanities, History, and DEISJ”
- April 2nd, 11am: “Sustainability in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics”
- April 24th, 11am: “Sustainability in Action: Approaches to Applied Learning”
Registration is available at the Center for Professional Development webpage. All sessions will be recorded and available on SUNY Sustainability Faculty Fellows’ webpage.
In collaboration with the DEISJ Fellows, the Sustainability Faculty Fellows will also present during a webinar titled “At the Intersection of DEISJ and Sustainability” on February 23rd, noon.
For webinars offered by the other fellows' programs, check out their webpages.