At Living Routes, "Being the change we wish to see in the world" (Gandhi) goes beyond creating life-changing programs based in ecovillages. We are proud of our commitment and accomplishments around environmental and social responsibility on all levels of our organization. The following are examples of ways we strive to walk our talk:

Program Design and Management:

We are committed to reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships with our local communities and give back to them in many ways.

Local Staff: Living Routes hires and supports faculty, staff, and experts from within our host ecovillages whenever possible. They know their communities best and this allows resources (e.g. salaries) to stay local and minimizes the environmental impacts of air travel. We offer good wages and opportunities for professional development.

Local Students: On several of our programs (e.g. Senegal, India, Israel), we offer partial to full scholarships for local youth. This provides unique and profound opportunities for education and intercultural exchanges for both local and U.S. students.

Ecological Initiatives: By basing our programs in ecovillages, we naturally support local, organic food production, renewable energy systems, appropriate technologies, green buildings and residences, and other human-scale experiments in sustainable development.

Carbon Consciousness: A core dilemma for Living Routes is the fact that, while we are all about sustainability, we run programs that require flying students all around the globe. We are committed to addressing this issue by measuring and reducing our carbon footprint and supporting ecovillage-based projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Toward this end, we commission solar cookers in Senegal, build electric rickshaws in India, plant trees everywhere we can, and encourage our students and local community members to change their lifestyles in ways that have positive impacts on the environment.

Loans and Grants: When feasible, we have supported local initiatives through loans and grants. For example, in 2007, we were proud to offer a loan to the OroVerde Coop in Peru to help build an Educational Training Center and we have been exploring how to support the development of an ecological campus in Auroville, India.

Student Learning:

Of course, this is at the heart of Living Routes and our programs are designed to maximize student opportunities to learn about sustainability and to walk their talk.

Learning While Living: Working with ecovillages as campuses for our programs provides unprecedented opportunities for students to experience leading edge examples of integrated, human-scale communities striving to live well and lightly. They "get it" simply by being participant observers in these communities and often continue to learn from their experiences long after the programs have ended. Sustainability-Related Courses: From "Sustainable Design" to "Permaculture" to "Worldviews and Consciousness" to "Group Dynamics" to "Peace and Social Justice" to "Service Learning" and "Independent Studies", almost all Living Routes courses offer lenses into the theoretical and practical aspects of developing sustainable and ethical lifestyles. These courses provide conceptual frameworks and opportunities for deeper reflection on their day-to-day experiences within ecovillages.

Green Passport: Living Routes is proud to be a founding member and proponent of this nationwide initiative, designed to promote and recognize socially and environmentally conscious behavior in study abroad.

Carbon Commitment Calculator: After measuring their individual and collective carbon footprints that follow from their participation in a Living Routes program, students are given opportunitoes to mitigate some or all of their impact by committing to lifestyle changes that reduce their CO2 production over a period of time.

Environmental Service Learning: All Living Routes' students participate in service learning as a way to give back to host communities and engage with local issues and solutions. Examples include building recycling centers in Mexico; working in schools or on farms in India; establishing gardens in Scotland; supporting health and nutrition projects in Senegal; generating permaculture designs in Brazil, the U.S. and Australia; building ecological residences in Israel; and planting trees just about everywhere we go!

Office Management:

While perhaps not as glamorous as what we do on our programs, there are many ways that Living Routes strives to model sustainable practices at our office in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Recycled Paper:We use 100% post-consumer when possible.
Recycling: as much as possible (even packing peanuts!)
Local Purchasing: when possible
Duplex Printing: that is, printing on both sides of paper
CFL Lightbulbs:and turning off lights when their not needed.
Non-Toxic Cleaners: and few perfumes.
LCD monitors: which are much more energy efficient than CRT monitors
Electronic Communications: For example, students are encouraged to apply online and we send program handbooks as PDFs and ask students to read them online rather than printing them out.
Carpooling:is encouraged.

Promotion and Outreach:

Living Routes has been quite creative in communicating with students and colleagues in our field in ways that have maximum impact, but minimal resource use and waste.

Raising Standards: Living Routes has been working with The Forum on Education Abroad and colleagues in the field to develop new Sustainability Standards of Best Practice that all education programs should strive to meet.

Professional Forums: In order to help professionals in the field communicate around these issues, Living Routes started a Sustainability Abroad Listserv in 2007 and helped set up a Sustainability Specific Interest Group within NAFSA, the leading study abroad organization.

Social Networking: Living Routes was the first study abroad organization to incorporate student blogging on its programs (starting in fall '03!) and we are expanding our Facebook presence and use of other web 2.0 technologies as ways to communicate with many people using few resources.

Resource-light Materials: In addition to directing people to our website whenever possible, we share individual 4" x 6" program sheets and a simple folded brochure at conferences and events. Our materials are also all available as PDF downloads from our website.

Sustainable Schwag: At many events, organizations are expected to offer promotional items (a.k.a. "schwag"). Instead of giving away candy or plastic pens, we collaborate with Upasana Design Studio, a business within Auroville, that, after the 2004 tsunami, began working with village women to create Tsunamika Dolls and Small Step Bags. We are proud to have given away thousands of these dolls and bags, while supporting this inspiring and important project.

Videoconferencing: In order to save on travel costs and environmental impacts, we are increasingly using videoconferencing as a way to do virtual tables at study abroad fairs and other events. We also use Skype extensively to stay in communication with faculty and staff in the field.

Lao Tzu once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." While these commitments represent quite a few steps along the path towards sustainability, we recognize we still have a long way to go. We are excited to implement new and creative ways we can further walk our talk as we continue to challenge students on the highest quality programs we can develop. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions or suggestions. Thanks!