Department of Sustainable and Regenerative Living

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Introduction

The Department of Sustainable and Regenerative Living (SRL) was founded and continues to exist in response to the many environmental and social challenges humans face today. With climate change, environmental pollution and degradation, habitat loss and species extinction compounding with social inequity and injustice, exploitation, general, ethnic and political violence and an array of technological threats humanity is facing an existential crisis of unprecedented scale and proportions.

Programs in the Department of Sustainable and Regenerative Living are dedicated to discovering, exploring, debating, and refining positive responses to these issues, with the primacy of consciousness as the ground state of all things as the fundamental tenet.

The perspective of consciousness as primary is unique to MIU and offers a pathway away from seemingly intractable problems leading to inevitable destruction and dystopia and toward a better world for all life on planet Earth. This means, first, becoming in touch with our own internal, spiritual nature and with the wonders of the natural environment, and on that basis renewing and restoring the relationships and communities on which felicitous human societies depend.

The Department of Sustainable and Regenerative Living at MIU recognizes the double-edged nature of technology, with the potential of nuclear and biological weaponry and AI to annihilate us all, balanced with the positive aspects of technology that can connect, inform, inspire and propel us toward a better existence. Regenerative sustainability allows actors in the human economy to learn from and coexist positively with the economy of nature. There is no “waste” in nature, nor should there be in human society.

An important aspect of sustainable/regenerative technology is design, and in Sustainable and Regenerative Living, we design everything from tiny houses to ecocities based on ecological and regenerative principles.

Vision Statement

Our vision is to help foster the creation of a new and better world based on harmonious relationships, integrity, respectful collaboration, nonviolence, and reverence for the natural environment. We believe that the collective achievement and continued living of higher states of consciousness could or perhaps must result in the kind of phase transition requisite for not only the survival of humans and other species but, indeed, for the possibility of flourishing, for all.

Special Features

MIU’s Sustainable and Regenerative Living program builds an understanding of how to think critically when considering the design and flourishing of human-made and natural systems. We engage students in the process of learning through hands-on projects, problem solving, question building, journaling, researching, teaching, and collaborating.

Focus on Pragmatic Skills
In response to critical pressure on our planet’s ecological systems and humanity’s interconnected social crises, the programs of Sustainable & Regenerative Living focus on pragmatic skills and knowledge that support the development and adoption of renewable energy; affordable, sustainable housing; healthy organic food; clean air and water; and advocacy for essential public policy that underlies the above.

Develop a Holistic Worldview
The widespread adoption of regenerative technologies depends on developing new and more holistic worldview - one rooted in an understanding of natural systems, humans’ place in them, and the development of non-exploitative, cooperative relationships among humans and between humans and nature. We need a fundamental change in the philosophy and theory that guides human relationships with each other and the rest of nature.

Practice the Transcendental Meditation Technique
At MIU, the experiential basis of a change in worldview to Earth Community is the simple practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Regular meditation combined with dynamic activity in daily life leads to the development of higher states of consciousness, making the new worldview not just an intellectual idea but also a lived reality.

Intellectual Understanding through Development of Consciousness
In addition to the outer pragmatic skills necessary for physically designing and building a sustainable and regenerative world, our program provides the inner foundation for the creation of a new outer world. This inner foundation includes the development of consciousness and the supporting intellectual understanding about the fundamental philosophy and social, political, and economic theory underlying this new worldview.

Enact What You Learn
Using a combination of wind, solar, geothermal, rainwater collection, regenerative agriculture, and natural building materials, the Sustainable and Regenerative Living Department is one example of many in a small town that showcases an abundance of sustainable community development initiatives, including the 1.1-million-watt state-of-the-art solar power plant designed to provide one third of the university’s electric power.

From theory to hands-on projects with professors to local action, students get to witness homeowners, entrepreneurs, and organizations making a difference - doing well and doing good.

Internships and On-the-Job Training
BA-SRL students can earn 4-16 credits of internship in on-the-job training, working with organizations in sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, natural building, environmental projects, social sustainability, sustainable business, and many other venues that provide practical experience in selected areas of interest.

Two Year Path to a Bachelor’s Degree

The BA-SRL program offers community college graduates and transfer students a two-year curriculum path when entering the program with specific general education requirements fulfilled. Talk with an academic advisor for more information.

Programs Offered

• Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable and Regenerative Living
  • BA with Consciousness and Social Transformation Emphasis
  • BA with Sustainable Building and Design Emphasis
  • BA with Sustainable Energy Systems Emphasis
• BAAS Specialization in Sustainable and Regenerative Living
• Minor in Sustainable and Regenerative Living
• Permaculture Design Certification (PDF)

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