Brown and White Vol. 132 no. 17

              The Brown and White Vol. 132 No. 17
Tuesday, April 11, 2017 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
The universal challenge of sustainability
Q&A with
UN assistant
secretary general By MEG KELLY
Deputy News Editor
UN assistant secretary
general talked about
the economic benefits
of sustainability
When the United Nations was
founded in 1945, electric cars and
cellular phones still remained out
of reach.
Had Elliott Harris given his
vision of sustainability to the
founders of the U.N., they might
have called him a dreamer. But for
the assistant secretary general of
the United Nations Environmental
Programme, sustainability is not
an unattainable dream — it’s a goal
that’s within reach.
Harris spoke in Linderman
Library on Thursday about the
necessity of establishing a sustain-able
world, emphasizing the eco-nomic
importance of sustainability.
The event was held as part of
the Lehigh-U.N. partnership and
drew students, faculty and staff
from across the university’s four
colleges.
A trained economist, Harris said
recognizing how sustainability can
benefit the world financially and
environmentally was a major turn-ing
point for him.
“We live in a world that is domi-nated
by externalities,” Harris said.
“You can pollute as you produce for
profit, but you don’t have to pay for
that pollution.”
Harris said UNEP is still working
to increase its sustainability educa-tion
and awareness. However, he
cited two major events as catalysts
for sustainable practices.
He said the financial crash of
2008 and the growing attention
to climate change were critical in
helping the nations within UNEP
become interested in sustainability.
“The recently push was triggered
by a financial reason and an envi-ronmental
reason,” Harris said.
“Two of the pillars of sustainability.
So you see, the two are so deeply
Courtesy of Huiwen Mao
United Nations assistant secretary general Elliott Harris speaks at the “Achieving Sustainability:
A Universal Challenge” lecture Thursday at Linderman Library. Harris’ presentation was part of
the Lehigh’s United Nations Speaker Series.
Elliott Harris, the assistant secre-tary
general of the United Nations
Environmental Programme,
addressed the Lehigh community
Thursday. Harris sat down with
The Brown and White for a brief
question and answer session.
Q: Your background is root-ed
in economics. What did your
path to the United Nations
look like, and your introduc-tion
to sustainability?
Elliott Harris: I know exactly
when it happened. As you know
I’m a trained economist, and
I spent a lot of time with (the
International Monetary Fund). I
happened to have been travel-ing
into Geneva, and I met a
colleague from (United Nations
Environment Programme) who
said, ‘Well look, if you’re free on
Wednesday come by, we’re going
to talk about the macroeconomic
chapter of our Green Report.’ I
went over there, and I had one
of those ‘aha’ epiphany moments,
because what they were talking
about was economic planning, eco-nomic
activity that was environ-mentally
sustainable. It was a
By MEG KELLY
Deputy News Editor
Mountaintop Initiative extends beyond summer session
See HARRIS Page 4 See Q&A Page 4
By AUSTIN KATZ
Assistant News Editor
Since 2013, the Mountaintop
Initiative has provided students the
opportunity to do research projects
with faculty.
Building C, home to the initiative,
remains relatively empty through-out
the year. In the summer, it
comes alive with activity.
Khanjan Mehta, the vice provost
for creative inquiry and director for
Lehigh’s Mountaintop Initiative,
hopes to reinvent the program.
Mehta is expanding the program
to give the projects proper time to
reach their maximum potential.
“If you want to get something
done, you cannot do that in a span
of 10 weeks,” Mehta said. “It takes
months and years to complete proj-ects.
We are working on multi-se-mester
projects with teams passing
down a project from semester to
semester.”
This summer, Building C is being
renovated to allow more space for
students to use it in the future.
Mountaintop took on fewer projects
from 22 last year to 14 this year.
Subsequently, the number of stu-dents
working on projects decreased
from approximately 100 students
last year to about 70 students this
year. The final number has yet to
be decided as some faculty are still
searching for research assistants for
their projects.
In the past, students received
a summer stipend for staying on
campus to work on a Mountaintop
project, but Mehta said the univer-sity
cannot pay students to work
on projects year round because it
wouldn’t be a sustainable model. He
is looking for alternate ways, such as
class credit, to incentivize students
to work on these projects.
In addition to lengthening the
Mountaintop program, Mehta wants
to expand it to Lehigh’s main cam-pus.
Mehta said he wants to build a
series of creative spaces around cam-pus
similar to Wilbur Powerhouse.
“In these spaces, students are free
to brainstorm, collaborate, Skype,”
Mehta said. “We want to integrate
Courtesy of Alexander Derish
In this June 25, 2014, file photo, the Aquaponics team works on its summer project at
Mountaintop Campus. The Mountaintop Initiative has provided Lehigh students the opportunity
to work on their research projects since 2013.
See MOUNTAINTOP Page 2