Bringing Sustainability to the Ground Level

Susan J. Gilbertz, PhD, is professor of geography and acting associate dean of the College of Business, Montana State University Billings. Damon M. Hall, PhD, is assistant professor of sustainability science in the School of Natural Resources and Biomedical, Biological & Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri.

Gilbertz and Hall bring a powerfully interdisciplinary perspective to the persistently thorny issue of sustainability. This action-oriented primer offers practical wisdom for anyone seeking to both understand and facilitate sustainability. It challenges taken-for-granted assumptions by providing a fresh and accessible overview of crucial sustainability research. The approachable writing style ensures a book that will immediately reward its readers, while also beckoning them to probe particular segments more deeply for insights into challenges they face.--Tarla Rai Peterson, PhD, Professor, Department of Communication, The University of Texas at El Paso, Author of Sharing the Earth: The Rhetoric of Sustainable Development and Environmental Conflict Management Gilbertz and Hall offer an engagingly written tour de force. The book is well-researched and rich in local voices. l have worked in the Yellowstone area, and studied sustainability, and came away with fresh insights about the dizzying array of issues, actors, and land uses in the watershed. They get 'place' right and avoid being parochial, by connecting local/regional phenomena to larger principles and extra-local forces.--Richard C. Stedman, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University Sustainability only makes real sense, for students, researchers, decision-makers and communities, if it is grounded in place. By exploring the complex, iconic, and critically important Yellowstone River through the lens of thick sustainability, Bringing Sustainability to the Ground Level brings the precepts of sustainability alive. Gilbertz and Hall listen to both the land and its people and do what other more abstract treatments of sustainability cannot; they show how sustainability matters for local communities and environments.--Paul Robbins, PhD, Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin