General Information

Founding Vision | The Original Proposal | Institutional Memorandum of Understanding

"The university has a special role to fill as the institution that should have the critical capacity, the influence over the professions and other activities in society, and the contact with the younger generation needed to reorient the human community toward a greater awareness that the human exists within a single great community of the planet Earth."

-Father Thomas Berry

Our Philosophy

Our Vision Statement
Our vision is to encourage interdisciplinary education, as well as enhance the evolution of holistic perspectives and ecological literacy in individuals and organizations. From this foundation, we intend to nurture the development of pro-active community members capable of creating a sustainable balance between the changing needs of natural and social ecologies.

-Excerpted from the 1996 proposal by students at Prescott College.
Our Mission Statement
The North American Alliance for Green Education is a student-inspired consortium of environmental colleges and organizations with a commitment to environmental studies programs. Our mission is to combine institutional strengths to maximize educational opportunities for students and faculty.

-Written in August of 1997, by delegates at the First Annual Roundtable Symposium in Prescott, Arizona.

In order to participate in NAAGE, colleges and other educational organizations must uphold a mission or guiding principles which are in keeping with the NAAGE philosophy, demonstrate a commitment to experiential, project-based learning and a facility-based model for ethical environmental practices as well as work collaboratively with businesses, sponsors and community groups to promote environmental impact accountability.

Institutional Memorandum of Understanding

The North American Alliance for Green Education is a consortium of independent liberal arts colleges, each with a commitment to green education. Green education provides learning experiences that help students to respect, explore, sustain, and serve the web of life comprising our interconnected Earth community. Through this consortium, we will combine our unique institutional strengths and maximize educational opportunities for individuals in pursuit of lifelong learning through green education.

This proclamation, endorsed by these innovative and complementary colleges, reflects our agreement to collaborate with each other in order to focus attention on ecological issues. In creating this consortium we will demonstrate a broad-based commitment to community leadership inspired through interdisciplinary and environmental education.

Ecological issues provide a compelling precedent for increasing the academic dialogue between and interaction among students, faculty, staff and administrators from our institutions. Thus, we join to develop ideas that are advantageous for our students and to share educational resources in ways that are beneficial to consortium members. We also hope to create a more active interface with other individuals and organizations by taking on joint-venture projects that are specifically pertinent to our local and regional communities.

We, as institutional cosigners, agree to do the following:

Develop collaborative projects that demonstrate each institution's mission and philosophy;
Select and send delegates to each annual NAAGE roundtable symposium;
Designate a consortium liaison and contact persons for specific collaborative efforts;
Actively pursue the involvement of local organizations in consortium activities;
Engage in collaborative consortium marketing and fundraising initiatives.

In the spirit of understanding and goodwill, we sign this Memorandum of Understanding in recognition of our common interest to create and continue mutually beneficial collaboration in academic programs and educational services.

updated March 2002