Five current and former members of the Environmental Justice HistoryLab (Basil Alsubee, Meghan Clark, Hannah Thoms, Matt Lassiter, Matthew Woodbury) contributed to this short video, “What Does Sustainability Mean to You?” as part of the University of Michigan’s “Earth Day at 50 Teach-Out” online program.

Three former leaders of Environmental Action for Survival, the student group that organized the U-M Teach-In on the Environment in March 1970, also contributed (David Allan, Arthur Hanson, Elizabeth Kingwill).

The overriding theme is that environmental sustainability = environmental justice.  Watch the “What Does Sustainability Mean to You?” video here.

Between April 6-20, 2020, the Center for Academic Innovation at the University of Michigan is launching the “Earth Day at 50 Teach-Out” on Coursera and Futurelearn.  The Environmental Justice HistoryLab worked closely with the “Earth Day at 50 Teach-Out” planners on the historical components of this free and public online educational program.

Professor Matt Lassiter, the faculty coordinator of the Environmental Justice HistoryLab, helped create the modules on the history of the U-M Teach-In on the Environment and the broader Earth Day movement in 1970 and the emphasis on the deep historical roots of campaigns for environmental justice and sustainability.  Matthew Woodbury, the 2019-2020 project supervisor for the Environmental Justice HistoryLab, also contributed extensively to the planning and worked with undergraduate students in a Winter 2020 course on Historical Filmmaking to produce a documentary about the Environmental Action for Survival Teach-In of 1970.

Below, Matt Lassiter talks about the origins of Earth Day 1970 and the role of the ENACT Teach-In on the Environment at the University of Michigan in a segment from the “Earth Day at 50 Teach-Out.”