Sustainability Community Inspiration Map Workshop

Joshua Korenblat

SUNY New Paltz

🔁 This workshop is yours to use. Download it, remix it, adapt it, share it—make it work for your community. 

After reading this workshop, please refer to the bottom of the page for self-reflection questions to assist with your next steps!

SUNY New Paltz · November 14, 2025

In this two-hour workshop, students investigated campus sustainability initiatives and shared community spaces, compared their observations to SUNY sustainability goals, and identified opportunities for improvement. Using a rapid Design → Share → Remix cycle, participants create quick sketches, share insights, and remix ideas to imagine more inclusive, collaborative, and sustainable commons.

We concluded with a short reflection and uploaded sketches, notes, and takeaways to Earthrise Commons under an open license with contributor credit.

These contributions feed our concept of a Community Inspiration Map, creating remixable ideas for future teaching and community learning.

KNOW

Sustainable communities depend on infrastructure and relationships. We can move from a college campus as a place of belongings to a place of belonging, as Robin Wall Kimmerer puts it in her book Serviceberry.

Third Places are Community Hubs

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg described third places as spaces where people gather outside home (first place) and work or school (second place).

Examples include cafés, parks, libraries, and student lounges. The types of places you see on a college campus!

Strong third places are: welcoming and inclusive, easy to enter and low-cost, comfortable and informal, centered on conversation and connection, and are places where people feel at home.

Third places help reduce isolation, build trust and partnerships, and strengthen our community life.

When you explore a potential third place, look for Ray Oldenburg's criteria:

• Neutral Ground: Anyone can come and go freely. No special status is required.
• Leveler: Differences in social or economic status fade; everyone is on equal footing.
• Conversation is the Main Activity: People are talking, sharing ideas, stories, and experiences.
• Accessibility & Accommodation: The space is easy to reach, open at convenient times, and meets people's needs.
• Regulars: There’s a mix of familiar faces and newcomers; the community grows organically.

Commons Thinking & Belonging

Participants also explored:

• Campus sustainability initiatives and SUNY goals
• Commons stewardship and shared responsibility
• Design for Belonging levers (space, roles, rituals, events, grouping, communication, food, clothing, schedules)
• UX research tools such as field studies, journey mapping, and storyboarding
• Together, these ideas help reveal the hidden structures that support belonging, collaboration, and sustainability.

DO

• Participants engaged in a rapid Design → Share → Remix process to explore campus commons and sustainability systems.
  Investigate
  • Observe campus spaces, sustainability features, and gathering places.
  • Identify third places (community hubs).
  • Notice who feels welcome, how people interact, and what supports belonging.
  • Compare observations with SUNY sustainability goals.
    
  Visualize
  • Create quick one-minute sketches.
  • Map community hubs and sustainability features.
  • Storyboard experiences of shared spaces.
  Collaborate
  • Share sketches with peers.
  • Remix ideas to imagine more inclusive and sustainable commons.
  • Discuss opportunities for improvement.
    
  Reflect & Contribute
  • Reflect on insights and takeaways.
  • Upload sketches, notes, and reflections to Earthrise Commons under an open license.
  • Contribute artifacts that feed the Community Inspiration Map.

BE

An attentive and considerate person in our campus community. By noticing potential third places and envisioning how they might work, look, and feel, we take some first steps in creating peace, justice, and strong institutions (UN Global Goal 16).

• Participants practice being:
  • Careful observers of place and relationships
  • Welcoming designers who notice belonging and exclusion
  • Collaborators in shared commons stewardship
  • Contributors to open knowledge and community learning
  • Hopeful agents of sustainable change

SELF-REFLECTION: INVITATION FOR EDUCATORS:

1) Adapting the Workshop to Your Context

• What is the simplest version of this workshop I could realistically run (e.g., 20-minute observation and quick sketch)?

2) Guiding Observation of Space and Belonging

• What specific instructions will I give students to guide their observations? “Who is here? Who is missing? What makes this space welcoming or not?”
• How will I help students notice both physical features (layout, seating, access) and social dynamics (who interacts, who feels included)?
• What is one simple tool (checklist, prompt, map) I can provide to structure their observations?

3) Introducing the Idea of “Third Places”

• How will I explain “third places” in a clear and relatable way for my students?
• Which examples of third places are most relevant to their daily lives?

4) Supporting the Design→ Share→ Remix Process

• How much time will I give for each phase (design, share, remix), and how will I keep the pace manageable?
• What is one clear prompt I can give for the sketching phase so students don’t feel stuck?

5) Encouraging Collaboration Over Perfection

• How can I emphasize that sketches and ideas do not need to be polished or “correct”? The process is just as valuable as any finished product!
• What norms can I set to encourage students to build on each other’s ideas rather than critique them?
• How will I model remixing—taking an idea and extending or reimagining it?

6) Connecting Sustainability and Systems Thinking

• How will I help students connect their observations of space to broader sustainability goals?
• What is one question I can ask to move from “what is” to “what could be”?
• How can I highlight the role of relationships, not just infrastructure, in sustainable communities?  

7) Fostering a Sense of Belonging and Responsibility

• How do I encourage students to see themselves as contributors to shared spaces and not just “users” of them?
• What is one day I can reinforce the idea of shared responsibility for community spaces?
• How might I invite students to think about who is included or excluded in spaces they observe?

8) Making Reflection and Contribution Meaningful

• What is one simple reflection prompt I can use at the end of the activity?
• What is a way to preserve and share student work?

9) Modeling the “BE” Dimension in Your Practice

• How do I model attentiveness to space, relationships, and student experience in my teaching?
• In what ways do I create a classroom environment that reflects the same values (belonging, openness, collaboration) explored in this activity?
• What is one small way I can act as a “steward” of my classroom as a shared commons?