In accepting its commission, the SOS sought to understand and respond to the following portion of the second "common learning goal" identified in Being and Becoming:

We seek to understand the workings of our natural environment and the consequences of human interventions. Such learning requires students to study the sciences as disciplines that take different approaches to understanding our natural world as well as to study other disciplines that consider the relationship between humans and their natural habitat. We all should seek to understand the character and urgency of local, regional, and global issues involving environmental degradation, non-sustainable growth economics, overpopulation, and inequities in the allocation of natural resources. This goal will require of us all an attention to the natural resources for which Berea College provides stewardship. We should prepare ourselves and our students to be leaders in providing solutions for local environmental issues and problems. As we seek to understand our natural world, we must attempt to comprehend the impact of humans and their technological and scientific inventions upon it (page 32).

The subcommittee began its work by exploring the multi-faceted problem described in Being and Becoming. Its members were building on a foundation set by the Berea Agricultural Summit convened at the end of the summer, 1997. In following up, SOS members examined various views and dimensions of sustainability. The subcommittee reviewed curricular approaches to teaching environmental and ecological concepts and sustainability issues which had been adopted in Berea’s benchmark and other institutions. Focus groups were convened to provide input from the larger College community. Among many other sources, SOS members read and discussed David Orr’s Ecological Literacy and Earth in Mind .

One of the guests at the Agriculture Summit, Dean Freudenberger, characterized what he called "the problem" in terms that reflect recurrent themes SOS members encountered in their readings and discussions:

. . . knowledgeable leadership everywhere in the world face the realization, particularly after the Earth Summit gathering of the United Nations at Rio de Janeiro, that we have inherited an unsustainable social, economic, technological and industrial order. The health of the earth itself is in question. Agriculture and natural resource issues are central to this historically unprecedented reality. The problem challenges our imaginations, our self-understanding of how we fit into the design of creation, our value constructs, and our sense of moral obligation with reference to future generations of life.

Trend data and many thoughtful, informed commentators suggest that the concerns underlying Fruedenberger's "problem" and the cited learning goal from Being and Becoming cannot be easily dismissed. In his Ecology Literacy, for example, David Orr observes:

If today is a typical day on planet earth, humans will add fifteen million tons of carbon to the atmosphere, destroy 115 square miles of tropical rain forest, create seventy-two square miles of desert, eliminate between forty to one hundred species, erode seventy-one million tons of topsoil, add twenty-seven hundred tons of CFCs to the stratosphere, and increase their population by 263,000. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. By year's end the total numbers will be staggering: an area of tropical rain forest the size of the state of Kansas lost; seven to ten billion tons of carbon added to the atmosphere; a total population increase of ninety million (page 3).

And further:

In historical perspective, the crisis of sustainability appeared with unprecedented speed. Very little before the 1960s prepared us to understand the dynamics of complex, interactive systems and the force of exponential growth. . . . The crisis is unique in its range and scope including energy, resource use, climate, waste management, technology, cities, agriculture, water, biological resilience, international security, politics, and humans values. Above all it is a crisis of spirit and spiritual resources (page 4).

Following the UN Earth Summit in Rio, the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, signed by 1700 scientists, including 102 Nobel laureates states: "We the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievable mutilated."

Given the force of these warnings about matters fundamental to all life, SOS members conclude that the Berea College faculty and staff have a moral imperative to educate ourselves and our students about the "the problem" - its nature, its possible validity and implications as well as opportunities for constructive involvement through individual lifestyle, educational, and career choices and, at the institutional level, alignment of policies, practices, and learning goals with a deeper understanding of sustainability issues. In a world rich with good possibilities alongside what many see as unprecedented peril, the subcommittee took as its work thinking about ways in which Berea College should respond. Dean Freudenberger urged this work and suggested a guiding vision which SOS members have found useful in seeking to elaborate the opportunities and challenges afforded by Berea’s own unique history, mission and resources:

The vision that has finally taken root (born through thirty years of both ecumenical as well as United Nations discussions and which was clearly articulated at Rio de Janeiro) is the idea of sustainability. Native Americans articulated the idea long ago in describing their “seventh generation” spirituality and moral code. We understand this today as involving both inter-species justice and transgenerational justice. We can hardly fathom the challenge of this normative thought because almost everything that we in our modern world do results, over time, in deterioration. So, for the College, and for its several departments, the question can be raised: How will we proceed in addressing this vision?