Imagine an Iowa State with an environmental mission statement and a commitment to sustainability and enforcing green policies — the kind of university “The Greening of ISU” discussion workshop hopes to create.

Peggy Barlett, professor of anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., will lead “The Greening of ISU” at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Gallery Room of the Memorial Union.

“[Barlett] was an attractive speaker because of the things she has done at Emory to green that campus,” said Sheryl St. Germain, director of the department of English and organizer of the workshop. “The workshop is a way to inspire and give us ideas on how to be a more ‘green’ university.”

Barlett helped lead the Piedmont Project at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. For the project, Barlett and faculty members created new courses and integrated environmental themes into classes and across the university.

“Emory awakened five years ago to its responsibility as a university to work toward environmental sustainability,” Barlett said.

The Piedmont Project led to the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Environmental Stewardship group, which was created “to foster stewardship of university resources and to improve the environmental quality of life at Emory,” according to the group’s mission statement.

The mission statement went through 22 revisions before it was adopted, and Barlett said she plans to pass out a copy of the statement at the workshop.

“The mission statement gives a values platform for Emory,” she said.

However, environmental policies that are best for one school are not best for another college or university, Barlett said.

“One thing that Emory has done is we have looked at what other schools have done,” she said.

Every school is different and has different needs to reach environmental goals, Barlett said.

“I feel strongly there isn’t a single right path for any school. We’ve found at Emory to go where the energy is,” she said. “I would urge folks at Iowa to reflect. Where are the challenges to achieve sustainability?”

Sustainable agriculture is one of the issues Barlett anticipates as an issue for Iowa and will be brought out at her workshop.

“For issues of sustainability and local food, we are right in the bread basket,” said Whitney Sanford, organizer of the workshop and associate professor of religious studies.

The workshop’s purpose is to establish environmental goals for Iowa State.

Participants will be discussing “sustainability and the greening of ISU,” Sanford said.

Examples of changes may include faculty incorporating environmental issues into classes or reception planning using all local-grown food, she said.

“We will be asking ‘What can we do? What are our goals? What do we want?'” Sanford said. “I look forward to seeing the interaction of ideas.”