Who We Are

The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities is a regionally focused institute promoting sustainable human flourishing through education, research, and leadership. The institute builds on over a decade of proven success and national renown of the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability and connects campus and community around developing sustainable communities.

Residing in a net-zero, LEED-certified, sustainable showcase home, next to an organic farm in the heart of Furman’s campus, the Shi Institute integrates academics, action, and community partnership. We equip students to lead, do collaborative research that addresses pressing challenges, and work alongside local partners to build a more sustainable campus and resilient communities in the southeast.

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Institute News

Impact is a Two-Way Street

If you peeked into a classroom at the Greenville Zoo one morning in July, you would have seen me introducing a class of 9-year-olds to a chinchilla named Kenickie. And in the back of that...

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Garden Pace: How Working on a Farm Displays the Relativity of Time

As humans, we are used to experiencing time in a very specific way. Human society is structured around, unsurprisingly, human time. The average life cycle of a person stays pretty much the same wherever you...

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Wait, what exactly are you doing at these bus stops?

“Are you just riding the bus everywhere?” “What are you actually doing at each stop? “You’re taking how much to each stop?”   The chorus of my summer. My friends and family assume they understand when I tell them that I’m...

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