Some statistics: Cornell has, ahem, the number one architecture program in the United States. The United States each year produces six billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions — which is, per capita, almost 200 times more than poorer countries in the world. Buildings represent 39 percent of those emissions. Let’s round that up to 40 percent. While turning off the lights in Rockefeller overnight is important, the energy saved by doing so is chump change compared to what could be wrought by the education of a well-trained and knowledgeable generation of builders and designers.

They are not hippie communes. They are not even about “living off the grid.” Largely unknown and misinterpreted, ecovillages are communities striving to “integrate a supportive social environment with a low impact way of life” according to the Global Ecovillage Network.

In discussions of sustainability, the environment often takes center stage while issues of social equity and economic sustainability are either relegated to the background or are not present at all. The Bioneers Conference — held from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18 on the Ithaca College campus — made inquiries into a more sustainable future from five perspectives: sustainable economy, our clean energy future, fortifying our food sheds, earth stewardship and health and well-being.

Food is the body’s source of energy and nutrients, without which the human body would cease to function. Most Americans are reminded of this fact three times a day, thanks to the extensively evolved agricultural system that has developed since our transition from hunter-gatherer ways 10,000 years ago. However, the delicate state of the environment leaves the future of food production uncertain, particularly for developing nations.

The weather chilled. Tests crept up out of nowhere. And we failed. We seriously got, like, actual Fs on the five — six? seven? a million? —VILLAINOUS prelims we took this week. But, no worries! It’s HEROIC Fall Break! Where you goin’? We’re going somewhere, anywhere, please ... just get us out of here ...

After swimming in the lake and a few rounds of fetch at the Ithaca Dog Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Sophie, an eight-year-old plump English lab, shyly deposited a small pile of doo next to a bush. Her owner, Prof. Leon Kochian, plant biology, picked up the poop, dumped it into a free black bag obtained at one of the five bag dispensers in the Park and disposed of the evidence in a sky-blue bin labeled “compost” located at the Park’s entrance.

Cornell’s overall grade in the College Sustainability Report Card — an independent evaluation of more than 300 schools’ sustainability efforts across the country — has dropped from last year’s “B+” to a “B” this year, a grade that Cornell’s sustainability coordinator disputed as an inaccurate reflection of the University’s efforts.

In a volatile oil market, automobile producers are scrambling to gain an edge on their competitors using technology considered purely futuristic until recently. Mike Schweizer and Rasheq Zarif of Mercedes Benz USA, LLC, gave a lecture during the energy seminar series for engineers last Friday on recent progress in the field of sustainable transportation. According to Zarif, the purpose of Mercedes’ intensive $1.7 billion research project has been to “accelerate the paradigm shift” between fuel-based and cleaner technologies.

On Wednesday nights, Prof. Jefferson Cowie walks upstairs from his apartment to his 7:30 class. He abandons the typical professorial necktie, and rather than walking in with a briefcase, he brings only his dog Higgins.

About a dozen students, some sporting pajama bottoms, greet him as he enters, all of them vying for his attention as they propose potential community service projects, ask questions about course credit or complain about the course’s inaccessibility on Blackboard — all the while avoiding Higgins as he runs around in search of a free hand to pet him.

“I will lay my body in front of the president’s office if I have to,” Cowie said in response to his attempts to offer credit for the course, which, at the time, was one of his top priorities.