Wellness Fair - learn about health impacts of landfills and commit to reducing the waste you make on campus

Join campus and community members on Tuesday, November 2013 to learn about and participate in Health and Wellness activities relevant to Ripon students. The event will occur in Great Hall on campus 11AM - 2PM

Ripon Sustainability will have a table there to share information with the college community about the health benefits of reducing solid waste and increasing recycling.  Data are gathered from the EPA and DNR websites.  Come by to learn about what is recyclable on campus and meet our EcoREPS.

UMACS Conference at Luther College report

Last weekend I had the great experience of attending a Midwest Conference dealing with sustainability Samara, Kaitlyn, and I began our adventure to Iowa bright and early Friday morning! 

We made it to the lovely college campus that was hosting the event, Luther College, right around lunchtime. Kaitlyn and I were able to register, grab some food, and poke around the campus a bit before the opening presentation. Even from walking around the campus, we could really see their environmental commitment. They had quite a few solar panels on one side of campus, a wind turbine on another side, a large garden, local food in their commons areas, a large greenhouse, and all these integrated into an overall beautiful campus.

            Then the conference actually began! The opening speaker was John Farrell, the son of the author of The Nature of College James Farrell. One quote that stood out to me that he mentioned was, “If God wanted us to live sustainably, she’d have given us brains!”. I loved that! The rest of the day was filled with speakers from various colleges that held sustainability programs. One was on how to get a program started and how to keep one running. Another one, that I found to be exceedingly interesting, was about Eco Houses on a few different campuses. As they were speaking about the houses, I could just imagine one at Ripon. Maybe one day!

            Following this there was a poster session where each school could present what they were working on. It was awesome to walk around and talk to students who are working on astonishing projects! Some of the students were working on programs similar to the EcoRep program we have started here. I found it helpful to sit down with some of these students and see what they did when they began there programs, what seemed to be successful and what failed and, most importantly, why.

            As a side note, for dinner the first night, after the poster session, and lunch the second day we were served absolutely delicious mostly vegan food! It was almost entirely from local sources too. Needlessly to say, I went back for seconds!

            After dinner Friday we heard another speaker, Chad Pregracke. He started his talk with some facts, but it was mostly a narrative conversation about his life experiences. He was a college-aged kid who noticed something wrong and set out to fix it. Chad grew up right along the Mississippi and one day noticed the overwhelming amount of trash built up in certain areas. It blew his mind that this could be happening to a river so important to our country. He faced obstacle after obstacle, but managed to get a clean up initiative started and continues today on rivers all over the country. His story was remarkable and inspirational. The fact that he was able to grow from just him doing this project he believed in so strongly to the operation he has today is extraordinary. Not only this, but he managed to come through it all with a great sense of humor. He made a great point of saying that you have to be able to laugh, not get burned out, not take anything too seriously, and even try to have fun with your mission. He is actually offering a free service opportunity as an alternative spring break cleaning up the Mississippi! Granted, anyone wanting to go will be expected to pay for travel price and lodging. It is being hosted in Memphis, TN. For more information on Chad, his organization, or the spring break opportunity, check out www.livinglandsandwaters.org/ .

            The second day was filled with more impressive speakers, information on sustainability on campuses, and delectable food. Our main speaker we listened to after lunch said something that stood out to me. With all the information we receive on issues of the environment, it can seem overwhelming to try and fix it all. The speaker, Jacqueline Johnson (president of University of Minnesota - Morris), told us to “decide which hill you’re willing to die on”. We must each pick what we feel is the most important fight and see that through. It does not good to try and do everything and get nothing done. I thought that was a really insightful comment.

            This past EcoRep meeting I decided to ask a question that had been posed to me at the conference. The question of: What is it we are trying to sustain? I thought it was a great question. At the conference we were put in groups to mull this over. We eventually got to the point, as did the EcoReps, that it ultimately comes down to not just sustaining anything as it is now, but actually improving it. The EcoReps listed things that they would like to see changed on campus (less energy consumption, less waste, etc.), but this is not sustaining the culture of the campus as it is now. Instead this is implying we want to change the campus. We want it to improve and not just sustain, but grow to be better than it is now!

            That’s All Folk!

            Kristen

Meet 3rd floor Scott EcoREPS: Ricardo Jaimes

My name is Ricardo Jaimes.
I am a freshman at Ripon College.
I a member of the EGOR club, Sierra Club, and Hola club.
I plan to pursuit a major in Environmental Studies.
My goal: To help Ripon College become a more Eco-friendly campus. 

At SES (Semester in Environmental Studies)

While most Ripon College students are at home for Fall Break, a few students are off-campus getting no break, but having an exceptional educational experience. Among them is Tyler Messerschmidt '14 who is currently a student at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.

He writes,
The Semester in Environmental Studies at Woods Hole has been a magnificent experience so far.  Even though this is probably the hardest I have worked in any college semester, it is also the least stressful semester I have had at college.  The people here are amazing and it is very refreshing to be able to work along side people with the same drive and interest in the environment that I have.  This makes it very easy to put in the hard work in the classroom, lab and the field needed to succeed in this course. 


Here are some of his pictures of the experiences he's enjoying.

Check back for results from his proposed research project: " I have a tentative plan.  I would like to look at how primary production and species composition have changed in a hardwood forest.  For many years this forest had a consistent supply of nitrogen from a waste water treatment plant.  This plant has recently upgraded to remove a large amount of the incoming nitrogen from the water, and no longer distributes this over the forest."



Collecting fish with a seine net



Filling in a soil pit



Measuring photosynthesis



Meet 4th floor Johnson Eco-Rep: Mariah Everts

Bettering the lives of Ripon College students in every way is part of being a student here at Ripon College. We are all well rounded individuals looking to make a difference in the world. Becoming an Eco-Rep I truly hope to make many others aware of what a beautiful world we live in and how easy it is to do our small part to continue to make Ripon College a fantastic place to be. Educating students on recycling, waste produced, and using as little and gaining much more because of it. Once we are educated in the ways to help out our campus, when we graduate I hope we can use our knowledge to better the future communities we live in.

Eco-Reps hold their first meeting

Hello!

We finally got our ‘eco rep program’ (name as yet to be determined) started! We have ten great Ripon students working with me: Robert Enright, Aspen Geheber, Samantha Klein, Mariah Everts, Mikayla Huesman, Mamadou Toure, Ricardo Jaimes, Shannon Marchiando and Sophia Rodgers. Six out of the ten were able to attend our first meeting and they seem as enthusiastic as I am! They already had questions and suggestions.

 

We are working on coming up with a name and logo to identify ourselves with. I also gave them our first assignment. We will be checking all the campus buildings for placement of garbage and recycling bins and the labeling around them. In these same places we will be monitoring the water fountain stations for how many water bottles are saved each day by using reusable containers. We will be working heavily with data because, as Professor Hamze likes to quote, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”!

 

 I am also very excited because I found out I can attend a Midwest regional conference on Sustainability in Decorah, IA on November 7-9^th! I hopefully get to stay on campus and hear from students across the Midwest working on programs similar to this one!

 

I also had a talk with Professor Diane Beres about the Costa Rica maymester dealing with sustainability and development. It is a wonderful opportunity for any students and especially for environmental studies majors. I told her I would help promote the project and maybe be able to go myself! Anyone who is interested can feel free to contact her or professor Hauge for more information. Also, look for posters about an information meeting coming up! That’s all the news I have for now!

Your friendly neighborhood sustainability intern,

Kristen

Enjoy our beautiful prairie and wonderful fall colors: Sat & Sun

There will be two seed collecting activities this weekend for those who would like to help restore prairies in Wisconsin.

TIMES:  Saturday, October 12 at 1:00 PM and Sunday, October 13 at 2:00 PM

PLACE: Ceresco Prairie Conservancy – meet at the Kegel Outdoor Classroom

No need to bring collecting materials – I will have them.  Be sure to wear appropriate clothes for walking out in a tall-grass prairie.

We will not collect seeds in the rain.

For more information, please contact Prof. Skip Wittler, wittlers@ripon.edu