Sustainability is Growing on Campus

This week we are welcoming the Class of 2018 on campus.  Among the many things they are learning about Ripon College is the importance of sustainability: use less stuff, use less energy,  and what can be recycled on campus (pretty much everything!).  Several dozen students and their families dropped by the Sustainability table in Pickard Commons for the Resource Fair. 

Resource Fair June 24-26, 2014

They also got to hear Kaitlyn Welzen '15 talk about the campus hoophouse and campus garden, as well as programs Sodexo dining has put in place to provide students with nutritious, local, and international options.  After her presentation, Kaitlyn was down in the garden picking strawberries and getting the ground ready for a late planting.

Kaitlyn Welzen taking a break from gardening

Cortland apples growing; hoophouse skeleton and compost in background

Happily, the Cortland apples are growing beautifully.  Perhaps we'll have enough apples this fall to bring in the apple press and make cider!

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

Sodexo intern update #3: compost, canning, eating a vegetarian diet, Food Committee, honey, Campus Garden

Last week was for me in terms of environmental sustainability. First, I took seven 5-gallon buckets of fruit and vegetable waste to the GrowSureEase farm to be composted. The previous week, I had delivered five 5-gallon buckets, so the compost pile is growing nicely and it appears that we are having more participation from kitchen staff in using the buckets for compostable materials.  That's  fantastic! Since the start of this semester, I would estimate that we have taken over 20 of the 5-gallon buckets to GrowSureEase (although I don’t have an official count). So, that feels like a great accomplishment to keep that waste out of landfills and to continue doing so in the future.

 At the Fraser farm, I met Seth Winkel, who has taken a class on how to do canning and is interested in working with Ripon College students to can some left-over tomatoes from the GrowSureEase farm. So, if there is anyone reading this blog that would be interested in something like that, feel free to email me at WelzenK@ripon.edu. We will hopefully be canning some tomatoes in the form of salsa on Sunday, September 29.

On a different note, I unintentionally ate in the style of a ‘meatless Monday’ yesterday; something that is far rarer for me than perhaps it should be. By doing so, I realized how easy it actually could be if one consciously decides to do so, even for a day. On that note, I have to pause to give all vegetarians and vegans kudos, because I don’t think that is something I could do every day. To all the omnivores out there who may be reading this: I challenge you to eat vegetarian for a day (or if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, eat only vegan-friendly foods for a day). You might be surprised by how easy (or difficult) it may be for you, or perhaps expand your horizons a bit. For me, it made me question why I normally eat meat every day. Is it the options we are presented? An unconscious habit? Taste preference? And perhaps the most important question: how can I change this? 

The Pickard Commons will most likely soon be making some changes in terms of the food it serves, with the implementation of a student-run ‘Food Committee’ in which student representatives meet with Sarj, Dean Ogle, and Melissa Bemus to discuss what changes theyt would like to see in on-campus dining halls.

In other sustainability news, look for a bottle of honey from the bees that EGOR keeps on campus to appear in the Commons within the next month. More on that when it happens and the student response to it.

Oh, and don’t forget to head down to the Campus Garden to pick any produce that you want! There are still many tomatoes to pick, so go enjoy.

               

Campus Sustainability has a new home

Campus Sustainability is off to a busy start.  On Thursday of this week I met with the new Sodexo intern for Sustainability, Kaitlyn Welzen (WelzenK@ripon.edu).  It was great hearing about the work she intends to be doing as the intern. I'm sure there will be at least one post dedicated solely to her.  However, for a preview, here's the focus of the work she'll be starting this semester:

• Initiating a Food Council in the residence halls. This will be a forum where dorm residents can meet with her to give her feedback on the food service on campus and get to comment or preview the upcoming menus.  Here's a great chance to get your voice heard!
• Currently organic waste is collected in some of the prep areas in The Commons kitchen. Kaitlyn, who also has worked for Sodexo, will work to educated those doing the prep work on what is compostable and set up clearly labeled compost bins and a bin storage area. During the growing season, the campus compost is taken to Frasier Farms right here in Ripon.  Even though you won't see composting in the dining rooms this semester, it is happening in the prep areas.  If you're interested in helping us quantify how much food is being composted, please get in touch with the Coordinator or Kaitlyn.
• Finally, Kaitlyn will be working on putting in place a process for donating unused and pre-made food to area food banks.

These are ambitious goals, but certainly attainable. This really is an exciting time to be working on food-related topics here on campus. (See pictures of the delicious food growing on campus)

After meeting with Kaitlyn I had the privilege of presenting the mission and activities of Campus Sustainability to this year's Orientation Committee (the talk I gave can be found here).  What a great group of students. There are now 34 additional students on campus who know about sustainability and who will help get out the message about reducing our carbon footprint using common sense actions.  I hope these students will stay in touch and keep bringing me their ideas.

Also on Thursday, Campus Sustainability found a home on campus.  The office of the Sustainability Coordinator is in 207 Smith Hall.

Finally, before leaving campus, I swung by the Facilities building to drop off some more Single-Stream recycling labels to be used on containers around campus. While there I took a look (and then a walk) around the campus garden.  It is bursting with tomatoes and cucumbers. The pumpkins are looking adorable. It will be so fun to harvest them come October. The garden is largely the work of Kaitlyn Welzen (yep, same one who is interning at Sodexo). The fruit trees planted  over the last few years by the fine folks at Facilities are starting to bear fruit. I can't wait to taste the different apple varieties.

Cute pumpkins... growing... growing

Apples starting to ripen

Cherry tomatoes by the dozen

Modest harvest of cucumbers and tomatoes that needed picking.  Gazpacho anyone?