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Over the summer, ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s Office of Sustainability ran the six-week Foundations of Sustainability discussion group for faculty, staff, and students from over a dozen departments. The program explored topics like food systems, water, energy, waste, climate change, and green buildings, encouraging participants to consider the ecological, social, and economic impacts of daily choices. Weekly readings and discussions inspired participants to take small but meaningful sustainable actions and recognize their potential ripple effect on others.

The ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Community Garden (CCG) serves multiple purposes: Education, Local Food Access, and Community.

¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s garden interns attended Open Farm Day in upstate New York, touring several farms to learn about sustainable agriculture and local food systems

Now hiring garden interns!

The ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Community Garden is thriving after recent rain and sunshine, with lettuce, radishes, kale, chard, snap peas, and squash growing abundantly. The garden has been harvesting for farm stands, Chartwells dining services, and the Hamilton Food Cupboard, fostering strong community connections. Special thanks were given to weekly volunteers, including a library staff group who helped mulch, weed, and plant, as well as painted decorative rocks.

At the ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Community Garden, pests like slugs, beetles, grasshoppers, cutworms, and birds are managed using organic, eco-friendly methods to protect plants while minimizing environmental impact.

To make summer barbecues more eco-friendly, consider these tips

For ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s Reunion, which hosted over 2,000 alumni, the university made the event more sustainable by using biodegradable utensils, cups, plates, and napkins, preventing plastic waste that could take over 500 years to decompose. Food and biodegradable materials now break down in about six months. All recyclables were collected, and student volunteers helped alumni distinguish between recyclable and biodegradable items. Minimal trash was generated, mostly ice cream wrappers and hand wipes. The effort aimed for a near zero-landfill Reunion and educated attendees about sustainability, with plans to make future reunions even greener.

¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ’s Sustainability Office is hiring student interns for the Green Raider Program for the 2016–2017 academic year. Green Raiders work up to 12 hours per week to promote sustainable living on campus, especially in residence halls, through education, events, social media, and peer-to-peer outreach.

The first ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ Community Garden work party of the season was a success. Students planted watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, and winter squash, mulched tomato rows, painted tires for planters, and decorated rocks during a brief rain. Volunteers enjoyed a fresh meal afterward. Good Nature Brewery celebrated their groundbreaking near the garden, with plans for a brewery, taproom, beer garden, and hop farm—promising a future partnership with the garden. The garden is now fully planted, and the first farm stand will be held Tuesday, the 14th, 5:30–6:30 PM on Broad Street, offering lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, and herbs.