Beth Weiner
Contributing Writer
Welcome back. Glad you’re still reading. Here’s to hoping that everyone retained what I said about sustainability last time, especially since classes take up so many IQ points.
Sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes. Specifically, living in a way that preserves the environment and the world for generations to come, while still ensuring the success of society today. Easier said than done, of course.
North Central College is one of the many schools across the U.S. that recognizes the importance of sustainability in higher education that relates well with its mission statement: “North Central College is a community of learners dedicated to preparing students to be informed, involved, principled and productive citizens and leaders over a lifetime.”
The key part of this, which applies to sustainability, is the “involved, principled, and productive citizens” portion of the statement. Since the College already has so many sustainability initiatives in place, it’s really easy and good to take advantage of them once you learn more about them.
North Central, like many schools has a sustainability coordinator, Brittany Graham. Graham has helped to implement many sustainable initiatives on campus such as responsibility for campus composting and making sure that the waste from many campus events is handled responsibly. If you’re interested in ensuring that composting is available at your student organization’s next event then Graham is the person to contact.
Many students already know that the College composts all of our food scraps in Kaufman Dining Hall and the Cage. In Kaufman, the process is pretty simple: just scrape the food scraps off your plate into the large, green garbage can. In the Cage, it can get confusing. The most important part is making sure you compost all food scraps. If you don’t know where something goes, put it in the landfill. The College gets fined when the recycling gets contaminated, so take an extra minute and use the pictures above the waste bins to sort your trash.
The Cage also has an environmental club called Green Scene, which you can easily join and get involved in and can still help with any sustainability questions you have. Along with Green Scene, there are other ways to get involved with sustainability on campus. North Central is the proud home to a community garden, where students, faculty and community members can have a whole or half plot to grow their own vegetables. The garden is utilized by dining services to provide vegetables that are free of pesticides and chemicals. This saves gas and oil, which is usually used to ship food from other places to the College.
It’s important that, as students, we get involved in any way we can, whether it’s something as simple and easy as composting correctly, contacting Graham for a volunteer day in the garden, or getting a hands-on experience in Green Scene.
