Sixth Annual Green Summit

Yesterday we held the Sixth Annual (ish - but maybe the seventh actual) Green Summit! Coordinated fabulously by MM with NS, LJ, DH, RS, and me, with AE, KG, and LW attending, too!, it brought about 80 students, faculty, staff, and community members together. (Including the new owners of the organic farm north of town, Common Thread Community Farm. Its owners are fantastic!
Check them out on localharvest.org, which is an excellent resource.) For three hours we ate good food, connected, and most importantly, formed action plans to make campus greener.

Initiatives include:

educating Colgate students on the STOP-NYRI movement to prevent 140-ft tall powerlines running all the way from Canada to New York City through our area

first-year environmental education

reducing bottled water on campus

getting downtown businesses to stop using styrofoam, planting trees on the ski hill to sequester CO2

improving recycling efforts on campus, reducing the amount of computer-printer waste

holding the Energy Olympics in dorms again

getting more Fair Trade coffee on campus

making on-campus travel more eco-friendly.

Afterward we held a delicious dinner at the house, which seemed to inspire more conversation and connection amongst folks. Let's hope we can hold the momentum. Here's to the future success of the initiatives and action by Earth Day!