Making Sustainability ‘Part of Everything We Do’
Throughout the summer, the nascent campus food pantry in Mather Hall became a locus of activity.
Hayley Berliner, sustainability coordinator, and Joe Barber, director of community service and civic engagement, supplied the room on the lower level with non-perishable goods and hygiene supplies. The pair kept the pantry, called Food N Stuff, stocked for community members with a need.
“We don’t limit sustainability to environmental initiatives. We really want to make sustainability part of everything we do,” said Berliner. “We want it to be front of mind for everybody.”
To maintain a campus-wide focus on sustainability requires coordination between a variety of College offices, several student organizations, the Sustainability Committee, and Chartwells dining services. According to Berliner, the following are recent updates:
The installation of water bottle fillers continues to roll out around campus. The newest water bottle fillers are in Jackson Hall, the High Rise Hall, and Hansen Hall. The updated campus map will soon reflect all the stations.
A textbook swap implemented last year in the library now enables students to get rid of a textbook they purchased and leave it at the library for another student.
This is the second year, Trinity offered an Orientation NEXT “Sustainable Trinity, Sustainable Hartford,” which included a hands-on garden cleanup.
For the first time this year, incoming first-year students were required to complete a Moodle course about campus sustainability.
A sustainable art workshop is planned in collaboration with the exhibit Detritus at Widener Gallery in the Austin Art Center.
The food recovery program—which takes food each week that Chartwells has prepared but not served and delivers to the local shelter, ImmaCare—will be restarting for the 2024-2025 academic year on September 27.
More rides have been recorded using the Bantam Bus Pass since the 2015-2016 academic year.
A group from an environmental science class of Amber Pitt, associate professor of environmental science, will work on the pollinator garden on campus.
The compost program which turns discarded food items into energy and fertilizer by Blue Earth in Southington has expanded. Current locations: Behind Hallden and McCook; Crescent Street Townhouses; and Smith House.
Trinity submitted its latest report on sustainability initiatives to STARS (Sustainability Tracking and Rating System), a higher education tool to measure progress in this area.
“All these small things are working, and they are making an impact,” said Berliner.
“The STARS report is a good guide—another thing to look at for ideas about where we can grow,” said Berliner. “The sustainability world is collaborative because we are all working for the same goal.”
