Come to the Earth Day celebratrion on the Sheehan steps (by the Eckley Quad) April 20 from noon to 2 p.m.  FREE for the taking, there will be small bamboo stalks (limited supply–one per person; first come, first served) as well as directions on how to easily make reuseable bags from old T-shirts.  Students are also invited to participate in a “sustainable swap” by bringing gently-used items they no longer want to the Sheehan steps and taking any items, brought by other students, which they would like.  At 2 p.m., items which have been left at the Sheehan steps will be donated to PreShrunk (located in the basement of Adams Hall; open each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 2-5 p.m.)

Contact: For more information, please contact Olivia Campbell (ocampbel@iwu.edu) or Vanessa Snyder (vsnyder@iwu.edu).

Join Vegetarian, Vegan, Victorious! (VVV) in their campaign for a Meat-Free Monday!

We are asking students, faculty, and staff to voluntarily opt out of meat ONE day a week!

Every time you eat a meal free of animal products, you save 2.5 lbs. of greenhouse gas emissions, 24 square feet of land, and 133 gallons of water. If you eat three meatless meals a day, that totals a massive savings of 2,737.5 lbs. of greenhouse gas, 26,280 square feet of land and 145,635 gallons of water per year, plus more.

Just ONE day of meat-free meals can make a huge difference!

Visit our Facebook group for more information on how one meat-free day helps the planet and other schools/countries that are participating:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_205837426098787#!

Jmeyer2@iwu.edu or Daniel at dcochran@iwu.edu for more information on the campaign or VVV.

A new book by Sandra Steingraber ’81, Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis, will be published by Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group, in March.

Steingraber was named among “25 visionaries who are changing your world” by Utne Reader in 2010.

Steingraber visited campus in October to speak about the new documentary Living Downstream, titled after her celebrated 1997 book.

In conjunction with a community composting initiative spearheaded by Illinois State University, Sodexho has begun composting food waste from Bertholf Commons in the Memorial Center. In its first week of the program beginning Jan. 24, an average of 500 pounds a day from the student dining room and Sodexho kitchen were diverted from landfills to a composting site at the ISU farm.

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Michael Bryson ’90, associate professor of humanities at Roosevelt University in Chicago and Schaumburg, published an essay about the genesis of Roosevelt’s new program in Sustainability Studies in 2010 and the importance of sustainability in higher education in the Roosevelt Review (pp. 31-36).

Bryson is a contributing writer to the Sustainability Studies at Roosevelt University blog, which provides news and commentary about a broad range of urban environmental issues throughout the Chicago region.

Congrats to Kari Grace ’11, co-chair of the GREENetwork, who was named Illinois Wesleyan’s recipient of the 2010 Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate Award. Read the news release.

Monday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m., Beckman Auditorium, The Ames Library

Epiphany Farms is a organic farm/restaurant operation that was founded by Ken Myszka and three other certified chefs. They grow their own organic plants and animals, sell them in farmer’s markets, and make really delicious dishes and sell those at their new restaurant. And they’re all in their 30s. If you’re an environmental studies major/minor and don’t know what to do after college, this is a great talk to go to to learn from someone who’s done it and they’re making a difference. If you like to eat healthy food, you need to be there. If you live on this planet, you need to be there because this is important.

Contact dkenny@iwu.edu or erichar1@iwu.edu if you have questions.

Robert Guise, who graduated in 2008 with a major in Environmental Studies, is keeping a blog while serving in the Peace Corps as an Environmental Educator with Peru’s Community-Based Environmental Management Program.

As reported in The Pantagraph, Illinois Wesleyan and Sodexo Campus Services are joining a community composting initiative to divert food waste from landfills and create a greener Twin Cities.

The story was carried by the Associated Press and appeared in other newspapers:

• Jacksonville Journal-Courier
• Rockford Register Star
• Belleville News-Democrat
• The (Columbus, Ind.) Republic

In the College Sustainability Report Card 2011, released Oct. 27 by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, Illinois Wesleyan received an overall grade of “C.”

This continues our improvement from a “D-” two years ago, when we first participated in the study, and a “D+” last year.

We made our greatest progress in the areas of “Food & Recycling” and “Student Involvement.”

• View our Green Report Card online
• Or download a pdf
• Find our Green Report Cards from past years on the GREENetwork Resources page