This fall, the Office of Campus Sustainability has lined up six student workers to further sustainability initiatives across campus.  The students will focus on four priority areas for the Office of Campus Sustainability: energy, zero waste, local/real food, and sustainability data/metrics.  Sophomore Molly Poniatowski is the new Zero Waste Student Coordinator.  Junior Joanne Zhao and sophomore Christina Georgalas are working on a Farm to SUNY initiative to raise awareness of local fruit and vegetable purchasing in dining services.  Sophomore Erika Popolla is beginning the year promoting the new water bottle refill stations across campus and then will transition to leading New Paltz Unplugged, the college’s annual energy conservation competition between residence halls held every fall.  Senior Allison Debritz, a BFA photography major, is focusing on promoting sustainability through digital and social media.  Senior Jacob Yoder will be supporting the Office of Campus Sustainability in completing a STARS assessment of the college.  STARS stands for Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, Rating System.

Last Friday, Campus Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Mitten led a training for the student workers to kickoff the academic year.  The training began with a “slow food” meal featuring four varieties of tomatoes, husk cherries, cucumbers and basil from Whirligig Farm in Hurley, peaches from Apple Hill Farm just down the road from campus, bread from Bread Alone in Kingston, and Pomodoro’s pizza made with Winter Sun Farms’ pizza sauce.  The training focused deepening each student’s understanding of the scope and breadth of sustainability initiatives across campus and the role that each student will play this year.  Each student reviewed and shared the STARS credit and sustainability data metrics related to their areas of focus.  Since the success of many sustainability initiatives relies on changing behavior, the students excerpts from Dr. Douglas McKenzie-Mohr’s book Fostering Sustainable Behavior: Community-Based Social Marketing.  The Office of Campus Sustainability welcomes each of its new student workers to the team!