SUSTAINABILITY THINK TANK

The Sustainability Think Tank, located in East Wheelock, is a pilot living-and-Iearning opportunity for four student interns doing projects related to aspects of sustainability. Projects can be research-based or community service-based, and the program is supported by the Tucker Foundation and the East Wheelock Residential Cluster. Current interns include Sarah Uhl ‘07, Jopei Shih ‘06, and Shayan Ghosh ‘07. Students interested in participating in the future should direct questions to Lynn White Cloud.
The think tank is also planning a Wind Power lunch debate in early February. Stay tuned for more details.

RESOURCE WORKING GROUP
The RWG is back in full swing after a summer break. The principal focus of this fall and winter will be the hiring of a Sustainability Coordinator and helping the SC begin to implement an enhanced set of initiatives designed to make Dartmouth more sustainable, and to serve as an administrative contact with whom they will be able to discuss progress at the college and to whom they can look for resources related to their endeavors. The Sustainability Coordinator’s position has been funded by Provost Scherr from his Venture Fund. A search committee consisting of faculty, administrators and students has been formed, chaired by Larry Litten. We hope to bring candidates to campus in January for meetings with students, faculty, and administrators.
The RWG continues to attend to making our campus ever more energy efficient, reducing energy usage, reducing waste, and increasing recycling. Recent topics addressed in the RWG include the pursuit of LEED certification for our new buildings and sustainability in our institutional purchases. If you have topics you would like to have the RWG address, please contact John Gratiot or Larry Litten, the co-chairs.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE GREENS
The Greens are currently working on a program to implement environmentally sound purchasing at Dartmouth. This fall, Dartmouth dominated the “Greening of the Ivys” contest also known as the Northeast Environmental Conference at Columbia the weekend of October 14,2004.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION
ECO needs help this year! This fall has been rebuilding period of sorts for ECO, and we’re looking to get back into action this winter with a new crew of energetic ECO reps.
Meanwhile, every student should get involved in the recycling program: bins are located all over campus, and waste warriors are in the basements of most residential halls. Also, Dartmouth has begun composting in the dining halls again, so be sure to take your food and paper scraps to the food court and home plate kitchen clearing areas!

DARTMOUTH LOCAL FOODS PROJECT
About 6 months ago, Vital Communities, a local not-for-profit, received a grant from the SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) branch of the USDA. Staff at Vital Communities are working with students, DDS, administrators, faculty, community members, farmers, and distributors to bring more local foods into Dartmouth’s dining halls. You may see items such as New England beef hamburgers at homeplate as soon as this winter!

The student group working on the DLFP organized student educational tastings over the summer on Frat Rowand in front of Collis to help spread the word about this project and help students understand-with their minds and their mouths-the value of buying local. DDS hosted a freshman dinner during orientation week featuring local produce and products like Strafford Organic Creamery icecream. This fall students have been at various activities fairs and have tabled to spread the word and get student and administrative support-keep an eye out for more tastings and events promoting local agriculture.