A little over a year ago, coinciding with the administration’s creation of the Sustainability Office, students, grad students, and some administration members from different environmentally concerned campus groups decided to create an inter-organizational forum for sustainable action, called Sustainable Dartmouth. The origins of SD, or Sustainable Dartmouth, remain steeped in ancient folklore while its not-so-terrifying form is comprised of the head of the Sustainability Office, tail of the Environmental Studies Division of the DOC, thorax of The Farm, and appendages from ECO, DAWG (Dartmouth Animal Welfare Group), and the Green Magazine. Seen to portend a greener Big Green, Sustainable Dartmouth was unleashed upon the Dartmouth administration and campus.

In the following year, many smaller green initiatives regarding policy changes have fallen under SD’s large, hemp-fiber belt. Notable student endeavors included last year’s “Carry Your Trash Around for a Week” week (or as I preferred to call it—notwithstanding the derisive satisfaction of my friends—the “There is No Away” campaign) and the Sustainable Move-Out in the Spring and the Sustainable Move-In Sale this past Fall.

Aided in great part by twenty different student volunteers, widespread campus support from individual to organizational donations, and ten volunteers from the local Sierra Club chapter, the Move-Out succeeded beyond expectations. It kept many re-usable items out of the end-of-term waste-stream and provided students with an alternative to shopping Wal-Mart and having to buy at much higher costs newly manufactured furniture, appliances, electronics, and papier mâché Star Wars figurines, which they would probably throw “away” anyway after graduating. Though many other college campuses have similar waste reduction programs, by and large they contract out to professionals and local organizations to run their programs; we preferred doing the dirty work ourselves, keeping this Move-Out student run. Believing in the sheer practicality of recycling perfectly reusable items on campus and reducing unnecessary, costly waste, SD and volunteers adopted this yearlong project. Three giant 8’ x 40’ x 10’ storage trailers filled to capacity with the donations suppling the items for sale. Over 90 percent of the items were sold, raking in enough money to cover the costs of the sale with nearly $7,000 remaining in profit. The sale also provided hundreds of bags of clothing to local charities.

Working out the logistics with the Office of Residential Life, Facilities, Operations, & Management, the Outdoor Programs Office, L&M Construction, the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), the Environmental Studies Division of the Dartmouth Outing Club, the Sustainability Office, the Office of Community Development, and community volunteers through the Upper Valley Chapter of the Sierra Club and COVER, SD ran drop off points in the common rooms of every dormitory on campus. Affinity and Greek houses also participated, both by donating and by volunteering as groups to help organize the flow of donated items. During the spring collection process we managed to salvage hundreds of books; nearly a hundred refrigerators; scores of couches, tables, chairs, and other furniture; and, of course, papier mâché Star Wars figurines.

Now there is the question of what to do with the money that was raised. Current ideas include establishing a revolving fund for student-initiated projects to make Dartmouth more sustainable and… what? If you have an idea or are interested in reusing waste at Dartmouth, changing the keg policy, carbon neutrality (getting the Administration to pledge to reduce and offset Dartmouth’s carbon output to achieve zero net carbon emissions), or just increasing awareness of environmental issues that are important to you, keep in mind that there really are no exclusively environmental issues anymore. The environment is never unrelated to social justice, healthcare, education, popular culture, or politics.

A significant theme of many of our initiatives has been to reduce waste. As college students, waste reduction is an issue very much within our control. Minor modifications to the way we eat in the dining halls and what we choose to buy and throw can all belie the “There Is No Alternative,” frenzied consumptive habits dominating American culture. Sustainable Dartmouth has not been laboring in solitude on this issue by any means. As you have probably noticed, two highly visible efforts have been carried out by the Sustainable Dining Committee under the auspices of the Sustainability Office. Food Court has been separating waste to increase the amount of food packaging that can be recycled and has begun composting, rather than discarding, uneaten food behind the scenes. At Homeplate, students have been doing most of the sorting. The compost goes to a large facility and is currently being applied in some of Dartmouth’s landscaping. The eventual hope for the compost is that it will be used as fertilizer for growing crops. However, at present the level of plastic contamination is too high, and so the compost is not yet ready for cultivation. Another active group is the Sustainable Dining Club, also organized by the Sustainability Office, which issued Tupperware and silverware. The current membership and activity in this sustainability program has been optimal; typically almost all of the large Tupperware containers are used at the end of each meal time.

SD’s plans for the future of the Move-Out are to integrate it fully into the year’s events and increase participation. With continued support, we look forward to the process only getting smoother and more efficient at reducing waste and raising money. And it would be good if the sale’s items get kitschier each passing year; no one can resist kitsch. Look for the collection this coming spring, and hold on to donation-worthy items instead of throwing them out. Many ideas for expanding the sale have been proposed so there’s plenty of opportunity to get involved with Sustainable Dartmouth. Just blitz ‘Sustain’ or come to meetings at Casque and Gauntlet at 8pm on Tuesdays.