Combined Efforts for Sustainability

Any regular of Ithaca College might see a student trying to eat on of the "plastic" spoons available on campus...okay, maybe that's just my friends. These spoons were just another part of Ithaca College's sustainability initiative. The spoons are made out of corn thus why us clever college students see if we can eat it.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 22nd, Ithaca College will be celebrating Campus Sustainability Day in and around the campus center. There will be food, fun and Earth-saving information for all!

Along with the celebration is the new sustainability initiative by Ithaca College's dining services called PLANit. Tomorrow, dining services will promote their motto, "The future is in our hands" through the trayless dining pilot which promises to produce less food waste, conserve water and energy and lower the college's green house gas emissions.

The sustainability initiative is not only a campus-wide incentive but a combination of efforts throughout the city of Ithaca, Tompkins County and Ithaca College. The Sustainable Ithaca City Blog offers an outlet for the city, town and both Ithaca College and Cornell University to blog about the sustainable happenings around the area.

The Tompkins County Website for sustainability is an active site that promotes local community efforts; provides a list of community events related to sustainability; and gives an in-depth overview about accomplishments, expectations and suggestions for Ithaca's desire to be as sustainable as possible.


One of the biggest proponents of sustainability at Ithaca College is the sustainability living community of Terrace 2. This year is the first year that the whole dorm has gone sustainable. The first week of the semester the students, Resident Assistants and Resident Director of Terrace 2 went on a tour of all the sustainable places around Ithaca. They visited such places as Green Star, the SewGreen organization at the Women's Community Building and the Ithaca Farmer's Market.

The students of this community have joined into building, marketing and recruiting subcommittees - to name a few - in order to promote sustainability throughout the campus as well as to suggest ways in which Ithaca College can become more sustainable. They hold community dinners every other Sunday of the month at which six students cook sustainable dinners, and they have a community meeting every month where they discuss new options for the future of sustainability at Ithaca.

Below, students of Terrace 2 engage in discussion about sustainable action:


Some important topics that were brought up at the meetings were heating in the dorms, lights in the hallways that are always on and alternative transportaion such as carpooling, taking the bus, riding a bike or the Ithaca Carshare program.

So come join us tomorrow to be one step closer to a sustainable future! And I promise you won't have to eat a spoon.

-Jillian Rubin