A blog about sustainability efforts and the community garden at Williston

From Gutter To Ground

I really love carrots. Sweet and crunchy, they make a delicious snack fresh from the garden. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could harvest carrots before the school year ends?” I proposed to the Sustainable Life Club when we were planning what to plant for spring. Wondering how we could start to grow carrots even when it was too cold outside for the carrots to germinate, Ms. Lucia, the club advisor, gave the idea of planting carrots in gutters.   Continue reading

Where Does Your Water Go?

We forget about it at the moment it swirls down the drain, as if it were sucked into a dark hole of endless space: once out of sight, it is out of mind. This is how many of us, myself included, think when we take showers or brush our teeth, but is this really how we should think about the water that we use? Shouldn’t we know where our water leads and what happens there? In this article, we will unravel the path across your pipes and the where it goes. Once experiencing the result of your water’s travel, you will believe that every flush counts.

Even though it is a small town, Easthampton produces massive amounts of waste, purifying anywhere from about 1.5 million to 8 million gallons of water in a day. The process of cleaning this dirty water expends many resources itself and it begins with you, when you use water.

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Green Cup Challenge Update

Green Cup Challenge Week 3 Results

Before we make the announcement all of you are waiting for, you should first check out an amazing video made for the Green Cup Challenge by Alex Kozikowski ’14. You can view all of the videos and cast your vote here.

These past two weeks have yielded excellent results for most dorms on campus. The Mid-Winter Break helped dorms because most dorms on campus were empty for several days. With only one week to go, the pressure is mounting to see who saved the most energy.

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Dining Hall Goes Green

Just a few weeks ago, I brought my plate up to the dirty dish belt, where I normally throw away my napkin, but there was no garbage can. I considered throwing away my napkin into the silverware bin. Soon, I found a small sign that said, “We are now composting. Napkins and food stay on your plate.” I immediately thought that my efforts to push the dining hall to get a composting system had finally succeeded.

The Sustainable Life Club had been urging the dining hall to get a composting system installed for a few months. I remember Mr. Martin telling me that it was too costly for what they would be able to compost, but the last time that they considered composting was a few years ago. I thought that the club would have to put on a fundraiser so that we could raise money to bring the composting system into the dining hall.