CLU people who care about food don’t just talk the talk. Students in Dr. Ritterbush’s seminar on Alternative Food grow their own organic vegetables, belong to a CSA, and garner tips from local farmers.
On April 14, CLU students carried buckets of water across campus as a stand in solidarity to raise awareness about how the lack of access to clean water in the developing world perpetuates poverty and places a burden on women and girls. CLU was one of 23 universities with 1500 total nationwide participants in the event, Be Hope to Her (BH2O+).
Photo courtesy of Ventura County Star
As a result of the efforts from the BH2O+ event, Nuru International is able to dig two new wells in the Nyangiti village and in the town of Isibania. Villagers in Nyangiti have been forced to use polluted natural springs and rivers and are eagerly anticipating a safe, clean water source. Water is very scarce for families in the town of Isibania, and their only water has come from polluted shallow wells. Nuru is ensuring that clean water stays in the community for generations to come, and individuals like the 1500 who joined us for BH2O+ are making our work possible.
On Friday, March 19, a group of students volunteered with the CLU Community Service Center and the National Park Service in Solstice Canyon (part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area).
After the 2007 fires, biologists have been working to ensure that the native vegetation is able to re-establish its place in the ecosystem before the nonnative, invasive species are able to dominate. With plenty of guidance and expertise from park rangers, students planted seedlings and gave them a good drink of water, weeded the area of the nonnative plant Euphorbia esula L. (common name: leafy spurge), viewed some of the experiment sites the biologists were monitoring, and hiked up to the waterfalls and “Tropical Terrace” (the remains of the Roberts family home). Having personal biologists with the team enriched the group’s understanding of the importance of this work and the role humans play in helping conserve the local ecology that we enjoy.
While many students attended for general interest, several joined in as part of or relating to an academic class (Community Gardening, Environmental Ethics).
CLU is working with Cal Edison, to implement Powersave software on our campus. The pilot test has involved installing the software in the computer labs. The March reports for the Macs and Windows PC’s show a lot of promise to save money and electricity!
Sustainability is difficult to define. It includes everything – which means that it often ends up sounding like nothing. But it’s not just a buzzword (though it’s also a buzzword). The new CLU Sustainability website is about what we here at CLU mean by sustainability – how we imagine a more sustainable campus, community, and world, and how we enact our ideas in everyday life.
This blog is dedicated to publicizing an array of perspectives on sustainability from around the campus. We hope you’ll read it, check back often, and send in your own contributions.
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