Geneseo Celebrates Campus Sustainability Month

Garlic scapes

Attendees listen to the 2017 President's Sustainability Lecture on survival after the age of chemicals. (SUNY Geneseo photo/Keith Walters '11)

Learn all about Geneseo's sustainability efforts with our interactive map.

October is Campus Sustainability Month at SUNY Geneseo and the College community is hosting a variety of lectures, workshops and events to raise awareness, spark discussion and promote personal involvement.

Campus Sustainability Month is an international celebration of sustainability in higher education, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

The month of activities is highlighted with a visit to campus by 18-year-old Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a leader in the indigenous environmental activist community, climate activist and hip-hop artist, who will deliver the President’s 2018 Sustainability Lecture. His lecture, “Roots of Revolution” is Wednesday, Oct. 10, at 2:30 p.m. in the MacVittie College Union Ballroom on the Geneseo campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Other events include a live podcast that will focus on food safety on Oct. 3, featuring microbiologists and food safety experts Donald W. Schaffner and Benjamin Chapman. Students of the Geneseo Environmental Organization and Office of Sustainability interns will collaborate with Campus Auxiliary Services for activities including the Oct. 24 New York Campus Crunch, when members of college campuses across the state all bite into an apple grown in New York to show support for local food production. New York is the second-largest producer of apples in the United States. 

Students will once again visit the 20-acre Roemer Arboretum on campus on Oct. 28 to create art from leaves, twigs and other objects found in nature for the Ephemeral Arts Festival. The art is temporary, but photographs of the creations are later displayed on campus.

Geneseo views sustainability through a comprehensive lens, encompassing environmental, social and other issues, including responsible consumption of resources, building partnerships for goals and working to reduce inequalities for health and education access. As such, programming for the College’s annual Cultural Harmony Week Oct. 14 through Oct. 19, is cross-promoted. This year, Harmony Week will focus on migrants and detention. More information is coming. 

Author

Kris Dreessen
Manager of Editorial Services
(585) 245-5516