A small college with a big impact

Award-winning campus initiatives, students seeking hope, and a young business owner making a difference

Last week I visited Dickinson College, a small liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, where I had the honour of receiving their Sam Rose and Julie Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism. Dickinson has been recognized as the most sustainable small liberal arts college in the country for six consecutive years, and I wanted to share some of what I learned and saw there with you here!

GOOD NEWS

Me at Dickinson Farm (left) and students sharing info about the campus bike share program (right)

At Dickinson, sustainability is part of everyday life, thanks to the school’s Center for Sustainability Education. Throughout the week, students told me how programs like their free clothing exchange and The Handlebar bike initiative make it easy to make good choices. There are reusable to-go containers — dubbed EcoTainers — available in the campus dining hall. And there’s even a residence hall called the Treehouse that sustainability-minded students call home – I had breakfast there one day!

It’s not only about reducing emissions: the commitment to sustainability extends into education as well. Each student is required to take at least one sustainability course from more than 50 available options in order to graduate. (The school also offers 130 other courses with a sustainability component.) And many students go beyond the one-course requirement: half of all graduating students have taken four or more sustainability courses.

Dickinson also runs an 80-acre organic farm that supplies fresh produce to the school’s dining hall as well as local restaurants, a food bank, and members with a farm share subscription. Products made from farm ingredients — including strawberry jam, salsa, and beef jerky— can be purchased at this online store. (I brought some honey home with me!)

Last year, after years of effort and grant writing, they were finally able to install a biodigester that turns food waste from the school’s dining hall and manure from 150 local dairy cows into biogas. This generates between 200,000 to 300,000 kWh of renewable electricity each year. After powering the farm, the energy is sold back to a local power company. That’s at least three wins!

NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS

Despite all the ways Dickinson students can participate in climate action, many still feel overwhelmed and don’t know what more they can do. In my time on campus, I led four student discussions and one workshop, and taught five classes — and in every single one, regardless of the topic, the top two questions students asked me were, “Where do you find hope?” and “What can I do to make a difference? Because I don’t feel like I can.”

Lindsey Treon Lyons, Dickinson’s Director of Sustainability Learning, hears about this firsthand. "I see how the effects of climate change are causing stress and anxiety throughout their everyday lives, and the volume of their worries for our planet and its people are intensifying,” she said. “At times, they become stalled and the ability to ignite action is blocked. The head, heart and hands are present, but not connected.”

Dickinson students aren’t alone in feeling this way. Last month, the Lancet Planet Health published the largest climate and mental health survey of U.S. youth aged 16 to 25. 58 percent of respondents said they were very or extremely worried about climate change, and 85 said they were at least moderately worried. Almost half said climate change was impacting their mental health, and a third said thoughts about the climate “negatively affect their daily life.”

The results of a similar survey conducted in the UK were even more stark: there, 71 percent of respondents said they were “quite or very concerned about climate change” and 90 percent said that climate change had “impacted their mental health and well-being in the preceding four weeks.”

“This is our future, and we’re watching it be destroyed,” one student wrote. “There has been so much damage and loss of life as a result of climate change that I feel as though I’m becoming numb to it — it’s just the new normal, especially for my generation,” said another. The despair students are feeling is real, and we collectively as a society need to do more to address it.

INSPIRATION OF THE MONTH

The sign outside Ecoasis (left), Giovanni in his shop (middle), and the outside of the shop (left)

While visiting Dickinson, I had the chance to stop by Ecoasis, a waste-free refill shop launched earlier this year by nineteen-year-old Giovanni Andreoli. Giovanni’s motto, “Use less for longer,” is at the heart of his store, which offers a wide range of eco-friendly products.

From reusable containers and secondhand clothing to eco-friendly alternatives to saran wrap and aluminum foil, this zero-waste store has something for everyone. It also features a refill bar, for essentials like laundry detergent, fabric softener, stain remover, glass cleaner, body wash, shampoo, lotion, and more. And this semester, Giovanni led a soap-making workshop for Dickinson students.

If you’re inspired by Ecoasis, why not check out your own local zero-waste store—and don’t forget to make your choice contagious by telling others about it! Many grocery stores now offer refill stations too. Supporting these businesses is a simple yet impactful way to reduce waste and promote sustainable living.