California State University, Northridge
EN-3: Student Life

Sustainability Club

The Sustainability Club is a student-led organization that serves as liaisons' to the Institute for Sustainability. As a club, they advocate for the development, research, and promotion of sustainability within the student body of the university and its serving community.

CSUN has a campus compost site as well as three food gardens. These two facilitates are primarily run by students employed through the Institute for Sustainability and the Marilyn Magaram Center. Not only do these facilities serve the university to help reduce campus organic waste, but they also serve as educational opportunities for both internal and external community members to learn how to compost and garden.

Sustainable Garden Education Center:
Read more about this garden on our website:
https://www.csun.edu/sustainability/sustainable-garden-education-center

MMC Wellness Garden:
Read more about this garden on our website:
https://www.csun.edu/marilyn-magaram-center/mmc-wellness-garden

Jardin Tonatiuh
Read more about this garden on our website:
https://sundial.csun.edu/20509/news/chicano-house-opens-community-garden/

CSUN's Associated Students is a student run enterprise with funding from student fees. Associated Students (AS) is the primary advocate for students at California State University, Northridge and provides excellent, meaningful programs and services designed to enhance and create a spirited learning-focused campus environment.

AS is also the official seat of student governance for the campus. The Student Government division represents the student body, advocates its needs and defends its interests in dealings with faculty, campus administrators and government officials.

Students in Finance 437, Advanced Topics in Finance, had the opportunity to invest $250,000 to develop a “sustainable” portfolio that emphasizes financial sustainability, “Socially Responsible Investing”, and “Environmental, Social, Governance” investments. The Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s rankings of “The 100 Best Corporate Citizens” and a combination of other sustainability rankings lists were used to determine which strategies they use for investing. The portfolios, sponsored the CSUN Foundation and the University Corporation, gave students real-world experience as money managers and financial analysts. Each semester the class uses a different investment strategy to determine best practices for sustainable investments.

The class is taught by Dr. Mike Phillips, who has been a leader among CSU faculty in sustainable investing, including serving as the CSU representative for the Intentional Endowments Network and speaking at conferences on the topic of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Dr. Phillips is currently (spring 2017) on sabbatical researching and developing an open-source sustainability ranking system that will help improve the work done in sustainable investing.

CSUN hosts several events annually that are focused around sustainability. Some of these include Water Day every March, Earth Week every April, Sustainability Day every October, Energy and Water Conservation workshops, America Recycles Day every November, and Recyclemania.

CSUN's Art Department, through their Art Education program, has done several projects and pieces related to sustainability. More recently they have done projects on GMO's, fossil fuels, plastics in the ocean and toxic waste. They have also worked with the Associated Students to curate art pieces for the new Sustainability Center, which is an ongoing partnership and relationship.

They Valley Performing Arts Center has also brought in musical guests to do performances based around sustainability.

Since 2008, CSUN Outdoor Adventures (OA) has been providing unique recreational opportunities to the CSUN community. Through our Wilderness Outings, RIDGE Rockwall, rental center, team building program, workshops and clinics, Outdoor Leadership Program, and most recently Camp Matador, we provide awe-inspiring, transformative experiences to more than 6,000 students each year. The outdoor adventure programs follow the Leave No Trace principles and there are even workshops to teach students, staff and faculty about the concepts.

The Common Reading Program invites everyone on campus to think, talk, and learn together across and beyond the boundaries of the classroom by using the book as a starting point. As a new freshman, they are invited to read a book and to discuss it as part of a campus-wide community of readers.

These books tend to relate to one aspect of sustainability, two of the most notable ones that have been on the list over the last couple of years was Garbology and When They Call You a Terrorist

There are multiple departments on campus that focus on sustainability related education for students and regularly provide sustainable living workshops. In the last year, the Institute for Sustainability hosted events about gardening, protecting pollinators, electric vehicles, and more; Associated Students Sustainability hosted events related to zero waste living; the Marilyn Magaram Center for Nutrition and Dietetics hosted events related to healthy eating including vegetarian and seasonal cooking. To view examples of events that were held for Earth Month in 2021, visit this page: https://www.csun.edu/as/earth-monthMore information on these ongoing workshops can be found on the websites below:

Institute for Sustainability
https://www.csun.edu/sustainability/news-events

Associated Students Sustainability
https://www.csun.edu/as/calendar

Marilyn Magaram Center
https://www.csun.edu/marilyn-magaram-center/mmc-events

CSUN's Associated Students employs several students in their Sustainability Department which focuses primarily on education and outreach to their peers through events and various programs.

The Institute For Sustainability hires students to help promote on-campus sustainability, outreach, and coordinate events. Students also conduct sustainability and climate related research.