Hampshire College
EN-4: Outreach Materials and Publications

The Sustainable Hampshire website consolidates information about sustainability initiatives at Hampshire College, organized within four key transition areas: healthy food, sustainable operations, creative curriculum, and cultural transition. Healthy Food Transition: The goal of this transition is to re-evaluate the Hampshire College farm center, dining services, and land use. This section of the website provides information about the ongoing process of transforming campus dining services. It also highlights the 210-member Hampshire Farm Center Community Supported Agriculture program; Mixed-Nuts, the student-run food co-op; the summer Food, Farm, and Sustainability Institute; and a National Science Foundation grant awarded to professors Jason Tor and Chris Jarvis to develop curriculum around food fermentation. Sustainable Operations Transition: The goal of this transition is to reduce the college’s environmental footprint and costs, and manage the campus and the built environment as both laboratory and classroom. This section of the website provides information about on-going operations sustainability initiatives, such as the climate action plan; the Zip-Car program; installation of a roof-top solar-canopy with 2,880 square feet of photovoltaic modules; fundraising for renovation to achieve LEED certification of the building housing the indoor sports center and café; collaboration with the Hitchcock center to explore sites on campus to build a state-of-the-art environmental education center; participation in the Five College Blue Sky Sustainability Initiative; and the sustainability revolving fund, which provides loans for campus improvement projects that benefit Hampshire’s sustainability by improving efficiency and conserving resources. This website also offers tips for reducing environmental impacts in campus offices. Creative Curriculum Transition: The goal of this transition is to provide Hampshire's extraordinary faculty and intrepid students time and resources to develop and experiment with courses and projects that spark discovery and solve problems in the connections among mind, art, science, health, enterprise, and social change in the anthropocene era, and challenge students in every discipline to consider their role in human survival. This part of the website lists areas of study, recent courses and student projects, and Five College programs and certificates related to sustainability. It also highlights the Food Farm and Sustainability Institute held at Hampshire College during the summer, women alums working in sustainability, and earth science education at Hampshire. Cultural Transition: The goal of this transition is to enable every member of the Hampshire community to experience a workable way of life for the 21st century. This section of the website highlights a student-initiated ban on bottled water sales on campus, a high-efficiency LED light-bulb exchange program, and the college’s community garden.

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The Sustainable Hampshire Facebook Page provides information about sustainability issues and events on campus and beyond. For example, recent posts solicited applications for the summer Food, Farm and Sustainability Institute; linked to an article about green initiatives in a neighboring town; and highlighted a Hampshire student Division III project (similar to an honors thesis) about small foot-print housing. The Hampshire College Farm and CSA Facebook page is one of the college's most "Liked" facebook sites and is also used to share information about sustainability related topics. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hampshire-College-Farm-and-CSA/255646581121327?ref=hl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HampshireCollegeFarm/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/270928158/hampshire-college-farm-and-csa/

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The R.W. Kern Center, part of the Living Building Challenge and located on campus, contains signage that educates the community about sustainability and special features incorporated into the design of the building. The development and continued use of this building is an educational hub of Hampshire’s commitment to the practice of sustainability. https://www.buildingos.com/s/hampshire/KernCenter/?chapterId=1246 Hydration stations installed on five water fountains record and display the number of bottles filled and thus the number of plastic bottled diverted from the waste stream. Above water fountains and hydration stations, signs are posted about the student-initiated ban on bottled water sales on campus and the benefits of drinking tap water rather than purchasing bottled water. Additionally, water fountains and hydration stations in five buildings have signs comparing the results of water testing in that building against the EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels for turbidity, fluorine, chlorine, antimony, lead, nitrate, cadmium, and arsenic. http://www.hampshire.edu/news/Students-Test-of-Water-Quality-Taps-into-Excellent-Results-26130.htm Article on Hampshire website about bottled water ban and hydration stations: http://www.hampshire.edu/news/No-More-Bottled-Water-Sales-at-Hampshire-24719.htm

Instructional and educational signage about the composting and recycling systems is clearly posted where students clear their plates. Items are labeled appropriately as "low carbon", "vegan", "vegetarian", "local", and "Hampshire College Farm". Food Farm and Sustainability Program: http://sites.hampshire.edu/ffs/ Our dinning common has large chalkboard signs with the list of local farms that are featured on the menu that day including the Hampshire College Farm. Large pictures from the Hampshire College Farm center are displayed throughout the space. Our food service provider Bon Appetit Management Company is currently sourcing over 20% of food purchases from local farms and producers in pursuit of our 100% Local Foods Challenge: https://www.hampshire.edu/news/100-Percent-Local-Food-Challenge-at-Hampshire-College-27949.htm

There are a number of fields located on the eastern side of campus including the main entrance area which have been converted from mowed lawns to other uses, including managed agricultural lands for grassland birds, wildlife habitat corridors, and early successional habitat areas for endangered species (e.g., the New England cottontail). SIGNAGE: The meadowlands are identified with strategically placed signs that provide a history of land use in New England from Pre-Colonial times to present day. The signage also indicates the timeline for management and which species are benefiting from this specific sustainable groundskeeping approach. This project is achieving four objectives: 1. Greenhouse gas emissions reductions 2. Creation of wildlife and plant habitat 3. Teaching/learning and research opportunities 4. Cost savings Implementation: The plan was formulated through a combination of student independent studies, academic courses, specific facilities planning, agricultural land use analysis, community input, and collaboration with local, regional and federal conservation organizations, including the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, MA.

The Hampshire College Farm has a walking map and offers tours to groups large and small from the Hampshire College community and beyond. Visitors may submit a tour request for a staff lead tour with opportunities to speak directly with the vegetable and livestock managers. The farm tour touches on many sustainability related topics including organic growing methods, composting, low impact winter vegetable production in high tunnels, and sustainable livestock management. Over 40 tours have been given this past year. Casual visitors to the farm can access the farm map for a self guided tour. Additionally, a paperless interactive map is available here: https://map.hampshire.edu/

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Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash has been a regular contributing blogger on huffingtonpost.com since 2008. President Lash often writes about sustainability related issues in his blog posts about Hampshire college: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lash/mission-is-the-core-commi_b_5908068.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lash/educating-for-change_b_6257210.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lash/food-for-thought_9_b_6314852.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lash/the-healthy-food-transition_b_6333256.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lash/ideas-into-action_b_6652578.html

*1 - Sustainability initiatives are prominently featured in ALL newsletters, publications, and outreach efforts of the College. They are a prominent component of monthly letters (issued via email) from our president to all members of the campus community. *2 - There is no "main" student newspaper on our campus. However, sustainability is a dominant focus covered in the college's New and Events page and through coverage of relevant research: https://www.hampshire.edu/related-tags/sustainability https://www.hampshire.edu/sustainable/sustainability-research *3 - We feature stories about student research in sustainability, as well as student projects, in ALL of our communications vehicles; Hampshire's learning model is filled with hands-on student projects. They are also featured on our website areas of study webpages relevant to their topics (see example in URL space below). Our "Educating for Change" blog: http://sites.hampshire.edu/educatingforchange/category/sustainability/ News & Events: http://www.hampshire.edu/index_news.htm News@hampshire, e-newsletter for all college constituents, both off and on campus: https://www.hampshire.edu/news/newshampshire-e-newsletter Non Satis Scire, our College/alumni magazine: https://www.hampshire.edu/news/2017/12/01/non-satis-scire-hampshires-alumni-magazine-fall-2017 Articles on the Hampshire Website that engage with sustainability: https://www.hampshire.edu/related-tags/sustainability *4 - Commuter resources website has a section on transportation that includes information on Hampshire's Zipcar program, as well as Hampshire's bike shop where bikes are rented and repaired, and the Yellow Bike community program that offers free bikes, painted yellow and placed around campus. http://www.hampshire.edu/studentlife/18709.htm *5 - Yellow Bike is a student organized community bicycle program. Yellow Bike repairs donated bikes, paints them yellow, and releases them onto campus. The yellow bikes are created with the intention of being used as well as maintained by the entire Hampshire community. In order to do this Yellow Bike holds weekly meetings where the basics of bike maintenance are taught. Yellow Bike counts on members of the community with bicycle maintenance experience as well as those with no bicycle maintenance experience to come to Yellow Bike and share their knowledge with each other in order to create an environment of collaboration, understanding, and respect for different kinds of knowledge. https://hampedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Bike *6 - There are several housing options on campus which model sustainable living for other students. Greenhouse Mod, Enfield 46: A place for growing plants and food, learning about environmental sustainability, and for events that bring the Hampshire community together. Transition Mods, Greenwich 17 and 18: A Transition Hampshire initiative that aims at creating an intentionally open, inclusive, and resilient living space by encompassing individualized definitions of the word "sustainable." Vegan Mod, Greenwich 19: A living community of vegans/vegetarians who see it not only as a diet but as a lifestyle. Upcycling Mod, Greenwich 20: A mod that will work to integrate art and sustainability in the Hampshire community, by educating students on the importance of reusing and repurposing, and organizing a series of sustainable art projects and events. The Environmental Justice and Sustainability Living and Learning Community (LLC) is co-sponsored by the dean of students office and office of the President. The LLC introduces participating students to the healthy food systems, campus operations, creative curricula, and innovations in campus life that comprise the foundation of the Sustainable Hampshire initiative. Residents of the LLC are introduced to Div II and Div III peers, faculty and staff, and local community partners connected to this work and to other environmental justice and sustainability efforts in the Pioneer Valley. https://www.hampshire.edu/housing/guide-to-housing https://www.hampshire.edu/housing/residence-life-and-housing https://www.hampshire.edu/housing/intentional-housing-communities