Pitzer College
EN-3: Student Life

Redford Conservancy Fellows
ReRoom Initiative
Garden & Composting Club
Green Bicycle Program
Pitzer Fridge
Pitzer Green Initiative Fund
Green Cardio Equipment

Pitzer students have the opportunity to gain experience in organic agriculture on-campus, as part of the Garden & Composting club, and off-campus, via volunteering with our community partner, Huerta del Valle, Amys Farm and Lopez Farm. Students also run a CSA that collaborates with several local farms and sells box subscriptions to our campus community at various financial levels. Our students have

The Pitzer Green Initiative Fund seeks to engage students in social responsibility and environmental sustainability by encouraging innovative and creative solutions to environmental problems. The PGIF Grant Committee, comprised of student voting members and faculty/staff advisers, provides one-time grants to students for sustainability initiatives on campus.

Pitzer's ReRoom Initiative is a student-lead initiative that aims to promote a culture of sustainability on campus through the collection and reuse of used items donated by Pitzer College residents at the end of each semester. All proceeds from ReRoom sales go toward supporting student sustainability initiatives.

We have funding through the Redford Conservancy for green initiatives as well as from our Facilities and Sustainability committee. Students are also able take courses in green finance through the economics department.

Robert Redford Conservancy events:
September 30: Environmental Racism and Climate Justice Guest speaker Michael Mendez and Julie Sze

March 17th: Climate Change & Southern California’s Water Justice, Guest speaker Camille Pannu, Sullivan Lecture Benson Auditorium

April 5th: Wildfire rumors and denial in the Trump Era. Guest speaker Laura Pulido
May 5th: From Dirt Cheap to Soil Rich- Regenerative Land Use
October 20: Sageing the World Guest Speaker Rose Ramirez


Pitzer Garden
April: Garden Club info session vermiculture, composting Earth Day 2022

In 2022 Pitzer hosted an art gallery exhibition and talk by Lauren Bon, a renowned environmental artist, who discussed her work on the Los Angeles River, created an environmental installation on campus involving native plants, and had a living exhibition in our gallery emphasizing ecological histories and possibilities. https://www.pitzer.edu/communications/2022/11/21/environmental-artist-lauren-bon-reimagines-la-river-for-pepper-distinguished-visiting-artist-lecture/

The Pitzer Multi-Species Commons develops a new way to sense, understand and interact with our urban ecosystems as a multi-species commons — and it creatively rethinks the capacities of landscape design, commons practices, subsistence practices, urbanism, public art, and the ecology of public space. We developed this landscape program over a two year period under the auspices of the Art + Environment Visiting Artist initiative: http://www.spurse.org/what-weve-done/pitzer-multi-species-commons/

Pitzer offers Orientation Adventure programs to all incoming students and these programs all follow Leave No Trace principles. Additionally, the Pitzer Outdoor Adventure club organizes recreational outings that also follow these principles.

Pitzer also hosts the Leadership in Environmental Education program for fourth and fifth graders where our students are educators that teach them stewardship of the land around the Bernard Biological Field Station.

https://www.pitzer.edu/redfordconservancy/environmental-education/

Orientation Adventure (OA) is the off-campus component of Pitzer’s new student orientation program. Student participants spend four days on excursions with 10-15 of their peers in, above, and around the Los Angeles Basin and the greater Southern California area. Sustainability focused OAs include: Sustainability in Action and Social Justice in Action

Sustainability in Action
Through hands-on experiences, students will be introduced to the complexities of sustainability issues in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Participants will visit local urban farms, markets, and other community projects, explore Ojai via a farm to fork restaurant, experience a beekeeping workshop, and learn to make kombucha. Folks who have spent years working on sustainability issues and folks to whom this is a new issue will all feel welcome on this trip. Participants will cook and taste a variety of locally grown and harvested foods, including goat cheeses and produce from sustainable farms in the LA area. Two nights will be spent sleeping in community spaces near Pitzer and one night will be spent camping outside under the stars.

Social Justice in Action
This trip will introduce participants to critical social and cultural issues in the Los Angeles Basin and Inland Empire. But, it won’t stop there. Through collaborating with Pitzer’s Community Engagement Center and their community partners, participants will tap into relationships that Pitzer has taken years foster and begin to define for themselves what local social justice issues they feel most connected to. Not to mention, this is a jump start on Pitzer’s social responsibility graduation requirement. Splitting time between Pitzer, Claremont and Los Angeles, participants will gain well rounded perspective of their new home.

Our residence halls are both LEED certified one Platinum the other Gold, the moment students enter their dorm they are exposed to personal compost bins, clothes drying racks, rooftop gardens, bioswales and so forth, there is signage that explains the importance of these areas, but also the Pitzer experience is steeped in Environmental stewardship and therefor all our residence halls demonstrate sustainable living principles. https://www.pitzer.edu/communications/2013/09/30/pitzer-colleges-new-leed-certified-residence-halls-win-design-award/

The Redford Conservancy currently employs 20 student workers. Also, the ReRoom Initiative pays student staff members to collect, organize, and ultimately resell donated items at the end of every semester. For the most recent ReRoom sales (8/15), five students worked as paid staff.

-PowerDown: part of Campus Conservation Nationals, PowerDown is the name of the Claremont Colleges' energy reduction competition.

-ReSource: an initiative that provides compost bins and laundry drying racks to students for the year at no cost.