University of Rochester
EN-3: Student Life

Here are some of our sustainability-focused student groups:

Grassroots is a group of undergraduates committed to spreading the message of environmentally responsible living through events and publications.

Engineers for a Sustainable World is a group of undergraduates who are committed to the promotion of sustainability around campus through student lead projects, informative tours of local sustainable facilities, and participating in green awareness events in the Rochester area. They strive to implement green practices on a local scale.

Engineers Without Borders seeks to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life through the design and implementation of sustainable engineering projects.

Student Association of Vegan and Vegetarian Youth helps increase awareness, and provides support for vegetarians, vegans, and anyone who is interested in learning about how our dietary and lifestyle choices affect us and our environment. Using veganism and vegetarianism as an educational tool, SAVVY provides the encouragement and resources necessary to enable everyone to take an active role in making society ever better.

The Gilbert Community Garden is a student-run garden located on River Campus and overseen by the University of Rochester EcoReps Garden Committee. This is a permaculture garden that changes each year based on which plants the students that year wish to plant. When designing the garden, students research plant species to ensure that each plant group supports its counterparts.

The University of Rochester Community Engagement Committee works with St. Mark's and St. John's Episcopal Church, their community church in the city of Rochester. Their affiliation is non-religious, and instead connected to the urban vegetable gardens the church created to help alleviate food insecurity in the surrounding area. In addition to helping the church with marketing and administrative work related to the garden, the Community Engagement Committee also takes trips to the church to work in the garden itself.

Cameron Schauf, Director of Dining and Auxiliary Service at The University of Rochester works closely with a team of students known as Dining Team Green to implement and publicize sustainable food options throughout the campus. The team consists of two marketing interns, two Student Sustainability Coordinators, and one Student Sustainability Manager. They work on a number of sustainability initiatives for dining throughout the year, and serve as student liaisons between Dining Services and Rochester students.

Amy Kadrie, Sustainability Coordinator at the University of Rochester works with the three student staff positions: the sustainability assistant, sustainability writer, and sustainability marketing intern. Known as Facilities Team Green, the group’s mission is to increase education and awareness of sustainability among the University of Rochester community.

Envision was a virtual climate summit, open to the public, and completely free. Speakers included professors, local activists, officials from all levels of New York Government, and many more! Topics included Environmental Business Leadership, Atmospheric Modeling, and Social Vulnerability in Trans-Himalayan Ladakh, among others. There were several sessions of talks, workshops, and panels to attend virtually over Zoom on February 19th, 20th, and 21st, 2021.

The University of Rochester's Sustainability Seminar Series is incorporated into the course EES 310: Science and Sustainability, and is open to the general public. Faculty from around the University of Rochester and neighboring institutions give talks on a range of topics in the natural and social sciences that relate to environmental change.

The Memorial Art Gallery was founded in 1913 by Emily Sibley Watson as a memorial to her son, architect James Averell. Given in trust to the University of Rochester, it is one of the few university-affiliated art museums in the country that also serves as community art museum. The Memorial Art Gallery connects people with art in a welcoming and stimulating environment through its permanent collection, temporary exhibitions and public programs.

The University of Rochester Outing Club is a group of students dedicated to experiencing and getting in touch with our environment through backpacking expeditions, white water rafting, climbing, and many other trips. The group follows a "Leave No Trace Behind" principle.

EcoReps are a group of 20-35 enthusiastic incoming first-years with a desire to promote change. The EcoReps are guided by two upperclassmen student leaders who are experienced in on-campus environmental efforts and who have both themselves gone through the EcoReps Program.

EcoReps educate the students in their halls on environmental issues like waste reduction and energy conservation by designing and updating informational boards and planning hall events. The EcoReps are taught about sustainability through an EcoReps class, which meets twice a week for either a lecture, discussion, or program meeting and covers many topics including recycling, energy, and climate change.

For more information:
http://www.rochester.edu/sustainability/ecoreps/faqs.html

GreenSpace is the University of Rochester's first special interest housing opportunity dedicated to living a sustainable lifestyle. Students interested in making daily choices with the environment in mind can now interact with and learn from like-minded people regularly. Their mission is to come together, learn from one another, and do their best to lead lives of environmental consciousness. They are committed to forming a presence on campus that raises awareness and encourages others to make the simple changes that members make each day in order to live as sustainably as possible.

Dining Team Green is a small group of hired interns who work for Dining Services on sustainability and serves as a liaison between Dining Services and the student population. Their current and ongoing projects include the Eco-Clamshell, the food labeling system, Meatless Monday, local purchasing, composting, Local Foods Week once a semester, and promoting reusable mugs and bags on campus.

Facilities Team Green is managed by the University of Rochester Recycling Coordinator. The Recycling Coordinator works to promote sustainability, decrease the University’s solid waste output, and increase the amount of material recycled, reused, or eliminated from the waste stream. The three student staff positions that support the Sustainability Coordinator are the sustainability assistant, the sustainability writer, and the sustainability marketing intern. The sustainability assistant continuously develops the University’s recycling and sustainability programs, increases awareness and education about sustainability on campus, and drafts applications for awards, among other projects. The sustainability writer reports sustainability news to the University community through Go Green articles. The sustainability marketing intern creates promotional material and helps lead events such as the annual RecycleMania competition.

The University sponsors sustainability-related summer internships for students enrolled in undergraduate programs. These programs range from sustainability research, reviewing the final draft of a novel, helping to develop new courses, as well as biofuel research to list a few.