Washington and Lee University
EN-3: Student Life

1. The Student Environmental Action League (SEAL) "aims to increase environmental awareness among students, promote campus sustainability, and inform students about environmental service opportunities. In addition, we give students opportunities to participate actively in improving the environment, both globally and locally." The group is funded by the Student Executive Committee, the university’s entity for funding student organizations, and they have monthly full-body meetings, as well as monthly officers meetings. They have a full agenda of activities each year.
2. Engineering Community Development: Engineering Community Development combines efforts of all majors to make a positive impact on communities locally and abroad. They are currently working with the Office of sustainability to build new garden beds in the Campus Garden that will be designated specifically for student use.
3. The Campus Kitchen Program combats food waste and food insecurity through food recovery. Students operate all aspects of this program for recovering and/or growing food to delivering it to food insecure members of the community (Rockbridge County, VA).
4. The Compost Crew is comprised of students who reduce food waste by picking up food scraps from all venues on campus and delivering them to our on-site composting system.

W&L's half-acre Campus Garden provides an average of 1500 pounds of hyper-local, organically grown produce to campus dining venues, the student food pantry, and, in partnership with W&L's Campus Kitchen, to food insecure communities throughout Rockbridge County, every season. The space also serves as a living lab for research and place-based course work, and an informal space for connecting with the basics of how we, and the soil we eat from, are nourished.

Campus Garden operations also include the university composting system, where food and compostable to-go servingware collected from Dining are managed to break down into rich compost material that is ultimately added back to the garden to nourish the soil. Supervised by our Campus Garden Manager, students are hands-on in planting, tending, and harvesting produce and in finishing the cycle through compost collection and application.

The garden also includes plots available to student organizations that wish to grow produce that connects with their organizational mission.

https://my.wlu.edu/sustainability/climate-action#food

The Conolly Entrepreneurship Society is a dynamic, student-led organization dedicated to fostering the spirit of innovation and enterprise. As a hub for budding entrepreneurs, the society is actively involved in creating and nurturing startups and providing members with practical, hands-on experience in the world of business creation. The society also delves deep into the intricacies of crowdfunding and venture capital, equipping students with the knowledge and skills to navigate the financial landscape of entrepreneurship.
Additionally, the society showcases its talent and competes for prestige by participating in national pitch competitions against other university groups. This engagement not only hones the entrepreneurial skills of its members but also places them in a national arena, offering valuable exposure and networking opportunities. CES is not just a group but a launchpad for tomorrow's business leaders, embodying the innovative spirit and academic excellence of Washington & Lee University.
In winter 2023 CES launched a Sustainable Business Track. This track group is focused specifically on exploring gaps in sustainability on campus and researching potential businesses that could fill those gaps. Work culminates in a year-end pitch presentation. Spring 2023 pitches were presented to an audience that included the director of sustainability, the director of facilities operations and maintenance and the director of dining. One of the pitches, for a campus food leftover app, is being developed for implementation now. https://my.wlu.edu/the-williams-school/departments-and-programs/connolly-center-for-entrepreneurship/connolly-entrepreneurship-society

W&L does have a student investment fund which includes ESG considerations in its work, but it is not specifically a sustainable investment venture.

W&L is very fortunate to benefit from a near-constant stream of excellent speakers and symposia, regularly including sustainability related topics. The University's Mudd Center for Ethics hosts annual speakers series which include not just talks but readings, gatherings and discussion groups. The 21-22 Season. "Daily Ethics," including the following speakers:
Chantal Bilodeau, "Living in the Questions of a Climate-Changed World"
Andrew Chignell, "What to Do When You Don't Make a Difference"
Jay Whitacre, "The Criticality of Technical Honesty in Growing Energy Technology Companies: How Even the Best Intentions Can Lead to Ruin"
Neeru Pharia, "The Ethics of Consumer Choice"
Katharine Hayhoe, "Environmental Ethics Right Now: Individual, Collective, Local, and Global Actions That Matter"
This year's program, "Ethics of Design," has featured the following:
Danielle Wood, "Design for Sustainability on Earth and Space"
Elgin Cleckley, "_mpathic design: Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces"
George Aye, "That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide"
Candy Change, "Designing Space for Uncertainty"

https://my.wlu.edu/mudd-center
The Just Food series, sponsored by the Campus Kitchens Program also offers a sustained examination of sustainability issues through the lens of food - production and consumption. Talks topics this year have included "Food and Social Entrepreneurship," "Food and Cultural Development," "Food and the Jewish Diaspora," as well as a film screening of "Seeds of Vandana Shiva" and an Indigenous Community Meal.
https://my.wlu.edu/the-shepherd-program/community-engagement/campus-kitchen-at-washington-and-lee/events/just-food-23-24

This fall W&L's Staniar Gallery hosted the exhibition "Proposals" by Mary Mattingly.
New York-based artist Mary Mattingly works in various media to explore issues around sustainability, climate change, and consumerism. She is best known for creating sculptural ecosystems such as Swale, a floating food forest that was open to the public as it traveled through the harbors of New York City. The exhibition in Staniar Gallery will present a series of photographs and sculptures from an ongoing series in which the artist wraps up collections of personal objects into dense bundles that comment on consumption, waste, and the environment. Mattingly's work has been exhibited at institutions such as Socrates Sculpture Park, International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, Palais de Tokyo, Seoul Art Center among many others. She has been profiled in various documentaries and publications such as Art21 and The New York Times. Mattingly is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and other notable grants include the James L. Knight Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, and New York Foundation for the Arts.

Mary Mattingly came to campus to deliver an artist's talk and spent time with studio art classes, facilitating incorporation of the exhibition and its themes into student work.
https://my.wlu.edu/staniar-gallery/current-season/mary-mattingly-proposals

The Outing Club’s mission statement says, “W&L Outing Club promotes the safe, low-impact exploration of the mountains, rivers, and trails of the southeast.” The Outing Club offers a place for positive, healthy interactions between all students, faculty, and staff without the pressures that often accompany any social or academic activity. It also teaches skills while enabling student leaders.

W&L offers pre-orientation for all incoming first year students. Two of the trips have sustainability as the main theme.

W&L hosts a sustainability themed workshop in a series called "Life After College" where we educate juniors/seniors sustainable life skills once they are out on their own.
For "self serve" information, the Office of Sustainability has built a "How -to" section into the website, offering quick tips across a variety of topics: https://my.wlu.edu/sustainability

We have opportunities for Sustainability Interns in the Office of Sustainability. Internships include Sustainability Interns, focused on data, strategy and programming, Compost Crew Interns, managing the student led portion of the campus compost operations, and Campus Garden Interns, who work in the garden and oversee and train other garden volunteers. All internships are paid, either though the departmental budget or the work study program.

Washington and Lee University does not require students to make a pledge concerning environmental responsibility upon graduation.