“It should just be the standard,” Yael Afalo, CEO of Reformation, a sustainable women’s clothing line based in Los Angeles said in a blog post for Time. “I hope that, moving forward, sustainability isn’t seen as an added bonus for companies.” By every measure, the global fashion industry is a goliath. Valued at nearly $2.4…
The St. Paul City Council voted 5–2 on March 6 to approve the controversial “Green to Go” ordinance that would ban non-compostable and non-recyclable takeout containers at restaurants and convenience stores. The ordinance will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021. The ban exempts franchises of national chains like Denny’s, Noodles & Company and McDonald’s, in…
In an effort to lower the college’s carbon footprint and bring healthier food to campus, Macalester joined the Real Food Challenge (RFC) in the fall of 2012. After seven years of complications, arduous data entry and few results, the Sustainability Committee is reconsidering that commitment. “I don’t want us to sign something and then say,…
Miscalculations made early in the projection process could derail Macalester’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2025. In 2007, President Brian Rosenberg signed onto the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), committing to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest. Two years later, relying on the calculations of an environmental studies senior…
Macalester has long prided itself on its commitment to sustainability. But a new external review suggests that a number of systemic problems are imperiling the college’s ability to accomplish its more ambitious sustainability objectives. In June of 2014, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation awarded Macalester the Educating Sustainability Ambassadors (ESA) grant to support its faculty…
Standing in front of the prairie behind the Olin-Rice Science Center on September 12, two students – Collin Dobie ’19, dressed in a beekeeping suit, and Aubrey Arnt ’21, wearing a bee costume – officially inaugurated Macalester’s new Pollinator Path. The Pollinator Path is a Sustainability Office initiative to create a map outlining the eight…
Did you know there’s a hallway on campus that saves 600 pounds of waste a month and fights inequality at the same time? That hallway is the MacFreeSwap. The MacFreeSwap is a Sustainability Office program which allows students to donate items they no longer need to pick up items that others have donated. It’s a…
Macalester has placed fourth in this year’s RecycleMania, the annual challenge that compares the percentage of waste diverted from landfills to composting or recycling facilities at over 150 schools across the nation. The fourth-place ranking, achieved by diverting 79 percent of the college’s waste, is the best that Macalester has ever earned during its years…
Gina McCarthy, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Barack Obama, spoke last Thursday in Kagin Commons as the Lectures Coordination Board (LCB) spring speaker. During her time in charge of the EPA, McCarthy – who is now a professor at Harvard University – made significant progress on initiatives to cut…
By Molly Flerlage, Suzanne Savanick Hansen, Lydia Sulik [email protected][email protected][email protected] Students have long formed the backbone of sustainability efforts at Macalester through student organizations, work study positions, student government, and academic projects. Their efforts lead to policy changes, projects and sustainability education. As the Sustainability Office turns 10 years old this winter, the Sustainability…
