Celebrate Sustainability week 2022 brought together hundreds of Yale community members with a shared desire to build a more sustainable campus and planet.
At more than 30 events over seven days, students, staff, faculty, and members of the public planted trees and ivy, cooked a plant-forward lunch, swapped books, learned about the new federal climate law, donated hygiene items to neighbors in need, painted traffic bollards for pedestrian safety, viewed museum exhibits about environmental change and food production, and so much more.
Despite a stretch of raw, rainy weather early in the week, attendees flocked to the mix of virtual and in-person events, touring the Yale farm for a “lunch and learn,” dropping into a community meditation, and seeking tips to declutter (and de-stress) their lives. The week ended on a sunny note on Friday, with a planting party on Cross Campus that let participants use Yale Landscape and Grounds’ new zero-emissions power tools to plant ivy and bulbs that will beautify garden beds and steward Yale’s campus
Thanks to everyone who hosted or attended an event this year. See a collection of photos from the week below and watch for details about Yale Sustainability’s next big celebration: Earth Week.
(Pictured at top: Yale’s Office of International Students & Scholars organized a “Lunch and Learn” at Yale Farm, touring the property to learn about sustainable food production and urban agriculture, followed by an outdoor lunch and discussion. Photo by Dan Corcoran.)
Yale Health Dietitian Alisa Scherban led a well-attended virtual workshop on how to adopt more plant-forward diet—one that prioritizes plant-based foods but still allows for some animal proteins. Scherban discussed how plant-based eating can be better for human and planetary health, as well as sustainable food storage and shopping, and quick-and-easy meal and snack ideas.
Student groups at Yale School of Public Health (Plant Based for Public Health, and Students for Sustainable Waste Reduction) teamed up with the YSPH Sustainability Committee to host a donation drive to collect food, clothing, and personal hygiene items for two New Haven nonprofits: the Sex Workers and Allies Network, and the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen.
Clean energy experts from Yale, the City of New Haven, and Save the Sound spoke on a panel about the impacts of the new federal climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Pictured from left are moderator Tanya Wiedeking of the Yale Carbon Charge; Charles Rothenberger, Climate and Energy Attorney with Save the Sound; Giovanni Zinn, New Haven City Engineer; Anthony Kosior, Interim Leader of Yale Facilities and Campus Development; and Julie Paquette, Director of Engineering & Energy Management, Yale Office of Facilities.
The Yale Center for British Art hosted an open house in its Study Room featuring drawings, prints, watercolors, and rare books focused on the roots of global food production. The collection explored how Britain’s imperial history intertwines with the trade of foods that are now widely consumed all over the globe, such as sugar, rice, mangoes, and tea, as well as the sometimes devasting human and environmental impacts caused by their production.
For Celebrate Sustainability week, Susan Abramson, Manager of WorkLife and Child Care Programs at Yale, hosted her popular workshop “Less Clutter = Less Stress,” offering practical tips for simplifying and organizing daily living to promote wellness.
All week, Yale libraries hosted a book swap, where students could leave a book and take a book (or two or three). Pictured: the book swap table at Bass Library.
When the sun finally returned on Thursday, several Yale community members greeted the morning with a 45-minute “Nature Immersion Yoga” class at Marsh Botanical Garden, led by Danielle Casioppo, a certified Hatha yoga instructor from Being Well at Yale. The session focused on opening the senses to the natural world to calm the mind and energize the body.
A lively group joined landscape architect Beka Sturges and Joe Signore, Associate Director of Yale Landscaping & Maintenance Services, for a tour of Yale campus spaces designed by trailblazing landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. The tour highlighted the recent revitalization of Farrand’s work at Yale and how exterior designs help us adapt to urban conditions, encourage ecosystem health, and reinforce a sense of place.
Yale Human Resources and Urban Resource Initiative teamed up with a group of volunteers to plant several trees on the athletic campus in honor of Yale staff members’ years of service to the university.
With the help of staff from Yale Landscape and Grounds, students and staff got their hands dirty on Friday at a planting party on Cross Campus. Participants had the chance to use Yale’s new zero-emissions planting augurs and to put down roots in the form of ivy and flowering camassia bulbs, stewarding the campus for future generations.
Students stopped by a mini expo on Cross Campus to learn about Yale’s sustainability efforts and to play a “Minute to Win It” recycling game that tested their knowledge on what is recyclable and what is trash.
The Bag Monster (aka Oren Aviad, left, and Hannah Turner) made an appearance at the planting party, to spread the message of reuse and to show off some of Yale’s new zero-emissions landscaping machinery.
On Friday afternoon, Jordan Williams (pictured left), the Farm Integration Manager at the West Campus Farm, led a volunteer group in harvesting sweet potatoes, clearing weeds, and other fall farm maintenance.
Mallory Locklear photo
Celebrate Sustainability week continued into Saturday and Sunday with a Traffic Safety Painting Party. Volunteers met on Yale Medical Campus, on York Street at the corners of MLK Boulevard and Legion Avenue, to repaint traffic bollards in the style of striped barber’s poles—a nod to the historic connection between barbers and the practice the medicine.