Written By: Sarah Lanphear
In celebration of Earth Week, Lycoming’s Sustainability Committee and Lycoming Environmental Awareness Foundation (LEAF) have collaborated with several groups on campus to provide various programs. On Monday, LEAF kicked off the week with decorated sidewalks throughout the campus, highlighting environmental facts such as “2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour” to spread awareness. On Tuesday, the club encouraged the limitation of plastic and paper bags by selling tote bags made from recycled material that students enjoyed decorating with environmental designs. The event also included a plant sale. The biology department hosted a screening of the “Hellbent” Documentary on Friday night at Robert Porter Allen Natural Area. The week concluded with a campus-wide day of service where clubs, athletic teams, students, and faculty collaborated on community outreach, including a cleanup of the Lycoming Biology Field Station. In addition to the programming, the campus store provided a thirty percent discount on reusable cups to limit paper cup usage in the respective dining locations at Lycoming. The cafeteria also participated in Earth Week by interspersing environmental facts throughout the dining hall and setting up a bin to collect reusable items that may have been misplaced throughout the campus. This programming highlighted growing efforts to improve sustainability at Lycoming College and was met with significant buy-in from Lycoming students and faculty.
