In Spring 2007, President Oxtoby endorsed the concept of a $15,000 President’s Sustainability Fund (PSF), a mechanism to promote and finance innovative student-led initiatives to make Pomona College more sustainable.  Starting in the 2007-08 academic year, students were invited to submit proposals for projects that would “improve the operational sustainability of Pomona College.”

This fund is being used for a number of great projects that make Pomona a more sustainable campus, including:

• Campus Climate Challenge's Drying Rack Initiative
• Re-Coop Work Study & Infrastructure
• SCC Recycling Center
• Solar Rover for the Farm
• Folding-Bike Lending Program

Thanks to pressure of environmentally conscious students, food sectors on campus are increasing their efforts to become more sustainable- by reducing food wastes, introducing biodegradable utensils and to-go-boxes, and increasing composting.  

 No Tray Tuesday: Eliminating Food Waste

The CCC (Campus Climate Challenge) has been an active group in promoting sustainability around Pomona’s campus. Their newest campaign- reducing food waste generated at meals- will lead to several noticeable changes at Frank dining hall including a weekly ‘no-tray day.’ The idea behind the initiative, which has been put into practice at multiple schools including Colby College, is that abolishing trays will prevent students from piling food onto multiple plates only to find that their eyes were truly larger than their stomachs. Without trays, students can only take as much food as they can carry with their hands.  If they’re still hungry after the first plate, they can go back for more.

Held between February 27^th and March 5^th, the Pomona Student Union’s 2008 China Environment Series is designed to address a growing curiosity with China's growth as we approach the 2008 Olympics, as well as to delve into the issues of environmental justice for the largest nation in the world.  It was originally thought up in April of last year as a broader series on energy, development, and the environment in China.  However, the topic changed to China as a result of the increased Western media coverage of environmental degradation in China.  The goal of the series is to approach the environmental crisis in China from multiple perspectives and multiple fields of study challenging the predominant geopolitical viewpoint that China is a competitor acting as a nation-state, rather than the many other valid lenses. 

Char Miller, visiting professor in the Environmental Analysis Program and a well-known environmental historian, gives his perspective on the context and importance of this series.

"If Paris sneezes, France catches cold": change the place names in this bon mot to China and the world, and you'll get a feel for the impact that China will have on the future of the planet.  Its vast and growing population; its astonishingly productive economy; its massive investments in natural resources; and its rapid urbanization--these and a host of other factors suggest some of the reasons why the twenty-first century will be defined by its actions. Its robust economy is producing--as all industrial revolutions have--some staggering challenges, many of which are environmental in origin. That's why the Pomona Student Union’s lecture series on environmental issues confronting China, and by extension the world, is so timely; and why we would do well to attend its lectures and accompanying film. Join us!

Read on to see the schedule of events!