New this Week!

• Green Tip: Want a better way to print out your papers? Ink cartridges take an average of 450 years to decompose. Better to recycle your old ones and buy refilled cartridges. Recycled cartridges cost up to 75% less than new ones and recycling an ink cartridge can save up to 3 qt of oil. Better for your pocket, better for the Earth!
• Campus Sustainability Update: Why do the solar hot water collectors on McMillan look different from the solar hot water collectors outside by the gym? The ones on McMillan are actually tube collectors while the ones outside the gym are flat plate collectors. The system installed on McMillan uses brand new technology designed to keep more warmth in through evacuated tubes. Read more on evacuated tube systems here.
• Environmental Council Minutes - March 17, 2008 meeting (Word Document)Our Commitment to Sustainability

At Northland College, sustainability is all about people. We believe that environmental change requires more than technical knowledge of renewable energy, ecosystems, and sustainable business practices; it demands an exploration of human nature—an exploration of ourselves. We focus on environmental leadership throughout the student experience at Northland. Our students participate in all levels of our campus life—from volunteering to enhance our "commons", to work-study jobs that support our green features, to capstone projects that help our college innovate. Students are active in governance, strategic planning, and vision-setting. They are not just tomorrow’s environmental leaders; Northland students are creating a more sustainable future now.

Our commitment to sustainability is about acting from a position of hope: we can only construct a positive future if we can envision it. Creating change is a complex, iterative process. Our campus is a lab where we pursue sustainability—testing theories in real world projects, with real impacts and real risks. Northland’s liberal arts mission is to educate leaders who will address future problems that we cannot begin to imagine. By helping the college become more sustainable now, our students develop the skills they will need to change the world.

Whether you visit Northland College for one day, or decide to spend your student career here on the edge of Lake Superior, we welcome you to learn about how we are creating a sustainable future. In return, we ask—what inspiration will you find here, and how will you pass it on?

• Learn more about sustainability at Northland College by joining Environmental Council's Facebook group or becoming Environmental Council's MySpace friend!