Right now, I am staring at the conference poster printer in confusion of what to write; I cannot say that I am asked to participate in features regularly. I am in what I believe to be the study room, fluorescent lights shining dimly above me as my fingers glide across the keys of my laptop.…
Northland College is participating in “No Mow May,” an initiative aimed at fostering a better habitat for bees and other pollinators. Throughout the month of May, the Northland College maintenance crew is leaving some areas of campus—roughly 50 percent—untouched by lawn mowers. Lawns in high-traffic areas and near buildings are still being maintained in advance…
Sierra has again named Northland College a “cool school” in its annual top-100 list of sustainable colleges and universities. Northland College ranked seventy-third out of 328 participating schools—and remains at the top in Wisconsin and in the Midwest. While each institution on Sierra’s list “demonstrates a deep commitment to addressing climate change, protecting the natural…
In 2000, the Board of Trustees approved a proposal from the Northland College Student Association for a student-led, student-financed, student-run fund for campus sustainability. And REF, later re-named REFund, was born. “We wanted to see results, to put our money where our mouth is,” said Trustee Ben Shepherd who was NCSA president when the effort…
The Northland College Hulings Rice Food Center has been awarded $49,300 from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to work on product development for hazelnuts. The Food Center has been collaborating for years on hazelnuts as a farming solution to climate change. Last year, business students tackled hazelnut product development and marketing…
In 2017, the college’s board of trustees voted to divest all the school’s endowment funds from fossil fuel-related investments. About $823,000 of the college’s $28 million endowment was invested in fossil fuels, which the vast majority of scientists say has caused global climate change. The student-led effort had been years in the making, said Northland alum…
This column excerpted from Intentional Endowments Network. On September 27, 2019, an estimated 500,000 people, mostly high school, college and university students marched in a “climate strike” held in Montreal, Quebec. My two stepsons were among those led by Greta Thunberg. The Montreal event was not an outlier. These climate strikes occurred across North America…
In the world of research, it takes a lot of failures before you get a hit. For Professor Nick Robertson and four students that hit came the day then-student Ariah Law walked into Robertson’s office and told him a solid substance had formed and wouldn’t come out of the vial. “I didn’t believe her at…
The Impossible Burger, a non-animal burger gaining popularity, is being marketed as the solution to saving the planet. How? Persuade people to stop eating beef, double production annually, win over consumers with an ‘equivalent’ and cheaper product, and eliminate animal agriculture by 2035. Despite this lofty goal, Impossible is on track—Impossible Whoppers are available at…
One of the smallest and most remote colleges in Wisconsin has been named the top performer in sustainable curriculum. Northland College, located at the tip of the state near Lake Superior and with a student body of 600, was named first in sustainable curriculum by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.…
