Lehigh University
EN-3: Student Life

Residential and Greek Eco-Reps: peer-to-peer education program focused on training student leaders to embody and promote sustainable living in residential halls and other facilities. Green action and Engineers without Borders are also student groups whose interests are sustainability-focused or related. Their descriptions are below: Green Actions-is focused on reducing pollution of harmful chemicals, reducing global climate change, and reducing the depletion of vital natural resources, as well as promoting renewable energies, recycling, and discouraging environmentally irresponsible behaviors. Members of Green Action attend national and state-wide conferences to learn more about the environment, lobby US Senators, and protest America's less environmentally friendly activities. Green Action has performed waste audits, promoted plastic bag recycling and reusable take-out containers, among other actions. Engineers without Borders- Started in 2002, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is an international non-profit humanitarian organization that works to provide basic needs to communities in need. EWB is a multidisciplinary group of students, from all majors and programs, dedicated to learning about and tackling issues of global poverty, international development, and sustainability. Their mission is to both educate a new generation of students about global inequalities through workshops and presentations and to enable students to use this knowledge to design workable solutions to real life problems. The organization is composed of both university and professional chapters that focus on specific projects addressing issues such as providing clean water, education, sanitation, and renewable energy. EWB focuses on low cost, high impact projects. To promote sustainability the organization partners with host communities on projects so that the communities can manage the systems autonomously in the future. The project gives students a range of experience from international relations to technical engineering skills. Today there are over 300 chapters and 12,000 members in the United States alone. The projects EWB takes on are initiated by, and completed with, contributions from the host community working with the EWB project team. The organization has previously designed, funded, and implemented a small-scale water treatment project in Pueblo Nuevo, a village of approximately 1,500 people in northwestern Honduras.

Lehigh University has several urban agriculture projects where students are able to gain experience in organic agriculture and/or sustainable food systems. At present the University's South Side Initiative manages several community gardens on the South Side of Bethlehem, PA. One of these gardens (approx. 1 acre) is on the Lehigh University campus, and it provides plots of land in which students can grow organic food. This garden also reserves land for larger student projects, such as composting and 4-square intensive gardening that provides for local food kitchens. (See: www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2013/09/lehigh_university_student_crea.html .) The other gardens are located on city land and provide a space for students to work with members of the local community to grow fresh, healthy food. Currently the South Side Initiative's Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture Working Group and the CLIP Permaculture Initiative run programming out of these gardens for children from low-income families who rely on the Bethlehem Boys & Boys Club, as well as children from Broughal Middle School, and Big Brother, Big Sister. In these programs, university students grow, harvest, cook, and eat fresh and organically grown produce with program participants. (See: http://ssi.cas2.lehigh.edu/community-gardens-and-urban-agriculture and https://www.facebook.com/clip.permacultureinitiative?fref=ts .) Lehigh University also offers an Urban Agriculture course during the summer in which a professional organic farmer from the Rodale Institute uses the community garden to teach students about organic growing methods, pest management, weed management, and soil management.

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The GreenFund was created to provide financial resources to members of the Lehigh community who want to create a greener, more environmentally sustainable campus. One-time grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded to students, faculty, and staff to facilitate green projects.

Keystone State Environmental Histories: A Public Lecture Series This lecture series is open to the public but have students as the intended audience. Many professors bring their classes to the lectures with the intention of diversifying students' knowledge of environmental history. Topics cover energy supply, development of hiking trail system in PA, cities and forests, and the history of Earth Day. Students are invited to eat lunch with speakers and learn more about the topic.

Trashion Show: an exhibition of clothing made entirely out of trash or recyclable materials. Students planned the event, designed the clothing, and attended the show. Art installation: Students in Lehigh’s College of Arts and Sciences created two art installations that were on display during the university’s Sustainability Conference, which took place in the LEED-certified STEPS Building in February 2014. “Bottled Wave” employed only plastic bottles and staples to create an impression of transparent bubbles. Lehigh students extracted 651 bottles from trash bins to illustrate the volume of waste unconsciously generated by choosing one-time use disposable bottles instead of multiple-use refillable containers. (http://lehighu.tumblr.com/post/75945965843/lehigh-cas-students-created-two-art-installations)

The Outdoor Adventure Community promotes outdoors sports, activities, and responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Hall/Floor activities will appeal to a variety of interests and skill levels, from weekend camping trips to hiking and skiing to themed movie nights - the choice is yours! The community goal is for individuals with a shared interest in nature to join together in outdoor activities and adventures, and to develop and spread their values of responsible management of our beautiful outdoor spaces and resources.

As part of the first-year experience, students have the option of attending a faculty lecture during Orientation that addressed the issue of sustainability in the business field. We also offer a 3-day pre-orientation program focused on sustainability called SustainabLEHIGH.

The Green House is an environmentally themed community serving as a hub for people who value environmental awareness in their living space. Through several collaboration efforts with other offices on Lehigh’s campus, The Green House hopes to bring a feeling of respect and maintenance for our natural resources. The community’s primary goals are to learn strategies and technologies that can minimize our impact on the environment and to implement those findings; to sponsor and hold programs based on environmentalism and sustainability; to purchase bicycles for the community in order to encourage less driving.

The Office of Sustainability provides student employment opportunities year around. These employment opportunities are in support of achieving Lehigh's Campus Sustainability Plan goals, creating a culture of sustainability and providing students with skills that they can transfer to their professional careers.

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