In the battle against climate change, Dickinson College has been taking effort to reduce the net emission, reaching the state of carbon neutrality. In the vision to achieve carbon neutrality at the end of the 2019-20 academic year, the college has been working hard on different strategies for about 10 years. This year, the Center for Sustainability Education (CSE) not only determines to successfully reach this goal but also wants Dickinson’s community to understand and participate in this process; thereby, we can all together be carbon neutral by the end of the academic year. At the beginning of this term, CSE has started a year-long series of workshops for students, faculty and staff to learn more about the college’s efforts as well as discuss actions to support this path.
Community plays an important role in ensuring the success of the carbon neutrality vision and so Dickinson identifies behavior change as the main theme of the series. On Wednesday, the first workshop was organized to engage faculty, staff and students in discussing current events and developing new ideas to target behaviors that are positive in creating a more sustainable campus. Lindsey Lyons opened the workshop with a short presentation on different strategies to change behavior without administration, which are applicable to any behavior. After the presentation, attendants were divided into groups to identify behaviors that could be altered, then apply the strategies to brainstorm a campaign, and present it in a large discussion. Each individual taking part in the event not only gains more knowledge about the college’s carbon neutral plan but also gets a chance to receive a gift from CSE. The more workshops you attend, the better the gift you will get. How interesting! Why not plan and bring your friends to come to the next event of the Sustain IT Workshop Series?
This event took place on September 25th, 2019