Student Olivia Grajewski discusses the mission and goals of Arcadia’s Environmental Network, a student club dedicated to green initiatives.
What is the mission of your club?
We help Arcadia students appreciate and learn more about the environment. We also promote and protect the environment on campus and in the community, and collaborate with other clubs with similar goals.
How do you try to help the environment on your own time?
As we all know, one person cannot do too much to change the state of the environment, so I do my best to encourage those in power, like politicians, to take steps toward being more environmentally friendly. I also do little things like picking up trash, taking the time to learn how to recycle properly, trying to switch to vegetarianism, and educating others, including family members. In the Craftivism course I took last semester with Professor Carole Loeffler, I also learned how to repurpose plastic bags into sleeping mats for the homeless.
What steps have you taken to make Arcadia greener?
This semester, we have restarted an educational campaign on recycling. Cheltenham Township has a variety of different rules about recycling, which differ from my hometown’s rules. It is a work-in-progress, but we are working to ensure that wherever there is a trash can, there is a recycling can, and vice versa. This is a policy that was created by Environmental Network boards in the past that we want to keep going.
We also had a new Zero Waste Educational event last semester, where students learned how to purchase products that produce the least amount of waste or none at all. While this is not necessarily an on-campus change, it does help Arcadia students be more green themselves.
Anything else you want to share?
On Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22), we will be hosting our annual Scarlet, Grey, and Green Day. We hope to have local sustainable vendors selling food and other products. As usual, we will have our succulent sale and other fun activities during the day as well. We hope to have campus sustainability tours led by Facilities, showcasing how Arcadia truly is green. A fair amount of students do not realize all that they do, and we wanted to give Facilities a chance to show and educate those who are interested.
