College and community benefit from week-long sustainability activities

Spectrum elementary students visit the worm bed at the 

Environmental Technology Center and learn how 

beneficial worms are to our soil from CGCC students.

Each student also planted a melon or squash seed to
take home.

           Being responsible stewards of our resources is an essential life lesson. Sustainability week at Chandler-Gilbert Community College is an annual event designed to foster awareness of sustainability; encourage student action in their local and global communities; and inspire students and community members to make choices to live more sustainably.

Jake Upshaw, member of the Humanitarian & Environmental 

Action Team, sorts through 24 hours of trash collected 

from the CGCC Pecos Campus to demonstrate how much 

of the trash thrown in waste barrels can be recycled 

or composted.

Members of the student-led Humanitarian and Environmental Action Team (HEAT) joined with the Center for Civic and Global Engagement and passionate faculty to develop a week of activities ranging from showing a documentary and demonstration on garbage to a panel discussions with local community leaders on current sustainability standards. More than 16 students gave presentations about their experiential learning projects they undertook

Following her presentation, Lauren Applegate stops

 by the ethnobotany garden she cultivated with biology 

faculty Kelly Hiatt. The garden represents the five 

habitat regions of the southwest desert and includes the 

plants used for medicinal purposes by various cultures. 

during the past year and more than 200 others created poster displays on a wide range of sustainability topics.

Two elementary school groups also visited the college, touring the many projects underway at the Environmental Technology Center (ETC), a 1,200-square-feet outdoor living laboratory where students in the Sustainability and Ecological Literacy program put their ideas into practice.
          “The intent is to share with community and the college at large some of the authentic and creative learning projects that students are engaged in at Chandler-Gilbert Community College,” said Darien Ripple, philosophy faculty and ETC coordinator.

Yumara Rodriguez studies a nuclear energy poster display, 

taking notes for a class assignment. CGCC students created 

approximately 240 poster displays on sustainability topics 

ranging from composting and alternative fuels to bioplastics 

and the use of green microgyms to generate energy.