Positive action, integrity, connection, creativity and discovery – these are the values of the Fort Lewis College Environmental Center that, for 25 years, has been training and equipping students to turn values into actions for their own, the community’s and environment’s, benefit.
Their work advances campus and regional sustainability with hands-on student-driven initiatives, and last year meaningfully engaged almost 4,000 FLC students numerous times in multiple projects and activities on and off-campus.
This year, the center is advancing four major initiatives – energy impact, real food challenge, local food security and zero waste – through which students shape their own personal sustainability ethic, gain confidence, learn what they are capable of and what is possible.
The center, as a staff and with on- and off-campus partners, has noble aims. It helps students to become civically engaged, environmentally responsible and socially just citizens who will go on to apply its values and tools out in the world beyond graduation.
At 25, the Environmental Center has matured, is a little more stable and focused, and knows what it is and where it is headed – always with students out front asking the questions and deciding where to go. With a future fittingly focused on energy, water and transportation, the next 25 years look as bright.
The center has not left behind its roots in environmental activism pushing from the outside in. Rather, it has evolved over the years to also teach students how to work within existing infrastructure and systems, embracing and participating in institutional change from the inside out.
This weekend, the center celebrates its 25 years of accomplishments – that include implementing citywide recycling and multiple local food projects, inventorying FLC’s green house gas emissions and drafting its Sustainability Action Plan, among others – with two events for the entire community.
The “March of Solidarity and Celebration” and the 15th annual “REEL Environmental Film Experience: Creating a Climate for Change” are taking place Saturday starting at 4 p.m.
Students take the environmental leadership training and preparation they receive at the center into other institutions to ensure that we as a society conserve rather than destroy life. It would be wonderful if FLC returned to sustainability as an integral part of its learning mission to ensure all students receive this remarkable training and life preparation.
