Sustainability at SAU
At St. Ambrose, we believe sustainability is more than a cause; it is an individual and collective responsibility.
我们对天主教知识传统和社会正义的承诺要求我们每个人都要检查自然的使用, social, and economic resources, 同时寻求解决方案并采取管理实践，以维持我们今天的世界, and allow it to thrive for the generations of tomorrow. It is a commitment reflected in our actions, academics, and goals.
Building on What We've Started
- We've planted pollinator gardens, installed water bottle filling stations, prioritized energy efficiency in campus construction, utilized fresh vegetables from our campus gardens to serve in our tray-less cafeteria, improved recycling education, 并成立了一个可持续发展委员会，领导新的倡议，促进对自然环境的管理.
- In academic programs such as Biology, Environmental Studies, Business, and Public Health, we provide students with the tools to become sustainability champions.
- Our environmental student club, Green Life, strives to educate their peers and lead earth-friendly initiatives.
- 我们通过举办客座讲座和圆桌讨论来激发集体行动，学生和galaxy银河娱乐场app成员聚集在一起了解环境挑战并引发变革.
- Through undergraduate research and internships, 我们的学生在Nahant Marsh等合作组织动手解决环境问题, Niabi Zoo, Living, Lands and Waters and more!
Our mission and shared values of academic excellence, social justice, and community service require Ambrosians do more than simply advocate for sustainability; we must also challenge ourselves to do more – on campus, in the world, and for our future.
Demonstrate your commitment by signing this Sustainability Pledge and learn more about our work below.
Follow us on social media for the most current news, events, and information.
“绿色生活倡议让我在我的galaxy银河娱乐场app中有所作为，希望能鼓励其他人也这样做. 我特别有动力去帮助保护我们州所有美丽的物种多样性." -Green Life President, Greta Solbrig
“我们迫切需要可持续的气候变化解决方案，以保护最脆弱的人群. 在SAU参与绿色生活让我有机会学习可持续发展事业所需的领导技能, while also creating a positive impact on campus and in the surrounding community." -Former Green Life President, Emma Duncan
"As a future healthcare worker, 我看到气候变化是如何改变人们的生活和生计的. It is impacting the environment and the health of others. I feel a calling to that, and I want to make it better for those people."–Former Green Life President, Anna Schmidt
"As a campus community, St. Ambrose intentionally nurtures our common home, through various research, operational, and co-curricular activities. We are committed to the research of local eco-systems, stormwater retention applications, the use of local food, and care of our gardens and beehives." -Amy C. Novak, EdD, St. Ambrose University President
Green Life Student Club Enactus Student Club
Our Mission
Consistent with our Catholic heritage and Catholic Environmental Teaching, St. galaxy银河娱乐场app致力于管理我们的自然资源和保护其余的创造.
Initiatives will be fiscally prudent, critically thought out, educational, 并且可能需要艰难的行为改变来减少我们对环境的影响.
We will collaborate with appropriate campus, local, state, and broader constituencies to share ideas, resources, and solutions to meet our goals.
Our Collective Impact
"It's easy to think I am only one person, and this is only one plastic bottle – how will that make a difference? 但是，如果我们都开始做一些小的改变来变得更可持续，它会累积起来，导致更大的变化. It starts with the individual."
–Kristina Shelman '20, former Green Life student leader and current medical student at the University of Iowa
Start today. Choose from the list of tips below and collectively, we can make a difference on campus, in our communities, and across the world!
More Information
Committee Chairpersons
Amy Blair, PhD, Biology Professor
Dennis Tarasi, PhD, Biology Assc. Professor
Faculty, staff, students, 大学管理人员领导SAU的可持续发展倡议，并促进对自然环境的管理.
可持续发展委员会的研究和建议——无论是关注太阳能还是减少食物浪费——旨在减少大学对环境的影响. The committee is igniting discussion and action by hosting projects and events, 它鼓励每位学生和员工通过签署可持续发展承诺来承诺减少对环境的影响.
欢迎galaxy银河娱乐场app的学生和员工参与讨论和规划未来的可持续发展倡议，加入委员会. Contact Professor Amy Blair, PhD, or Associate Professor Dennis Tarasi, PhD, co-chairs of the Sustainability Committee.
Green Life, our student environmental club, 教育和鼓励校园采取的做法，将保护和支持一个繁荣的地球为子孙后代.
Here's a sampling of their contributions over the past couple of years:
- Members built beehives, planted multiple pollinator gardens, and a vegetable garden used by campus food service.
- They've organized litter clean-ups, labeled recycling bins (to reduce waste contamination), led efforts to reduce food waste, and coordinated an end-of-semester food drive in each residence hall. Green Life has collected more than 1,200磅的食物捐赠给当地的食物银行，比如河湾食物银行和Vine上的咖啡馆.
- Green Life members make a difference. 三位前任校长获得了著名的“未来保护领袖”奥伯霍尔策奖的奖学金
- 2022 Emma Duncan
- 2020 Kristina Shelman '20 and Anna Schmidt '21
Anyone from campus, including faculty and staff, is welcome to join and support Green Life initiatives. Contact us by email at beegreen@weihuo8.net
Academic programs such as Biology, Environmental Studies, Business, 公共卫生为我们的学生提供了成为可持续发展冠军的工具.
Through undergraduate research, our students are hands-on in addressing environmental issues, 无论是研究附近的城市湿地，还是发现清洁河流和湖泊的方法. Learn about some of your opportunities below.
这门跨学科辅修课程鼓励学生从不同的角度探索自然环境, including literature, theology, biology, and art.
Students learn diverse approaches to understand, relate to, and responsibly manage the natural environment. 所有学生都要完成一个顶点项目，提供保护方面的实践经验, preservation, and restoration.
Learn about the Environmental Studies interdisciplinary minor
节约资源和减少对环境的影响是圣. Ambrose.
In the spring of 2021, SAU became a certified Bee Campus USA® affiliate, 这使得它成为爱荷华州仅有的三所被无脊椎动物保护协会认可的大学之一，因为它采取了保护和保存本地传粉媒介的措施. Read this story about becoming a Bee Campus.
In past years, we've created pollinator gardens, renovated the Lewis Hall greenhouse, installed water bottle filling stations, and renovated and constructed energy-efficient buildings, including the Wellness and Recreation Center and McMullen Hall. There are no trays in our cafeteria, and students take to-go meals in a returnable and reusable container.
There are recycling bins in every residence hall and building. We recycle carpet when it is removed, and if we demolish or renovate a building, anything that can't be reused or repurposed is donated. For instance, before demolishing five nearby homes in 2017, we invited the nonprofit Gateway Redevelopment Group to salvage anything it wanted. 全部由志愿者组成的小组拆掉了装饰、窗户、橱柜、木地板、门把手等. Gateway then sold what it salvaged, using the money to restore abandoned homes in the Hamburg Historic District, just south of campus.
We've found new ways to conserve resources. Storm runoff is now stored within 19 underground retention tanks around campus that, at surface level, are masked as aesthetic rock gardens. During the summer, groundskeepers pull as much as 1,500 gallons weekly from the tanks to water flower beds and plantings.
Other efforts on campus, while basic, have cumulative effects, saving St. Ambrose thousands of dollars annually: low-flow showerheads in residence halls, low-energy light bulbs replacing regular bulbs, and energy management systems on many facilities' heating and air-conditioning units.
Finding ways to conserve energy and shrink St. galaxy银河娱乐场app的碳足迹——即使随着校园的发展——每年都在增加.
What You Can Do
Sign the Sustainability Pledge and commit to reducing your environmental impact as a member of the St. Ambrose community.
完成承诺表格的人将收到一张标书，表明他们对环境管理的承诺!
Do you have an idea to share or a topic or project you'd like explored further?
Email sustainability@weihuo8.net to connect with the leaders of the Sustainability Committee.
Here are a few ways to get started:
- Join Green Life or the campus Sustainability Committee!
- Instead of throwing away clothes you no longer wear, donate them to the Davis Closet or the Career Center Closet.
- 参加Bee the Difference Day，和你的同伴一起，帮助校园解决galaxy银河娱乐场app项目.
- Or volunteer on a Campus Ministry spring break service trip. Past trips have included cleaning trash and debris from the Mississippi River, renovating and upgrading homes for people living in poverty, and helping build a school in Kentucky and more.
Learn about our student clubs and organizations
Learn about service opportunities
Learn about upcoming campus events
Here are some of the small changes you can make, as recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that collectively can make a big difference:
- Nutritious, safe, and untouched food can be donated to help those in need. (考虑一下把它捐给“绿色生活”的期末食物募捐活动，或者直接捐给慈善机构 River Bend Food Bank)
- When buying meals, grab only what you need. Too often extra ketchup packets and napkins go to waste.
- Change your printer settings to make double-sided pages. 尽可能使用小点字体，尽可能使用“快速草稿”设置以节省墨水
- Turn off or unplug lights during the day to save energy and help lights last longer.
- Donate used (but still operating) electronics for reuse. 这延长了有价值产品的寿命，并使它们在更长的时间内远离废物流. 回收100万台笔记本电脑所节省的能量相当于3万多台电脑的用电量,500 US homes in a year. (The Waste Commission of Scott County offers an Electronic Waste and Electronic Reuse Program.)
- For every one million cell phones recycled, we can recover 35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium.
- Buy used instead of new. 在专门的再利用中心和寄售店找到你需要的一切，从衣服到建筑材料. Often, used items are less expensive and just as good as new.
- Look for products that use less packaging. When manufacturers make their products with less packaging, they use less raw material
- 通过志愿参与galaxy银河娱乐场app的清洁工作来表明你对清洁环境的承诺. (Join us each year for Bee the Difference day.)
- Share the ride and the road. Public transportation and carpooling reduce pollution.
Source: EPA website