April, being Earth Month, is always a busy month for the District Sustainability team! We hosted our 2nd annual Earth Fest at CSM and Skyline College, and invited students, staff, and faculty to explore our many stations. Our Museum of Tomorrow exhibits—including a new exhibit built by our SCC students—were on display, and the thrift clothing swap and e-waste drive were very successful. 

Visitors also interacted with Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, Sustainability Service Corps, Byrd’s Filling Station, Pacific Beach Coalition, California State Parks, CSM Democrats, and Peninsula Precious Plastics to table. Overall, we had an estimated attendance of ~200 and hope to see more of our campus community next year!   

Across our three campuses, the Sustainability Team organized Zero Waste trainings with custodial, groundskeeping, and engineering staff. Custodial and groundskeeping staff work hard to collect our campus waste and make sure it gets to the appropriate end location – they are instrumental in helping us to recycle and compost as much as possible. We conducted a mini waste audit of our Facilities building bins with the team, and received lots of feedback about ways we can continue to improve our waste diversion rate across the District.   

Working with Professor Mays Danfoura and the ENVS 101 class at Skyline College, the team also conducted a waste audit of Building 6. We discovered that, similar to Cañada College, the majority of waste in our dining hall areas is compostable, and yet a significant portion of this organic waste ends up in the landfill bin. This audit has provided additional rationale for our outdoor compost bin project, in addition to other zero waste outreach initiatives.