CSI Sustainability Council

Current Happenings

Coming 2020 Events

Kill the Cup Campaign, Every day at the Eagle's Nest: Use your reusable mug to get 40% off regular coffee or drinks from the soda fountain.  Sponsored by Sodexo and President Fox, Promoted by the Sustainability Council

Movie: The True Cost of Fashion Jan 22, 11AM - 1PM in SUB

Feb. 5th.  Homecoming Activity,  Making Pom Poms from plastic grocery bags.  11AM-1PM in the SUB

Feb. 13th, Valentine's Day activity, Making Roses out of newspaper, 11AM-1PM in the SUB

Thrift Third Thursday, Pop-up Free Thrift Store (Take something, donate something) Feb. 20, March 19, April 16, 11AM-1PM, in SUB

Fashion

Feb. 21, Celebrating Wildlife Day, Corbin Maxey Wildlife Revue, 6PM, Herrett Center

March 13, SolarTree Charging Station Grand Opening, Between Hepworth and Shields buildings

Solar

Solar station

March 17th- Be Green on St. Patrick's Day, Make a T-Shirt Reusable Shopping Bag, SUB,  No set time yet

StPats

Intermountain Sustainability Summit at Weber State University, March 19th

Sustainability Week 2020 April 13th-17th:

  • 4/13 Loco about Reptiles
  • 4/14 TACOabout Sustainability Day
  • 4/15 Succulents and Games
  • 4/16 Movie Night at the Herrett Center
  • 4/16 Thrift Store Pop up

Active Transportation Week April 20th-24th

Sustainability Fair April 22nd, SUB, 10AM-1PM

Pollinator Garden Added North of Shields Building

garden1garden2

Our new pollinator garden is starting to attract bumblebees and our plants are thriving after the hottest part of our summer, 2019. Still to come, an interpretive sign, more plants, ground cover, and decorative stones.

Bike - Board - Walk - Run

Active Transportation Week

Join our Bird Friendly Coffee Club

birdsBirds and Beans is the only US coffee brand selling solely shade-grown, organic, fair trade, Smithsonian "bird friendly" certified beans. Great for birds, family farmers and the earth we all share. Great tasting too! Find a link to the order form here.

Certified by sci-entists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, this coffee is organic and meets strict requirements for both the amount of shade and the type of forest in which the coffee is grown. Bird Friendly coffee farms are unique places where forest canopy and working farm merge into a single habitat. By paying a little extra and insisting on Bird Friendly coffee, you can help farmers hold out against economic pressures and continue preserving these valuable lands.

May 1, 2017 Breckenridge Farm Coulee Clean-up Crew

Coulee

Left to right: Sarah Harris, Andy Bumstead, J.D. Knowles (ClifBar), Don Campanella, Cyndie Woods, Jan Simpkin

APRIL 22, 2016 Earth Day & Fair

CSI’s 7th Annual Sustainability Fair will take place Friday, April 22, 2016, from 10 AM-1 PM in the SUB.  If you know an exhibitor that would like to highlight a component of Sustainability about their business or organization at the Fair, please have them contact Randy Smith (rsmith@csi.edu) or Jan Simpkin (jsimpkin@csi.edu) .

These Come from Trees...

Check out the link below for a quick TED talk on how to get effective results while using a smaller paper towel.

http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_smith_how_to_use_a_paper_towel.html

Puncture Vine Eradication


On Saturday, August 31, 2013, the Sustainability Council sponsored a Puncture Vine (Goat Head) Eradication Event.  Thanks to everyone who came out!  Think of all the bike tires that will stay inflated thanks to your efforts.


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Student Rec Center Gets Bike Repair Station

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 The CSI Sustainability Council received a Pioneering Grant and was able to purchase a DERO Fixit Bicycle Repair Station!  It has been installed (thank you Marc James) at the northeast corner of the Student Recreation Center.

 The new bike station allows the bike-riding community at CSI to make simple repairs without visiting a bike shop. Scanning a QR code on the station with a smartphone opens up a webpage that details everything from changing tires to installing and tightening nuts and bolts on the bike. The station also includes a bike pump for filling deflated tires with air.

The station is not just for repairing commuter’s bikes. We hope the station helps dorm students maintain their own bikes and puts an end to the bicycle graveyards that normally pop up on campus at the end of the year. Instead of leaving derelict, rusting bikes on racks around campus for security to pick up at the end of the year, students can actually go fix their bikes.

Pump up your tires, put on your helmet and get riding!!

CSI extends the life of the landfill


Over the last few years CSI has substantially reduced the amount of pounds it is sending to the landfill.  This is reflected in the just released 2015 recycling numbers.  The increased recycling has resulted in fewer trash dumpsters and less pickup service required at CSI.  A big thank you goes out to the CSI community, Joe Lemoine, and the custodial staff for making CSI’s recycling program a HUGE success.

2015

  • Recycled/Shredded Paper - 46,070 lbs.
  • Plastic Film/Bags to NOVOLEX -  1, 010 lbs. 

2014 = Plastic Film/Bags to NOVOLEX - 431 lbs (since April 2014)
2011 = 57,001 pounds
2010 = 28,091 pounds
2009 = 7,390 pounds

Follow this link to see what you can recycle.

CSI Herb Garden

Herb garden

The CSI Herb Garden was planted in the circular bed and four corner beds behind the Fine Arts Building on Graduation Day, May 13, in a community effort by students, faculty, and staff from across campus. The garden is a joint project of the Sustainability Council and Horticulture Program supported by the Student Senate and Faculty Staff Committee. Plants were started from seed by Horticulture students and nurtured for months in the Horticulture Greenhouse.

CSI’s Herb Garden is a place for hands-on learning and for thinking about food - a basic human need, central to our health and happiness. Designed to grow attractive and edible kitchen herbs, this is a garden where we can gather together or have quiet moments alone, enjoying nature. (We hope to provide benches for sitting to reflect, chat, or study in the future.) The garden is meant to be both a tangible and symbolic step in encouraging sustainability: using our soil, water, and sun to grow plants that are beautiful to see and that feed us. We hope to promote people’s health through awareness of growing and eating nutritious local foods, a concept deeply connected to our local history and agricultural heritage in Magic Valley. We will need to see which plants survive and thrive before we can make announcements about sustainable harvest.

Peace Pole Dedication

It is estimated that there are more than 200,000 Peace Poles that have been dedicated in nearly every country on Earth. Thanks to the CSI Sustainability Council, there is now one more – on our very own campus. The pole was created by the Maintenance Department and erected in a circular garden plot that is south of the CSI Tower. It was dedicated by a small, but stalwart, group of students and employees, lead by student senator Sayid Abdullaev, at noon on the very blustery Thursday of Green Week along with a campus community herb garden.

Peace Poles are now recognized as the most prominent international symbol and
monument to peace. Peace Poles bear the message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in the languages of the world in the six official languages of the UN: English, French,
Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

Planting a Peace Pole is a way of bringing people together to inspire, awaken and uplift the human consciousness the world over.

Dr. Diana Van Der Ploeg, President of Butte College in Oroville, CA visited CSI on January 12, 2011.  Butte College is a national leader in sustainability.  Dr. Van Der Ploeg's visit included a question and answer session, as well as the keynote address for all CSI faculty, staff, and administration. 

The audio file (.mp3) of her keynote address can be accessed here.

Recycling Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs in Twin Falls


Many households have switched out their traditional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL)bulbs as an energy and money saving endeavor.  CFLs are more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.  CFLs may contain approximately 4 milligrams of mercury (125 CFLs = 1 old mercury thermometer) whereas newer generation CFLs may contain as little as 1 milligram.  Regardless of the mercury content, it is best to avoid sending CFLs to the landfill.  However, many CFLs do end up in the landfill because people do not know where to recycle them. 

There are at least two places in our community that accept CFLs for recycling, Lowes and Home Depot (if you know of others please let Randy Smith know).  So, when your CFLs “burn” out, take them to be recycled. If you are curious about other aspects of CFL use such as What should I do if a CFL breaks?  What is mercury and what are its sources?  How does using CFLs result in less mercury being emitted into the environment?  

Click on the following link:   http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/ask_us/faq_compact.htm#safe_home

Pen Recycling Program Initiated


STOP!!!!! The final resting place for your dead pen is not the trash can.  The Sustainability Council, Business Office, Bookstore, and Office Max announce a new pen recycling program at CSI.  The way to recycle your dead pens (including dry erase markers and sharpies) is to place them in the marked boxes at convenient locations (Bookstore, Library, and others) or send them in envelopes to Sarah Harris (Shields Bldg.) via intercampus mail.  The pens will then be sent to Office Max.  The CSI Foundation will receive 2 cents for every pen we send them.  Just another way you can contribute your 2 cents worth at CSI. 

Community Happenings


2011: The Year of Idaho Food is a grass-roots, year-long, statewide look at the surprising variety of foods grown in Idaho — and not simply focusing on the foods themselves, but also on the social, economic and environmental significance of those foods. For more information see http://www.nwfoodnews.com/about-the-year-of-idaho-food/

Single-stream recycling comes to Twin Falls. Residents will be able to put different recyclables in the same bin, diverting trash from landfills and returning materials to use. Both Boise and Pocatello more than doubled their recycling by implementing single-stream recycling!

Prairie Falcon Audubon, an Idaho Chapter of National Audubon serving Magic and Wood River Valleys has launched a new website: http://prairiefalconaudubon.org/,

Sustainability Tip


If you drive to campus, try parking somewhere between your first class of the day and your last class of the day.  You'll save time, gas, and frustration in trying to move your car between classes, and you'll get a bit of fresh air and exercise while walking.