Recent News

Kent Family Growers - a local, organically-certified CSA is seeking apprentices for the 2012 season.

Kent Family Growers produces a wide variety of fresh, certified organic vegetables, flowers and fruit on 117 acres in Lisbon, NY. We serve markets in St. Lawrence County and across NY State. We are looking to hire three apprentices for the 2012 season. Our work takes place in the field, growing and harvesting, in the packinghouse, washing and sorting, and in Canton and Potsdam, marketing.  1301 CR 31 - Lisbon, NY 13658 - 315.322.4155 - kentfamilygrowers.com e-mail: kentfamilygrowers@hotmail.com

Details.... (PDF)

Help St. Lawrence beat out the competition during Campus Conservation Nationals, an electricity reduction competition for campus residence halls.

Use SLU's Dashboard to track your building's performance, tune in, unplug and make SLU proud!

Who: You, your roommate, your neighbor down the hall.  All students living in St. Lawrence owned residences; dorms; themes; townhouses.

What: Electricity reduction competition, compete against student residences at rivals Skidmore, Hamilton, Colgate and Hobart and Williams Smith to see who can reduce electricity use by the greatest percentage. 

Where: Your dorm room, common room, bathroom, kitchen, townhouse and theme house

When: Monday, February 15^th through Monday, March 5^th

Why: Behavior has a noticeable impact on utility usage in buildings.  During the period of the competition students will be encouraged to find ways to reduce their electricity usage through behavior changes that could be sustained for the rest of the semester.  Reducing electricity saves money and reduces pollution.

Tips: Check out our green guide for electricity reduction tips

Registration is now open for the 8th Annual Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium Conference: Climate, Community, and Culture! The conference is being held April 2-4, 2012 at the Syracuse University Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center.  Register to attend the conference and explore the many interconnected and inter-disciplinary sustainability issues affecting our campuses.

• Sustainability 101
• Community relations, operations and municipality collaborations
• Community-based research and education
• The next frontier in advancing campus sustainability

The conference keynote speaker will be Oren Lyons, Onondaga Nation Turtle Clan faithkeeper, Council of North American Aboriginal Nations member, and an award-winning activist and speaker.

If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please submit your proposal by January 20, 2012.

Effective December 5, 2011, it will no longer be legal to throw out rechargeable batteries with your household trash.  Batteries such as rechargeable AA's, rechargeable power tool and laptop batteries, small sealed lead-acid batteries and others are included in the ban.  The NYS Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act, which mandates the ban, was signed into law on Dec. 10, 2010.

Brewer Bookstore is one place you may bring your rechargeable batteries for recycling.  A collection box has been set up at the bookstore cashier counter.  Be sure to place each battery in its own plastic baggy (available at the collection site) before putting it in the box (Batteries must be in separate baggies because of Department of Transportation Rules; loosely packaged spent lithium batteries have caused fires during shipping and storage.)  Instructions are posted on the collection box.  Any person may drop off up to 10 rechargeable batteries per day.

Please do not place non-rechargeable batteries like the common 9-volt, AA, AAA, C and D cells in the collection boxes.  They can be safely and legally disposed with your household trash.  Vehicle batteries will not be accepted either; they must be brought to a retailer that sells new vehicle batteries for recycling.

To see examples of rechargeable batteries visit Call2Recycle.

If you already drop off batteries in a collection pail at your workplace, we will continue to send them out for recycling, too.

For questions about chemical/hazardous waste disposal and battery recycling on campus, contact Suna Stone-McMasters at 315-229-5105.

This past semester seventeen students and I embarked on a journey called Going Locavore. Using books, films, and speakers we examined the economic, ethical, and logistical implications of our industrial food system, and explored the world of alternative small scale food production and localized economies.

To connect more deeply with our north country community and gain real experience, we visited three local models: Little Grasse Foodworks; Bittersweet Farm; and Sweetcore Farm, and students have spent time working with each. Our semester culminated in a local foods dinner which the students planned, sourced, and prepared. One student, Sara Jones (pictured at right), has written about and photographed her experiences this semester in a blog called Going Locavore, two other students Mike Petroni 12 and Tommy Costello '14 produced a video featuring a taste test of local products.

The video was included as a "What We're Reading" post in the New York Times Diner's Journal blog on December 7, 2011.

-- Mary Hussmann
Associate Professor of English
St. Lawrence University