by Jane O’Mahony
Taking care of a plant is similar to self-care! Just like you, plants need certain things in order to THRIVE:
by Sophia Gumbs
Last Friday, October 25, a group from the NYU community joined the Office of Sustainability in a day of service with the Billion Oyster Project. Billion Oyster Project’s mission is to “restore oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives.” The Project’s intention is to distribute one billion live oysters around 100 acres of reefs by 2035 in order to restore the New York Harbor’s previous role as the “most productive waterbody in the North Atlantic” and the “oyster capital of the world.” So far, the Project has planted 28 million live oysters, recycled 1 million pounds of shell, and worked with 75 restaurants, 70 schools, 1,215 high school students, over 6,500 middle school students, and over 9,000 volunteers!
Written by Sarah Dietz
The Carry Your Own! (CYO) Challenge officially came to a close on Thursday October 17th, culminating with a celebratory evening awarding the top three plastic waste mitigators for their efforts. (If you are unfamiliar with the CYO challenge, please visit the first blog post to learn more.) Winners were presented with reusable tote bags filled with generous prizes. In the totes were hundreds of dollars’ worth of low-waste lifestyle prizes, including gift cards to Precycle, NYC’s first package free grocery store. These awesome gifts were made possible largely due to donations from local, low-waste lifestyle companies, Precycle and Your Local. The winners were selected based on their level of participation in the three-week challenge, which asked them to eliminate as much personal plastic waste as possible, mainly through two items commonly used by students on campus; coffee mugs and utensils. The contest was judged by an NYU student who chose the winners based on quantity of posts about their challenge experience.
We’re only four weeks into the Fall semester and already our student sustainability leaders are in full force and ready to enact change. This month, student club and organization leaders gathered for the first ever Sustainability Dinner and Dialogue meeting, our EcoReps met for their Fall Orientation, and our ECommittee peer-mentors joined the Big Apple Leadership Retreat with the Office of Residential Life and Housing Services. Our administrators and staff in the Office of Sustainability are excited to continue sharing information and exchanging ideas with students. And this month was only the start of an ongoing conversation about NYU’s sustainability goals and communal achievements.
by Joann Lee
On June 21st, I attended the first ever NYCxREUSE conference and expo hosted by donateNYC. donateNYC is a program run by the Department of Sanitation whose slogan is “give goods, find goods, and do good,” and this was the theme of the conference’s panel discussions. The conference brought together leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors to discuss strategies in landfill diversion, as well as the social impact and economic opportunities created by partnerships designed to redistribute resources.
