Serving and sustaining ourselves and our planet in the time of COVID-19

I’ll keep it brief, as you’ve received countless emails and updates from every other organization, campaign, news outlet, etc. and in far more eloquent ways.  My wish is this:  for everyone to take care of themselves, communities near and far, and the planet, to the best of our abilities and resources. Plant, grow, nourish, share, and love. Our work for an equitable, just and sustainable world continues. 

~Christina

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Champlain’s Latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory

For the past ten+ years, Champlain has completed an in-depth greenhouse gas (ghg) inventory. This year’s results show that our net emissions have stayed flat (0%) over the past eleven years, despite a 58% increase in physical space! Two recommendations for consideration on how we continue to decrease our emissions are to adopt a Climate Action Plan that would include

1. consider carbon offsets for our student study abroad travel
2. holistically reviewing all campus buildings to plan for net zero energy / carbon neutrality

See the complete report here

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Help us Tell the Story of Champlain’s Collective Impact

Each semester we have classes engaging with our campus and community; students organizing service opportunities; and staff members facilitating team building through volunteering. Please help us tell our collective impact story by filling out this brief form, for any projects/work done in Spring 2020.
Please fill out the form if you led a group of Champlain students, staff and/or faculty in any community service or service learning. In doing so, we are able to tabulate how many hours of service Champlainers contribute to our community on an annual basis.   We acknowledge that “hours served” is not necessarily a measure of impact, but it is a metric that is frequently requested by various national surveys that we participate in.

Consistent with The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll (U.S.), community service is defined as:  Activities designed to improve the quality of life of off-campus community residents, particularly low-income individuals. Community service activities may include but are not limited to: academic service learning, co-curricular service learning (not part of an academic course, but utilizing service-learning elements) and other co-curricular student volunteer activities, as well as Work-Study community service and paid community service internships. Community service includes both direct service to citizens (e.g. serving food to the needy) and indirect service (e.g. assessing community nutrition needs or managing a food bank).

Other related projects that should be included are working with/for any non-profit organization (including Champlain College) – especially related to fields including: environment, agriculture, social justice, education, community engagement, advocacy, outreach/marketing, communication, etc.   If service was done with multiple organizations, please complete the form for each organization. 

If you have any questions, or photos that you’d like share,  contact Christina Erickson at cerickson@champlain.edu

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