Sustainability News

As we welcome new and returning members of our community back to College Hill, we want to offer a glimpse into what campus has been up to these past few months while many have been away. Here’s a sampling of new spaces, new faces, renamed buildings, major moves, and more.

Austin Cipriano ’25, Shey Sanges ’26, and Marcela Rondon ’27 spent their summer leaving a tangible mark on both the present and future of Hamilton’s campus. Under the leadership of Director of Environmental Protection Safety and Sustainability Brian Hansen, a group of students helps Hamilton strive for a more sustainable campus, culture, and curriculum. This summer’s group tackled three projects critical to the College’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

Since becoming the College’s 21st president on July 1, President Steven Tepper has met hundreds of community members who have left a big impression on the new president, while his thoughtful questions have illustrated the energy he is bringing to his work at Hamilton.

Two summers ago, Environmental Health and Safety Specialist Sara Soika and Director of Environmental Protection, Safety & Sustainability Brian Hansen had the pleasure of mentoring a handful of students — the summer sustainability interns — who quite literally changed the landscape on College Hill.

Ellie Sangree ’24 and Jesse Wexler ’24 have teamed up and combined their respective science and business acumen to revolutionize the future of clean water.

Midway through the second semester, Hamilton students continue to excel in the classroom, in academic competitions, and as student-athletes.

Among the many people and departments on campus working tirelessly to help Hamilton achieve its carbon neutrality goal by 2030, there’s a group of students doing the work right alongside them: the Hamilton Sustainability Coordinators.

Step inside a totally renovated and modernized Root Hall, complete with accessible and sustainable spaces where students and faculty can study, teach, and collaborate.

Professor and author Robin Wall Kimmerer offered students, faculty, and community members gathered in the Chapel a profound testimony regarding the decolonization of the environmentalist movement. The author of the national bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass came to College Hill to deliver this year’s Plant Lecture.

If you walked around campus on a nice day this summer, you would likely have seen a pair of Hamilton students hammering metal tags onto trees. You might well have seen them doing it over, and over, and over again.