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Field Trip to Triple Green Jade Farm: “Whole Grain Open House”

by | Mar 16, 2022 | Uncategorized

When: April 2nd at 3pm (sign up at the Center for Sustainability) Student Center 101

We will tour Triple Green Jade Farm as well as participate in the “Whole Grain Workshop”. We’ll taste local grains and learn all about the local grain movement happening in our region in collaboration with the Northeast Grainshed Alliance. We will talk about and taste local organic Rye, Einkorn, Hard Red Winter Wheat and Soft White Winter Wheat.

Learn all about:
  • the farms we source our wheat from
  • how we stone mill
  • what the SQFT Project is
  • Grain quality and testing

About Triple Green Jade Farm 

Hi! We’re Dan and Kimmy Rivera and we’re bringing an old farm back to life in the Adirondacks, and we’re doing it with good bread.

We built a wood-fired bread oven in our garage (now known as The Breadery) and we sell our hand-made, wild fermented artisan breads at farmers’ markets, local stores and restaurants. This enables us to fund the continued renovations on our barn and farm that hasn’t seen use since it was an operating dairy back in the 1980’s.

While we have 2nd and 3rd generation bakers in our families, our journey into bread baking began with a desire for self-sufficiency and to bake bread at home. A Mother Earth News magazine article about baking an overnight fermented round loaf in a cast iron pot taught us that it was possible to have a delicious and beautiful bread at home.

A week-long intensive course from the Artisan Bread School was a deep dive into sourdough and the associated skills necessary that set us on the path to open a wood-fired bakery. We then linked up with similar “bread heads” at the Maine Grain Alliance at the Kneading Conference where local grain revitalization was taking place and later written about in Amy Halloran’s The New Bread Basket.

Having baked primarily in wood-fired ovens for the duration of our education, a workshop with Pat Manley on building a wood-fired oven on Hurricane Island was the final “firebrick in the arch.”

Triple Green Jade Farm is made up of 80 acres of southerly facing pastures with riverfront on the Boquet River. Our silty, clay loam soils are well-suited for legumes and pasture grasses. We currently grow and cut hay. Our livestock operations involve increasing the soil health of our pastures with a grass-based micro-dairy and pastured poultry. We have one of the first modern milking parlors to have been built in Essex County in our barn. We milk and graze Milking Shorthorn/Jersey cows and continue making renovations to our historic barn.

Whole Grain Open House

 

STARS Solid Waste Minimization, Data, and What it Means for our Campus!

by | Mar 16, 2022 | Uncategorized

by Zoe Bullock, Casella Climate Resilience Fellow

What is STARS? 

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. 

STARS is designed to: 

  • Provide a framework for understanding sustainability in all sectors of higher education. 
  • Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the international campus sustainability community. 
  • Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability. 
  • Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance. 
  • Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community. 

Paul Smith’s College is currently rated as a Bronze level institution!

What Does That Mean, and What Data Do We Use?  

Currently, we at the Center for Sustainability are focusing on gaining points and accreditation for Waste Minimization and Diversion. The description for this credit is stated as follows; “This credit recognizes institutions that are minimizing their production of waste, diverting materials from landfills and incinerators, and conserving resources by recycling and composting.”  

In order to qualify for the points, we must look back on just how much waste was being put out by our campus over the course of four years. The years are 2018-2021, 2018 being the baseline year. We received this data from Casella Waste Management Systems.  www.casella.com 

The data separated waste as trash and recycling. The given data measured the amount of waste in tons, but by analyzing the data. We have concluded that each person on campus produces around 400 pounds of trash and around 35 pounds of recycling per year.  

In a few years, we will also be able to see and report the amount of compost or food waste produced on campus using the newly set up composting system for students. It’s not just for the dining hall or food labs anymore! (Checkout the Packbasket Bookstore to buy your own compost bucket!)  

Some other ways you can reduce your waste output: 

  • Bring your own reusable container for To-Go meals in the dining hall. 
  • Pay attention to what you’re throwing out. Could it be recycled? Reused? Repurposed? Composted?  
  • Try making a conscious effort to avoid single use items, such as plastic cutlery, grocery bags, water/drink bottles, etc.  
  • Try shopping local when you can, such as farmers markets.  

 

Reach out to us on email sustainabiltiy@paulsmiths.edu, Instagram (@pscsustainability), or stop by our office Student Center 101, with questions or suggestions for ways we can reduce our waste output! 

 

 

 

Bethany Garretson; Sustainability Featured Faculty Member for the Month of March

by | Mar 16, 2022 | Uncategorized

by Ariah Mitchell, Center for Sustainability Communications and Outreach Assistant.

Paul Smith’s College offers many amazing programs focused on important topics such as climate, socioeconomics, as well as diversity and inclusion. These critical lessons are absorbed from life-changing experiences, and for many motivated students at Paul Smith’s, these transformative projects have become a reality through PSC Storytelling Fellowships. I met with Bethany Garretson to talk about these fellowships. Bethany teaches groundbreaking courses on campus such as Diversity and Inclusion by Design and Environmental History and Social Justice, and is working with Adirondack Diversity Initiative on a Business Welcoming and Diversity Organizer Grant. She has also spearheaded the Storytelling Fellowship program and acted as a mentor for students going out into the world and sparking real change with their projects. For these reasons, the Center for Sustainability has named Bethany Garretson the Sustainability Featured Faculty Member for the month of March.

Paul Smith’s College Storytelling Fellowships had their beginnings in 2019 as “Climate Fellowships,” and were based on collecting stories from diverse groups of people about how climate change has impacted their lives. In 2021, the fellowship program went through a transition and adopted a broader title: “Storytelling Fellowships.” As Bethany stated in our interview, “Whether you’re talking about sustainability, race, or gender equality, a story is a direct line between two people.” This interaction is incredibly important for the understanding of others, and for lasting change to become a reality. This year, the fellows are focused on projects specifically surrounding diversity and inclusion, including LGBTQIA and BIPOC community voices, mental and physical ability, and indigenous land rights. Fellows receive $2000-$4000 based on their project, and work with Bethany and other PSC faculty members to construct their plan to collect stories. After the fellowship, the students develop a presentation that represents their findings, whether it be a blog, documentary, or artistic representation. There have been six fellows in all, and as Bethany says, “once a fellow, always a fellow.”

When she first came to Paul Smith’s as a student, Bethany was an Environmental Science major. However, she changed over to Environmental Studies because of her growing interests in the humanities and activism. When she became a professor and started teaching Politics of the Environment, many students approached her about their family members not believing in climate change. Complex data and science aren’t easily digestible for many people, and this scenario became a project over the years that morphed into the Climate for Climate fundraiser, which talked about climate change in a more abstract way. People were more receptive to that format, which gave the inspiration for fellowships to have a more creative component. Nobody can do the work all by themselves, nor are they meant to. Bethany empowers students to create their own projects to learn more about the world and themselves, and to change both for the better.

When you throw a stone, it makes a ripple. Everything is so intertwined that only stories can capture the complexity of people, which is exactly what these fellowships allow students to do. The Center for Sustainability commends all Bethany’s efforts to support diversity and inclusion through her classes and projects on campus, and we can’t wait to see what else she has in store.

The Paul Smith’s College Center for Sustainability empowers a sustainable campus community through infrastructure planning, community and campus partnerships, experiential education, and service learning. We work to build a more resilient campus and community by protecting natural ecosystems, creating economic prosperity and promoting social equity. Find out more about us at www.paulsmiths.edu/sustainability, Contact: Sustainability@paulsmiths.edu 

Lambert House: Sustainability Living Learning Community

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Uncategorized

Program Description

Climate Change continues to have a significant impact on ecological and human systems around the world. The Sustainability Living Learning Community at Paul Smith’s College’s Lambert House will explore how climate change is impacting the Adirondack Park and how the regions ecological and human communities are adapting to our changing climate. Students will learn from PSC faculty, regional leaders (community, government, and area non-profits) working on climate resilience, and then work to develop a more resilient campus community and residence hall. Students will work with their Resident Assistant and Faculty Mentor to identify specific speakers, field trips, community service projects and topics/themes to explore throughout the year.  This project is a partnership between the Paul Smith’s College Center for Sustainability and the Office of Residence Life & Housing.

Community Development Project: 

Lambert House Resident Assistant:

Gage Root

Gage is a junior earning a BS in Fisheries and Wildlife with a Minor in Biology. Gage took over the Sustainability Living Learning Community at Lambert House because he wanted to be a part of a close knit community exploring sustainable living and rural skills. His hobbies include skiing, fishing, and anything outside. If you have any questions about the community, feel free to email him at groot@paulsmiths.edu

Programs and Projects for 2021/2022:

  • Pollinator Garden Raised Beds
  • Residence Hall Composting Program though Blue Line Compost
  • Bird Houses
  • Storage Shed
  • Earth Oven Project
  • Seed Starting
  • Field Trip: Local Homestead/Green Living Tour: Ravenwood Homestead
  • Guest Speakers:
    • Craig Milewsky:  Poetry, “Stirring Ecological Conscious”
    • Curt Stager, Climate Impacts on Campus, Climate Research
    • Bethany Garretson, Rural Skills, Climate Advocacy, Climate stories

Open House Days:  Join us for dinner and a tour!

  • March 19th @ 5pm.
  • April 2nd @ 5pm

Residence Hall Application: Due Date: April 15th

Please answer the writing prompt below and send your statement of purpose to Director of Residence Life and Housing Lou Kaminski @lkaminski@paulsmiths.edu