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A Little History, for the Curious:
The CSB Sustainability Office was created in 2010 as a centralized place for Economically, Ethically, and Environmentally Sustainable ideas and work to happen. Around the same time SJU created its own Sustainability Office, run slightly differently with a Sustainability Fellow (usually, a recent SJU grad) instead of a coordinator/student workers. The position wasn’t always filled at SJU– Notable Fellows include Jake Lan, Pierce Jensen, and Cormac Quinn. See the left sidebar for older employee pages.
In 2016, Elissa Brown started as the CSB Sustainability Coordinator. She organized, made a 5 year plan, and created ghg inventories! She was well loved and driven. there was 1 coordinator who served for 5yrs before Elissa.
Pictured: protest art against selling bottled water on campus. The Office helped ban single-use water bottles on campus in 2011, then helped the college add many new no-touch water bottle refill stations!
The Offices have both moved a lot! The SJU office used to live in the SJU powerhouse (213 Physical Plant) but now lives in Pengl with the Environmental Studies profs. The CSB Office has moved from the mail room (016) of the Main to Mary Commons to (in Fall 2020) our current location in Clemens A102 as we have grown in power and influence.
In Fall 2020, the CSB and SJU Sustainability Offices became a JOINT OFFICE — The CSBSJU Sustainability Office! Our website is in the process of catching up to that new togetherness.
History of Stewardship
- Did you Know? SJU’s greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 57.76% since 2008.
- As of 2017, Saint John’s has three different solar arrays on campus. In total they provide 18.75% of our annual energy needs.
- In October 2013 the Powerhouse on campus, used to heat, cool, and produce a portion of energy for campus buildings, switched from burning coal to natural gas. This change reduced Powerhouse emissions by 58%.
- The Sustainable Revolving Loan fund at SJU has saved over 121,800 kWh, 81 tons carbon dioxide, and thousands of dollars since its creation in 2010.
- The SJU Office of Sustainability hired Pearce Jensen for the sustainability fellow position during the 2017-18 academic year.
- The Office of Sustainability implemented the Energy Corps surge protector project during spring 2014 in an effort to reduce phantom energy.
- The SJU Eco-Houses are now managing the Winter Greenhouse, an effort to provide local produce to SJU Dining Services.
The stewardship of our land that gave rise to the SJU Office of Sustainability has its roots in the monastic tradition that is an active part of our campus community. Read more about the history of stewardship.