Earth Month Events Bring Awareness to Sustainability at Trinity College

By Allyson Foley ’26

Contributing writer

Earth Month has kicked off at Trinity College with a plethora of events for the campus community. Led by the Office of Sustainability, events hosted by the office and student groups have taken place in hopes of spreading awareness about environmental issues that are affecting the Earth and how sustainability on campus can play a role in mitigating these issues.

The Office of Sustainability has made great efforts this year to host a wide array of events in relation to Earth Month. Trinity’s Head of Sustainability Hailey Berliner discussed these events and their importance for Earth Month in an interview with the Tripod. The most notable event on the calendar was the 6th annual Greenfest, held on April 13.

Events that took place on campus this month included an open tab & discussion at the Underground Coffee House, Faculty & Staff “Ditch the Dumpster,” Sustainability Trivia at the Cave, and the Sustainable Track Meet. Berliner explained that the “Ditch the Dumpster” event, which is usually student-focused, was an opportunity for anything laying around in faculty and staff offices to be salvaged and brought to the Coop, Trinity’s campus thrift store. The Sustainable Track Meet held on April 20 was an opportunity for student volunteers to monitor waste stations that attendees used. “We are just trying to make this Earth Month more focused on the fact that sustainability is an important thing that we should be thinking about, but it also doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom all the time,” said Berliner in an interview. Berliner also noted that these events build off of the community engagement section of Trinity’s Sustainability Action Plan, with the aim to get a “broader spectrum of people interested in being involved with sustainability efforts.”

“Sustainability in general is obviously very important to me,” said Berliner. “Any little thing that I can do or that we as a college can do is a step in the right direction.” She stressed the importance of abolishing the idea that students have to make huge changes to their lives to help mitigate the effects of climate change, and rather that “making small progress on a daily basis” is what students should focus on. Berliner noted that any small change is a win for environmental justice, such as Mather offering composting stations, which may educate students to compost on their own in the future.

The Office of Sustainability is planning for the future beyond Earth Month, including “Working on starting a sustainability representative program for athletics where each team has a person in charge in trying to make their team more sustainable,” said Berliner.  The program will begin recruiting athletes in the coming weeks. Berliner noted some current services the office provides for students to be made aware of, including that leftover food from any event at Trinity is brought back to the Office of Sustainability and posted on the app FreeEats. Berliner also pointed out that the campus food pantry “Food ‘n Stuff,” located in the basement of Mather, is available and “is focused on tackling food insecurity on campus.”

Berliner stressed the importance of incorporating more courses regarding sustainability and climate action on campus. “I think sustainability, but also the justice piece, is really important and often gets overlooked,” she said in regards to these types of courses. Berliner encouraged students to focus more on sustainability and take whatever steps they can to support these efforts. “Get yourself out in nature and remind yourself of why these events are important because the environment looks different than it used to.”