Real Life Experience through the Restorative Justice Movement Center

Environmental Studies’ Impact Internship program has been partnering with the Restorative Justice Movement Center to provide meaningful opportunities and skills for WashU students to help address real environmental issues in Missouri. One of the interns with Restorative Justice Movement Center, Eimear Cunningham, shares her experience as an Environmental Studies Impact Intern below.  I had the […]

Grassroots Organizing with Missouri Sierra Club

Since Spring 2019, Environmental Studies’ Impact Internship program has been partnering with Missouri Sierra Club to provide meaningful opportunities and skills for WashU students to help address real environmental issues in Missouri. One of the Fall 2022 Impact Interns with Missouri Sierra Club, Clara Chavez-Ives, shares her experience as a Grassroots Organizing Intern below.  This […]

Reflection on Community Science and Environmental Justice

On Sunday, April 18th, Office of Sustainability staff along with students from the Energy, Environment and Sustainability Internship Program participated in a clean up initiative at O’Fallon Park, located in North St. Louis City, less than a mile from the Mississippi River. The volunteer project was one of several Environmental Justice Days of Action, organized by earthday365, a local […]

Deia Schlosberg, Filmmaker

Director and producer of the 2019 documentary The Story of Plastic, Deia Schlosberg is an educator, activist, and journalist who graduated from WashU in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Earth & Planetary Sciences and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Visual Communications. Then, after a two-year off-road, 7800-mile trek in the […]

Working Toward Food Security for Our Students

Updated February 2022: Bear Bites is no longer running and there is no plan to reopen. Dining Services maintains the Food Security Fund to ensure no students go without meals. Any questions regarding the Food Security Fund can be directed to diningservices@wustl.edu. According to a 2018 study published by Bon Appetit Management Company – WashU’s […]

Resource Digest: the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice

Increasingly transparent and diffuse, environmental injustice is pervasive locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Communities of color, as well as lower-income communities, witness a higher rate of environmental injustice, which imposes disproportionate economic, environmental, and health burdens on these communities. Increased awareness of the universality of environmental injustices helps foster advocacy and educational initiatives to advance […]

WashU Sponsors Green the Church Summit in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to support the 2019 Green the Church Summit by providing no-cost registration for a limited number of St. Louis community members, as well as university students, faculty, and staff. Green The Church (GTC) is a national initiative designed to tap into the power and purpose of the African […]

New Orientation “Engage STL” Incorporates Sustainability

The Office of Sustainability, in partnership with the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, has helped with the planning of Engage STL, one of the four “themes” in the newly restructured Bear Beginnings program. Engage STL, like the WUGA program, provides incoming first-years with an important introduction […]

Students Explore “Earth Democracy” with Vandana Shiva

On the night of February 13th, Graham Chapel was packed with students anticipating the words of speaker Dr. Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental activist focused on GMOs, intellectual property rights, bioethics, women’s rights, and agriculture worker conditions in India and around the world. The talk came as a part of the Trending Topics series and brought […]

Final Decision Reached by EPA on West Lake Landfill

After years of back-and-forth between community members, grassroots organizations and government agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency has come to a final decision on their path forward for the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site. Located in Bridgeton, Missouri, only a 20-minute drive from campus, the West Lake Landfill is a problem that stretches back to the […]

Alumni Series: Melinda Kramer [Part 3] – Grow the Movement

This is the final section of a three-part interview with Melinda on her journey through the world of sustainability. You can find the first part of this interview series here. In this section, we discuss the impact that we can all make in our daily lives […]

Melinda Kramer, Founder of of The Women’s Earth Alliance

Melinda Kramer graduated from WashU in 2003 with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Environmental Studies. In addition to working with various NGO’s, such as CARE International, Pacific Environment, and the Natural Capital Institute, Melinda is best known for her founding of The Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), a nonprofit that seeks to foster sustainability […]

Displaced: An Art Installation for Climate Justice

Last Friday, nearly 40 members of the WashU community came together to talk about the connections between climate change, disasters, and displacement, to acknowledge the end of “Displaced: An Art Installation for Climate Justice.” Seniors Kristen Patino and Julia Widmann spearheaded the project, with the help of Fossil Free WashU and funding from the Student […]

Engaging in Courses for Environmental Topics

Above: Students in the Sustainability Exchange visit Earth Dance Farms to learn about urban farming for their project that addressed food access. Browsing through WebSTAC for the right courses can be tricky, but luckily there are a few resources available to find courses related to environmental topics for this summer and fall. Recently, initiatives have […]

A Record of Decision for Radioactive Waste Removal

Above: “Barrel Mountain” by Jason Hargrove was inspired by his visit to the Weldon Springs toxic waste containment site where uranium was processed and stored. On February 1, the EPA released a record of the decision announcing its new proposal to remove radioactive waste from the West Lake Landfill. This removal strategy proposes the excavation of […]

Environmental Justice Initiative Connects Students to Opportunities

On Thursday, February 15th, the rain didn’t stop students and community leaders in environmental justice from attending the Spring 2018 Environmental Justice Ice Cream Social – if anything it quickened their pace to the Brown School for an evening of presentations, ice cream, and internship-seeking. Nearly 80 students from across campus, undergraduates and graduates, gathered […]

Connect with WashU Environmental Justice Initiative

The Office of Sustainability has launched a new portion of our website: the WashU Environmental Justice Initiative. The St. Louis region is home to some of the most egregious social and environmental disparities in the nation, from deep-seeded issues of prejudice to concentrated patterns of air pollution, asthma, and lead poisoning. The Office of Sustainability recognizes the […]