Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education

Northland College has recently joined the Assocation for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and has named Clare Hintz as our Sustainability Officer. If you are interested in learning more about this organization, or would like to read a post about Northland College's green features, check out this blog: http://www.aashe.net/blog/campus-culture/campus-tour-of-northland-college

Summer time and the livin's easy...

Summer is here and for eco-visionaries that also means it's the easiest season for being "green." You can ride a bicycle pretty much anywhere you go, local produce is available at farmer's markets, and it's prime time for using solar power, but what else can you do to have an eco-friendly summer?
How about watching the grass grow? Okay, okay, you don't actually have to watch it grow, but a healthy lawn can do wonders for the environment. More than 3/4's of all U.S. households have a private lawn; that's a massive amount of plant life working to convert carbon dioxide into clean oxygen, prevent erosion, and provide habitat for crucial insects and invertebrates. Every year consumers spend more than $40 billion dollars on lawn care and landscaping, but not all lawn care is environmentally friendly. Fertilizers and pesticides can cause major damage to wetlands, non-native plants can reek havoc on local eco-systems, and over watering can draw down water tables.
Here are three tips to make your lawn "green":

• Get good seeds. Choose a type of grass that grows well in your environment. If you live in a dry part of the country, don't pick a grass that needs a lot of water. If you have a shaded lawn, don't choose a grass that needs direct sun. The better suited the grass is to your environment, the less maintanence it will need.
• Go Native. When landscaping your lawn choose plants that grow naturally in your area. Not only are they more likely to survive, they reduce the risk of contaminating local eco-systems with "exotic species," non-native plants that compete with native species for water, sun, and other resources.
• Don't Use Gas. The small gas engines used in lawnmowers create an incredibly large amount of pollution for their size. All the upsides of a green lawn can be cancelled out by the noise and pollution of a gas mower. But other options are available. As gas prices sky rocket, more and more companies are offering electric and push powered mowers. The money you spend on a new non-gas mower can be saved in one summer of mowing.