Written by Erin Kelly, Sustainability Program Assistant
One of our most beloved programs the Sustainability Office oversees is the Sustainable Living Center (rather known as the ‘SLC’). The SLC is a living and learning community, established in 2008, that gives students the opportunity to engage with like-minded, sustainability-driven individuals, with the hands-on experience of living in shared space. Students who live in the SLC form a close-knit community and often form lifelong friendships there. Being a residential program gives students a chance to form a bond of trust, openness, and dialogue that creates a rich learning environment where they can dig into complex issues of sustainability, share joyful moments together, and learn from each other’s experiences.
The basic tenets of the SLC begin with the ways in which they shop, cook and share expenses within the house. Each member of the home pays a cost-effective sum of $600 per term for groceries that then get used for biweekly trips to the local food co-op. Here the students purchase food for their weekly community dinners, as well as stock the kitchen that is mutually shared by all. Students make decisions about food purchases as a community, having discussions about what it means to make sustainable consumer choices and how to balance out “sustainability” within residents’ personal and communal priorities for food- dietary restrictions, desire for a varied diet, and culturally relevant ingredients.
Photo Credit: Tobin Yates 26'
In addition to cooking community and house meals together, the SLC residents use their house and space to explore other avenues of sustainable living as a whole. Each term, new student managers of the house propose ideas to help cultivate and grow options around potential ways of living more ‘green.’ Current house manager Anna Roodnitsky 25’ shares her thoughts on entering the SLC by adding,
“[I] had..been looking for a community at Dartmouth that I could feel "at home with" because I am not engaged with Greek Life, so the SLC was a perfect fit for me. Being an environmental studies and economics double major, I had a lot to explore as a new house member, and thanks to living here I've been connected to so many wonderful people and resources that have helped guide me both career-wise but also in growing as a person. One thing that I love that we do is shop local and also be mindful about what we're buying (less meat, more produce from nearby farms), so I think that being able to be more connected to our food system has been really impactful for me. One of my first classes at Dartmouth was ENVS 14, "Sustainable Food Systems," so the way the house functions in that regard was a big part of what drew me in.”
Photo Credit: Tobin Yates 26'
Connecting the students to what they are learning in their curriculum, and potentially growing these lifeways is not uncommon for those that have felt connected to the SLC. Another current manager of the SCL, Liam Nokes 25’, comments that “the SLC has afforded me so many ways to get involved in other people's sustainability projects on campus - I get to help out with our wildflower garden, hang out at the O-Farm, interact with the SAPlings, etc..”.
The SLC offers potential community and also speaks to experiential sustainable models for sustainable housing. Looking into the coming 2025 winter term, Megan Liu, one of the sustainability office’s senior interns, aims to weatherize the structure of the SLC so that the building may be more energy efficient, and host a workshop to educate others about how weatherization could work in their homes or dorm rooms. As a part of her senior intern project, Liu aims to make the SLC a blueprint for weatherizing other residential dorms on campus.
Overall, the Sustainability Learning Center offers so much to our student community. The friendships formed there and the value of learned experience living sustainably cannot be measured and have lasting positive impacts on our students’ lives for years afterward. This house offers a legacy of student housing that stresses the connection to the environment and to each other. The passion of the SLC residents certainly helps change and grow the campus dialogue around what it means to live sustainably at Dartmouth College. We can’t wait to see where the creativity and compassion of this year’s cohort will lead.
Photo Credit: Tobin Yates 26'
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