Triton College Sustainability Center takes education back to nature

River Grove, Ill. – A new setting for Triton College students to experience outdoor learning will soon be introduced to the college campus and its surrounding communities. On Saturday, Sept. 15, the Triton College Sustainability Center will reveal its newest green space – a vast wooded area adjacent to the campus that the center adopted from the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.

The section of woods will be maintained by the campus community, while also allowing for students and faculty of Triton’s programs to explore and utilize the space for educational purposes.

“This area has many species of native plants and a creek that flows into the Des Plaines River that students and faculty of our environmental biology and sustainable landscaping courses will find beneficial for hands-on learning,” said Sustainability Center Coordinator Adrian Fisher. “Healthy ecosystems are vital for sustainability, and we’re fortunate to have this forest preserve area right on our doorstep.”

She added the wooded area will be named Adena Woods, after research of the area, compiled by Triton Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Geography Dr. John Tandarich, showed the Native American Adena tribe was known to inhabit the land.  

To introduce the newly named Adena Woods to the community, the Sustainability Center will sponsor a clean-up as part of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s Des Plaines River Clean-Up Day on Sept. 15. Anyone interested in volunteering in the clean-up should arrive no later than 9 a.m. at the Robert M. Collins Center (R-Building) on Triton’s River Grove campus. Volunteers should dress appropriately, and supplies will be provided.

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Triton College’s focus on offering degrees and certificates with a sustainability focus has been recognized with a national certification and a nod by Gov. Pat Quinn.

In May, Triton was certified as a Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities (HSACU) institution by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, one of only two certified HSACUs in Illinois. The college was also named a Bronze level recipient of the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact by Gov. Pat Quinn and the Green Governments Coordinating Council for incorporating sustainability into campus operations, academic and research programs, student activities and community outreach.

“Triton College’s commitment to sustainability is a model for Illinois, and those green practices will help save money and conserve resources,” Gov. Quinn said. “Triton students will also benefit from classes that prepare them to enter the green industries that are going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the next century.”

Triton’s Sustainability Center, a virtual hub of knowledge, programming and materials about sustainability practices, will kick off its free monthly program, Sustainable Thursdays, starting Sept. 27, 2012.

• Sept. 27 – Deborah Popely of Green Events Source will present the basic principles behind green meetings and events and discuss how to improve sustainability in food and beverage service, exhibiting, marketing, audiovisual production and other aspects of event management without diminishing the participant experience. Popely is a recognized expert on green meeting sand events and is co-founder of the Green Meeting Industry Council of Chicago.
• Oct. 25 – A green business forum will be held with presentations by area businesses and organizations that practice sustainability in their operations and/or offer a sustainable product or service. Details to come.
• Nov. 15 – Presentations on sustainability and environmental topics shown at the 23rd Annual Bioneers Conference: Emergence, held in California in October, will be exclusively released and discussed at this last Sustainable Thursdays of the season. Videos of selected talks will later be made available on the Triton Library Sustainability LibGuide and for instructors to use in their classrooms.

Each workshop will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in Room B-204/210 of Triton’s Student Center (B-Building).

On Oct. 6, during Triton’s annual Fall Family Fun Fest, the Sustainability Center will be collecting electronics to recycle from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the North Parking Lot at Triton.

For more information, contact Adrian Fisher at afisher@triton.edu or at (708) 456-0300, ext. 3578.

Possible Story Angles:

• Join us on clean-up day to find out what makes Triton College go ga-ga for going green, including its Sustainability Center, the Greening The Campus Committee, its sustainable operations and developing educational programs with a green focus relevant to today’s job market.
• Talk to faculty about their plans to utilize Adena Woods to inspire innovative learning among their students.
• Follow us into Adena Woods and learn about the culture of the Native American Adena tribe from expert adjunct faculty instructor Dr. John Tandarich.

Contact Public Relations Writer Alicia Roberson at (708) 456-0300, ext. 3608, or e-mail aroberso@triton.edu.

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