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Caring for Your Succulent!

Let’s plant that succulent!

Fill your pot almost to the top

Add most of the succulent soil, leaving a little bit of room at the top. Make sure not to pack too tightly (to leave room for roots to grow).

Position your succulent

Place your succulent on top of the soil, nestling its roots into the soil a bit.

Top off the pot

Finish filling the pot with the remaining soil. To prevent rotting, the leaves of the succulent (if you have them) should be completely above the soil. You may be able to add a little more soil after the first watering too.

For more tips, check out How to Plant Succulents.

Keeping your succulent alive!

Succulents should be watered only when totally dried out. Water the soil until it is completely soaked, then wait until it’s totally dried before watering again. The amount of watering needed will depend on the succulent, but typically they should be watered at most once a week.

To find out more about watering, this beginner’s guide can be helpful: How to Water Succulents: Complete Beginner’s Guide

Propagate the leaves!!

Cut your leaf

Using a sharp pair of scissors, cut a leaf from right above the stem.

Leave your cutting alone for 1-3 days

Let your cut leaf scab over and dry out.

Water your cutting

Once your leaf starts to shrivel, place it on top of some soil and water it anytime the soil dries out.

Wait it out

After a few weeks of watering, your cutting should start to grow roots.

For more information on propagating, take a look at How to Propagate Succulents from Leaves and Cuttings!

Need Help?

We love hearing from you about how you liked the activity. Please send us pictures of your succulents in their new home or any questions you have. Does it have a name? If your succulent looks a little sad, shrively or dead, don’t worry! It’s super easy to nurse it back to health. Don’t give up, just be patient.

Mug Cakes, Microwaves, and More Connections to Sustainability

February 21, 2021 / Maya Heikkinen / 0 Comments

Curious to learn more about how microwaving your mug cake is related to reducing your environmental footprint? Mug cakes and the environment may seem like disparate and only distantly connected topics, but as we began to uncover in our last post, what you choose to consume and how you cook it are closely related to sustainability and make up a large portion of your personal environmental impact.

Beyond saving energy and lowering heating costs, as well as reduced air pollution and fewer dirty dishes to wash, cooking food in the microwave is in certain ways much more efficient nutritionally and functionally, making it more conducive to a low-impact and more sustainable lifestyle.

Due to the lower cooking temperature, reduced cooking time needed, and more even heating of food through deeply penetrating microwave radiation, microwaves waste and break down fewer nutrients in food. Spinach, for instance, retains nearly all of its folate (a vitamin for healthy red blood cells) in the microwave but loses 77% on a conventional stove. Microwaves also produce less of the cancer-causing carcinogens often produced through the charring of food; for instance, potatoes are less likely to produce acrylamide, and bacon produces less nitrosamines.

In terms of preparing food sustainably for one person, microwaves are more suitable for cooking smaller, single servings of food, as opposed to heating an entire oven for a single meal. Also, smaller portions mean less leftovers, and less food waste. Microwaves also take up much less space, meaning they are well-fitted for a tiny home or smaller living space, such as an apartment or converted school bus.

Maintaining your microwave also has implications for the environment: because microwaves are smaller, they require less cleaning product, and also turn off automatically, which reduces the risk of fires—and all of the damages inflicted by fire. Also, making sure to clean your microwave regularly will actually make it even more effective and energy-efficient by maximizing the radiation reflected back at food (The Scientific American).

So, microwave (and enjoy) your mug cake knowing that you are at least producing a smaller environmental footprint, as well as maximizing the nutritional benefit you receive from your food, than if you were to bake an entire cake in a conventional oven. However, is the microwave the most environmentally-friendly option, and are there more important questions to consider? Looking at the broader picture, it is worth reconsidering how we can most sustainably utilize space, energy, and nutrients to cook our food, as well as related issues such as where our food is coming from, how it is produced, and whether food and resources are being distributed equitably across populations with minimal waste. The facts in this blog post come from a History of Microwave article.

Food Matters: How Your Eating Habits Can Help Save the Earth

November 10, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

Don’t worry, this is not another blog post telling you that you SHOULD be a vegan or vegetarian! Instead, we are here to help you make environmentally-friendly food, in a microwave! Now you might be asking yourself, is a microwave even eco-friendly in the first place?

About 60 percent of our conventional ovens are powered by electricity, not gas—and they’re less efficient than standard microwaves. In the first place, conventional ovens operate at a higher wattage—about 3,000, compared with something between 600 and 1,650 for a microwave. They also cost us energy by cooking food more slowly. One University of Bristol study found that a chicken cooked in a convection microwave resulted in energy savings of 30 percent over a conventional electric oven.

Microwaves do have a few other environmental advantages. For one thing, they produce a lot less indoor air pollution than other cooking methods. Plus, they don’t heat up your house the way an oven can, which means lower energy costs associated with both your A/C and your refrigerator. Heating up a meal on the plate you intend to eat off of also means fewer dishes to wash—although regular use of your microwave might encourage higher consumption of ready-to-eat convenience meals and all their extra packaging.

Food waste is an important environmental consideration: Not only does it mean more garbage, it also means squandering all the resources that went into growing, storing, and preparing that food. Therefore, although the amount of energy that you consume while preparing the food matters, it is just as important for you to ensure that you do not waste that food!

This blog post is from the Slate Article titled, Are Microwave Ovens Good for the Environment?

Don’t stop beleafing… we’re halfway there!

October 19, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

This week’s event with Energy2028 First-Year Eco-Breaks is Terrarium Making!

Since it’s probably too cold for you to garden outside now, we are offering you an opportunity to indoor garden with terrariums, giving your room some greenery and life while the leaves slowly fall outside.

What is a terrarium? A terrarium is a small, typically sealed container, and has a base of gravel, charcoal, moss, and soil. This environment supports the growth of a miniature garden of moisture-loving plants. The plants draw moisture from the soil and evaporate it through their leaves, through transpiration. Water droplets form and drip down the sides of the container, returning to the soil. This process mimics nature’s water cycle, and sustains plant life.

Here’s a picture of what you could have!

Terrariums can look like a fairy garden, with pebble paths, toadstools on mossy hills, tucked away cottages, and animals peering through lush foliage. It can also look like a woodland hike that you miss, with plants like ivy, bugleweed, baby tears and peperomia.

We will provide all the supplies you need to unleash your imagination at this very moment! All you need to do is sign up and we will deliver the supplies to your dorm!

Sustainability Trivia

October 15, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

Since this week’s theme for the Energy2028 First Year Eco-Breaks is Sustainability Trivia, we are posting some cool nature and sustainability facts below! We think they are cool, and we hope you do too!

The term sustainability was coined in the 1987 Brundtland Report, which officially defined sustainable development for the first time.
The concept of a circular economy looks beyond societies’ current take-make-dispose model to create a more restorative economy which designs out waste, keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible, and regenerates natural systems.
Human-induced emissions of CO2 need to fall by 45% from its 2010 levels by 2030 to reach net-zero by 2050 and limit the climate change catastrophe.
Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees.
The world’s indigenous population makes up only 5% of the global population, but protects upto 80% of its global biodiversity.
Landfills are composed of 35% packaging materials.
A glass bottle made today will take more than 4,000 years to decompose.
Only 1% of China’s 560 million city residents breathe air that is considered safe by the European Union.
The human population has grown more in the last 50 years than it did in the previous 4 million years.
If the entire world lived like the average American, we would need 5 Earths to provide enough resources.

We got these facts from: WebEcoist, The World Counts, and the Sustainability Management School of Switzerland. Know any other cool facts you’d like to share? Comment below!

The top prize for the trivia winner is a 4Ocean Bracelet! 4Ocean is a purpose-driven business, founded in Bali, Indonesia, that hopes to help end the ocean plastic crisis. They are committed to the highest sustainability and accountability standards.

Join us for a synchronous session on Zoom! Password: 435422

Protect the Pollinators!

October 13, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

So you may wonder, why our activity was apple tasting?

Each year Vermont growers produce around 1,000,000 bushels (or about 40 million pounds) of apples.
Vermont orchards grow more than 150 varieties of apples.
The McIntosh is the most important apple grown in Vermont accounting for about 50% of Vermont’s apple crop.
Local Food

Beside apples, other local major crops that rely heavily on insect pollination include almonds, blueberries, melons, and squash. Some additional produce that require the help of pollinators are strawberries, chocolate, peaches, figs, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Many of which, you can find in The Knoll!

Pollinators are responsible for assisting over 80% of the world’s flowering plants to reproduce. Without them, humans and wildlife would not have much to eat or look at! They include animals that assist plants with their reproduction and range from bees, bats, birds, butterflies, and even beetles.

Bee The Change

This is also a good time for you to know about Bee the Change, a Vermont-based family farm using the unused space in solar fields to support threatened pollinators and bees. Their first field was installed in May 2016, and in their first year, there were 34 unique pollinator encounters in a 15 minute period. The next year, they surveyed the same plots and encountered 174 unique pollinators in 15 minutes.

Mike Kiernan, the founder, has internships for Middlebury students to work on Bee the Change every year!

Single use PPE is clogging our oceans!

September 23, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

Why did we decide this “sew your own face mask” activity was relevant?

You can never have too many face masks
Sewing is an important life skill everyone should know
Single-use PPE from COVID-19 has increased the amount of plastic waste throughout the world, specifically in our oceans

What do masks do?

Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice.

Why should everyone wear a mask?

COVID-19 spreads mainly among people who are in close contact with one another
The CDC recommends that people wear masks in public settings, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain
Wearing a mask helps prevent spreading the virus to others (you could be positive and not know it!)
Masks are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings
Please visit the CDC Website for more information

How has COVID-19 Impacted the Environment in General?

Positive Impacts

A reduction in CO2 and drop in air pollution due to fewer people traveling and less industrial activity
In Venice, water in the canals cleared and experienced greater water flow
Decreased demand for fish and fish prices→ there are signs of aquatic recovery
In the United States, fatal vehicle collisions with animals such as deer, elk, moose, bears, mountain lions fell by 58% during March and April
Sea turtles spotted laying eggs on beaches they once avoided due to the lowered levels of human interference and light pollution

Negative Impacts

The UN’s COP26 climate change conference which was set to be held in November 2020, has been postponed
More people are shopping online which increases the amounts of packaging and individual’s carbon footprints
US Cities are pausing recycling programs because they don’t think it counts as essential work
A decrease in carbon emissions has led governments to divert attention away from green issues
Increase in poaching (specifically in Africa) because people have no alternative sources of income
Increased illegal deforestation in the Amazon

In conclusion, COVID-19 has brought temporary changes to our lifestyle providing evidence that actions can be taken to decrease the threat of climate change. However, these benefits are not significant enough to mitigate climate change all together. There is no doubt that something needs to be done about climate change and now we have actual proof that our actions can positively affect the issue. We need to prioritize climate change because it is coming faster than we may think!

Here are some more sources incase you want to learn more about how COVID-19 has/will affect the environment!

Articles

Videos

Seen from space: COVID-19 and the environment

Why Coronavirus won’t save the environment | COVID-19 and climate

Nature Inspired Art Pieces

September 16, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

Nature has been a muse to so many poets and painters over the past centuries, up until today. With art as a lens, artists have been able to draw attention to some of the most pressing matters in human and environmental affairs. Here are a few of the most famous nature-inspired art works:

Van Gogh: “Irises”, 1889

Although Van Gogh’s work was more popular posthumous than they were in his lifetime, nature greatly influenced his work. From Sunflowers to Irises, his paintings of flowers have a life of their own on his canvases.

Paul Cezanne: “Mont Sainte-Victoire”, 1895

A little more obscure to non-art buffs, Paul Cezanne sought to depict human forms and buildings as simply an extension from the natural landscape – blending in almost seamlessly to the side of the hills – the inherent quality of the landscape giving it its light and color.

Claude Monet: “Water Lilies”, 1919

A celebrated Impressionist of his time, Monet’s nature paintings are well known in the history of art. He promoted direct contact to nature and used it to develop new trends in painting.

Georgia O’Keeffe: “Waterfall, No 1, ‘Iao Valley Maui”, 1939

Famous for her abstracted paintings of the American desert, not many people knew that O’Keeffe spent several months in Maui, one of the lush islands of Hawaii. This painting serves as a tribute to the land, untouched by human development or pollution. Seeing the purity of the landscape is a religious experience for anyone who visits Hawaii.

Winslow Homer: “Gloucester Harbor”, 1873

File:Gloucester Harbor Winslow Homer 1873.jpeg - Wikimedia Commons

A self-taught American artist, Homer was fascinated with nature and used the traditional oil medium to paint his landscape and marine subjects during his working vacations. His painting of Gloucester Harbor showcases the beauty of color, the shifting light, and the serene atmosphere of the vacation at sea.

We hope these paintings inspired you for the watercolor painting activity this week!

Post Written By: Monique Santoso

Breaking News: Indoor Plants Will Make YOU A Better Student!

September 9, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

There are so many benefits to having a plant in your dorm room. A study by Michigan State found that being around plants can increase memory retention by up to 20 percent!

Why have plants?

Improve air quality and humidity levels
Reduce stress
Make people calmer and happier
Reduce workplace negativity
Reduce symptoms of discomfort and minor ailments
Reduce absenteeism
Speed up recovery from illness
Improve concentration, productivity and creativity
Save energy
Absorb noise

The Attention Restoration Theory

Proposed by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan in 1989
Directed attention is the effortful process that helps individuals focus on objects or events while simultaneously blocking out distracting stimulation
- Ex. if you are doing work in a cafe, you are able to continue reading and are not distracted by other people’s conversations or the whirring of the coffee machine.
There are limited amounts of directed attention and specific environments can better restore attentional depletion
Natural scenes like vegetation or water can be restorative by counteracting stress and facilitating the recovery from mental fatigue

If you still don’t believe us, check out this short article about 5 Reasons to Have Houseplants in Your Dorm Room.

Sustainable Laundry FAQ’s

August 27, 2020 / Maya Saterson / 0 Comments

Are you a seasoned laundry pro? Or a newbie? No matter what your answer is, check out our Frequently Asked Questions to learn how to do laundry at Midd and how to do it the most sustainable way possible!

Q: Where is the laundry room?

In Stewart, it is on the first floor. There are two stairwells, the Proctor side and the Mccullough side. The laundry room is on the Mccullough side stairwell. If you walk past the Pit (the yellow room) you walk through the doors (towards the dorm rooms) it will be the first 2 doors on your right.

In Hepburn, the laundry room is in the basement. The stairs are located to the left of the elevator (alternatively you can take the elevator to the basement). After walking down the stairs, turn right, (go through some doors) and then left (you will see a door leading outside, if you go through it, you’ve gone too far!). There are two laundry rooms in hepburn (although they are right next to each other). You can use either!

Q: How do I do laundry?

Purchase a laundry card Middlebury uses a pay system where you can purchase a card at the bookstore. It comes with enough money on it that you can do one load of washing and drying.
Add value to your card You can add-value to the card at the following locations: the entrance to Ross Dining Hall, Forest Hall laundry room, Atwater Hall A laundry room and McCullough (next to the ATM).
Scan the card to pay In the laundry rooms, there will be a machine that you can use to pay with your card. You may have to identify the number on your laundry machine and plug this into the machine. Make sure the machine you plan to use is empty because you cannot receive your money back.
Put your laundry in the machine We recommend waiting to do laundry when it is a “full load” because this is more sustainable. A full load means that the machine is ~¾ full. Do not overfill!
Add detergents and/or fabric softeners
1. Liquid The lid to most bottles serves as a measuring cup and will indicate how much you need (typically ¼ c. liquid detergent is used per load). There is a drawer that you pull out (top left of washer) and insert your detergent and/or liquid fabric softeners.
2. Pods Add one or two pods directly to the washer drum with your clothes
3. Laundry Beads Add directly to the drum
Select cycle We recommend that you use “brights”. This cycle uses cold water which is better for your clothes and the environment. Putting mixed colors or whites in a cold temperature wash will not affect clothing.
Set a timer! (Usually 40 minutes is good) There are a limited number of washers and dryers and we want to remember to be courteous to our peers. Don’t be that person who always leaves their clothes in the laundry room. Also, after a few hours, your clothes will begin to develop odors from sitting in a wet washer (and will need to be rewashed) so you should immediately dry them.
Move your clothes to a dryer Depending on how large your load was, you can oftentimes dry two laundry loads in one dryer (especially in Stewart!) Don’t forget to take out items of clothing that are supposed to be air dried.
Add dryer balls or sheets We recommend using dryer balls because it is more sustainable and can even be cheaper. Most wool dryer balls have natural fabric softener, are hypoallergenic, help reduce wrinkles, and shorten drying time.
Clean the lint trap Before starting the dryer cycle, remember to clean the lint trap. Theoretically, the person before you should have cleaned it when they were done but it’s good to check. A full lint trap can lead to clothes taking longer to dry and even become a fire hazard.
Dry clothes on low heat While the low heat setting takes more time, it is still more efficient. Dryers use more energy on heat than on tumbling, so reducing heat will save more energy than reducing tumbling. This is also better for your clothes!
Clean the lint trap Before leaving, clean the trap so that it is ready for the next user
Fold clothes If you fold your clothes while they are still warm, this reduces wrinkling!

Q: What kind of detergents should I use?

HE Detergent

While it is not mandatory, it is recommended that you use High Efficiency (HE) detergents. These detergents need less water because their formula has low sudsing and quick dispersing. They are equally effective as other detergents and most name brands (eg.Tide) offer HE detergents (in liquid and pod form).

Pods vs Liquid

This is personal preference. However, we recommend that you use liquid detergent for the following reasons: (1) the pods have microplastics which are bad for our oceans and marine friends (2) sometimes the pods do not “melt” completely and leave a sticky residue on your clothes.

Q: Do I need fabric softeners or dryer sheets?

A: This is also personal preference. To be more sustainable (and it’s cheaper), we recommend purchasing wool dryer balls (~$7). They have natural fabric softener, are hypoallergenic, help reduce wrinkles, and shorten drying time.

Q: How often should I do laundry?

A: Check out our graphic! Most students do their laundry weekly or bi-weekly (every two weeks) but it’s up to you.

EcoDorms 2025

Promoting Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors in First-Year Students