Strengthen students' commitment to creating a more environmentally and socially responsible world by providing them meaningful opportunities to foster change on campus and in our community.
The Environmental Center fulfills our mission by promoting student and community engagement, advancing sustainability efforts, supporting academics, and fostering connections.
Learn more about how we work.
Our core values provide the foundation for everything we do and guide our interactions with each other, our campus, our greater community, and the world.
Positive Action – At the EC we believe that the path to change is through positive action. The enormity of the challenges faced by our planet can lead to despair and apathy, and working to create change can lead to guilt and defensiveness in others. While some chose to only focus on the problems, at the EC we believe that everyone can be part of the solutions. The EC works to inspire, activate, and empower.
Integrity – Change must be built upon integrity. We are committed to holding ourselves to the principles that we wish to see in the world. We strive to apply social and ecological awareness to every aspect of our lives. We don’t judge others, but encourage awareness and support so that we can all act in ways that support healthy bodies, healthy communities, and a healthy planet.
Connection – Communities are all about connections. Connections exist between individual people, between groups, between societies, and between all the living things that share this planet. We strive to always be aware of these connections and celebrate the relationships that make life meaningful. As humans, we strengthen our connections through honest and compassionate communication.
Creativity - Solving major problems requires thinking creatively. One of the most amazing things to come out of the natural world is the human imagination. Only by unleashing this imagination will we be able to develop innovative solutions to the worlds biggest challenges. Creative expression itself is an inherently revolutionary act.
Discovery – The EC is a place for discovery. We learn facts. We gain skills. We nurture and test different values, beliefs, and philosophies. We constantly strive to learn from our experiences. Most importantly, we learn about ourselves so that we can be more effective leaders and more grounded human beings.