Earth Week and the “bean poll”

As part of our Earth Week activities on our campuses, residents got opportunities to catch up with all the sustainability activities that happen here. At Crosslands, there was an Earth Week Fair on April 21, with about a dozen tables representing the various committees and organizations involved in sustainability. At Kendal on the following day, there were tables in the main hall with a similar number of organizations represented.

Participants in the Kendal event included the following committees, some of which are campus-specific, and some of which serve KCC as a whole:

• Arboretum
• Bird Feeders
• Countersett Court project
• Energy
• Horticulture
• Hydroponics
• Resident gardens
• Natural Areas Conservancy
• Plant-based Affinity Group (PBAG)
• Recycling
• Senior Stewards Acting For the Environment (SSAFE)
• Hiking
• Big Woods
• Green K-C

The list at the Crosslands event was similar. It is striking to see how many different resident-led sustainability initiatives there are on our campuses.

The final name on the list, Green K-C, may not be familiar to most residents. It is a relatively new resident group that is trying to facilitate all the sustainability initiatives across KCC, and one of its goals is to have KCC develop a comprehensive sustainability plan. It is the group that organized the hall tables at Kendal on April 22. You’ll be hearing a lot more from Green K-C in the future, including on this blog.

What Green K-C brought to its table, both at the Crosslands and the Kendal event, was a simple poll asking residents to vote for the sustainability efforts they thought should be prioritized. The poll consisted of 8 bowls, each labeled with a sustainability project. Residents were given three beans, which they deposited in the bowl or bowls of their preference. At the end of the event, the beans in each bowl were counted.

Counting beans at Crosslands. Residents were invited to take three beans from the big bowl and place them in the smaller bowls, to indicate their support for 8 different sustainability projects.

The preferred project, at both events, was more solar panels.

Here are the full results:

Priority	Crosslands	Kendal	Total
Add more solar power capability	49	40	89
Add electric vehicles to KCC fleet	37	37	74
Compost scraps from KCC kitchens	38	25	63
Improve insulation of 3-season rooms	21	22	43
Improve health of the Big Woods	18	24	42
Add more habitat for pollinators	25	14	39
Less meat, more plant-based foods	11	25	36
Accelerate removal of invasive plants	14	8	22
Total	213	195	408

The total number of participants in this simple poll, 136, is an indication of the strong interest in sustainability at KCC.

Most of the things on this list are already underway, to one degree or another. Work continues on the health of the Big Woods, including the planting of trees that are better able to tolerate current conditions. Composting of some kitchen scraps at Kendal has begun. A program of trying more plant-based food has been initiated. And so on.  

Do you see something on this list you would particularly like to support? Get active in the relevant committee, or let the administration know of your priorities. Residents have already had a significant impact in many of these areas, but even more can be done.