News & Events
ZC Intern Update #5: The Garden Interns Ivana Onubogu ’21 and Noah Cowit ‘20 Welcome You to the Envi Center Gardens
This summer at the Zilkha Center, the Garden Interns are tending the gardens that surround the Environmental Center. These two interns, Noah Cowit ‘20 and Ivana Onubogu ’21, are responsible for planting new plants and maintaining the current crop in these gardens. From weeding, planting, watering, and harvesting, the garden interns do it all. Every morning,
ZC Intern Update #4: Natalie Turner-Wyatt ’19 Tackles Real Food Challenges
As one can imagine, Williams College spends a large amount of money each year on food purchases. At roughly $7,150 per student per year, approximately $15,000,000 annually goes into feeding the campus via Dining Services, a lofty undertaking by any stretch of the imagination. And since Dining Services are an extension of the Williams community,
Cooking Consumption: Grace Murray ’20, Casey Pelz ’19, and Abigail Miller ’19 Visualize Energy Usage Data Using Kitchens
How can we reduce our energy consumption? Professor Jeannie Albrecht has a powerful theory: we must understand our energy usage before we can change it. In this vein, this summer we have been working with Professor Albrecht to develop, fine tune, and compare ambient visualizations of real-time energy and power usage of the appliances in
ZC Intern Update #3: Jamal Meneide ’19 talks Videography and Community Commitment
Jamal Meneide ’19, the Zilkha Center’s Videographer in residence, is a firm believer in the power of the image. When asked to describe why he enjoys his work, Jamal wrote “images can communicate a mood, an emotion – a story – instantly, in a way that doesn’t take a college degree or studying to understand.
Notes from the Fields: Crystal Ma ’21 on her Summer at Yunnan U
Notes from the Fields: Crystal Ma ’21 Zilkha Center Real Food Intern Fall 2017-Spring 2018 This summer I am in China working at the School of Agriculture of Yunnan University, a research partner of The Land Institute, to study perennial rice crop breeding. I’ve taken interest in this project since studying Wes Jackson and The
ZC Intern Update #2: Heat Wave
This article is about the College’s energy usage data. If you’re interested in the way Williams works to be more efficient and sustainable, you can play with the College’s Projected Emissions Reduction with the Williams Wedge web app. Check it out! Summer is off to a sizzling start. Last week, the East Coast was getting through a blistering heat wave,
ZC Intern Update #1: Weekly Sustainable Lunch
Natalie and Daniel introducing the meal they’ve created. Beets are a recurring favorite Every Thursday, the Zilkha Center interns gather together in the Environmental Center’s kitchen to share a lunch. The interns rotate cooking duties, and every meal is crafted with sustainable ingredients sourced from our community garden and the College’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
Welcoming Caroline, our new Sustainability Coordinator!
Please help us welcome the Zilkha Center’s new Sustainability Coordinator Caroline Bruno! Caroline coordinates and manages much of the ZC’s student-facing work including the Eco-Advisors, Academic Year Interns, Summer Interns, and the ZC side of the ZC-DC Root collaboration. Caroline, an alum of the class of 2015, is excited to return to Williams to connect
Meet the Summer Interns!
Every summer, the Zilkha Center hires students to work as summer interns. For 10 weeks, the interns work in the garden, cook sustainable meals, and work on their own projects for the Zilkha Center. This summer, eight interns have joined us, and we’ll have regular updates on their work throughout the summer. Be sure to
Watch WGBY’s Interview with Williams, Smith & Amherst about the New England College Renewable Partnership
Check out the interview by WGBY’s “Connecting Point” of Amy Johns from Williams, Laura Drauker from Amherst, and Dano Weisbord from Smith talking about our collaborative approach to renewable energy.
Give It Up! – End of Year Donation Program
Give It Up! pods are all around campus! Donate your things as you move off campus to benefit: ABC Clothing Sale First Congregational Church of Williamstown Williamstown Food Pantry Konyango Community-Based Organization (in Kenya) Click here to learn more about these organizations “Give It Up!” is an end-of-year initiative coordinated by CLiA that enables students to donate unwanted
Help Get Dishes Back to the Dining Halls
Dining Services is conducting an end-of-semester call for dishes that haven’t yet made it back to the dining halls. There are 47 dish return bins located around campus. Please put any dishes that you find stashed away in a common room corner in these bins/boxes – regardless of how encrusted in food they are. Help
Forward Food Experience – May 3rd in Whitman’s
After learning about their free plant-based culinary training, Eco-Advisor Astrid DuBois ’20 reached out to the Humane Society to see if they might be able to offer the training for Dining Services. Director Bob Volpi and Executive Chef Mark Thompson were on board and the planning commenced. Wednesday May 2nd will be the training day
High Efficiency Vehicle Stickers & Parking Spaces
To qualify for a Williams high-efficiency vehicle (HEV) sticker, a car must be on the LEED Low Emitting and Fuel Efficient Vehicles list. There is a wide range of fuel efficient, low-emitting cars on the list – more than 4300 qualifying cars from model years 1998-2018. As can be seen on the campus map, HEV
End-of-Year Computer Recycling program – GreenUp
At the end of each year, students, faculty, and staff can safely and responsibly recycle personal computing equipment. What Can I Drop Off? Laptops, monitors, printers, and other computer peripherals are accepted. When and Where is It? The main GreenUp program – for seniors, faculty, and staff – is May 30-31, & June 1st from 12:30-2:30pm at the Facilities barn behind
Williamstown’s Table-to-Farm Composting Initiative
‘Table to Farm’ adds twist to farm-to-table movement BY BRAD JOHNSON “Farm to table” has become a familiar phrase in the Berkshire lexicon as more and more area restaurants emphasize the procurement and use of local produce and food products in the meals served to customers. A Williamstown organization is rolling out a new program
Williams Partners with Four Leading Liberal Arts Colleges to Create New Solar Energy Facility
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 19, 2018— Five of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges have formed a pioneering collaborative that will allow them to offset 46,000 megawatt hours per year of their collective electrical needs with electricity created at a new solar power facility to be built in Farmington, Maine. The partnership represents the first collaborative
Earth Day Meals on Monday!
In honor of Earth Day, here’s what you’ll find at Driscoll, Whitman’s, and Mission dining halls on Monday April 23rd: Driscoll’s Earth Day Meatless Monday Sweet Beet and Apple Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette Lima Bean Hummus with Tomato Toast Hot & Sour Cucumbers Wild Mushroom Salad with Mint Hot Moroccan Mighty Food Farm Carrots* Root
Peer Health, the Berkshire Doula Project and the Feminist Collective bring a more sustainable feminine product to campus
At the end of February, Peer Health, the Berkshire Doula Project, and the Feminist Collective collaborated to put on Menstruation Celebration! This event included a talk by Su-Young Kim ‘14 and a raffle of over 75 free menstrual cups. Su-Young is the founder of Halo Cups, a company for social good. Her company sells menstrual
Thermal Imaging Cameras at the ELC
Interested in learning where in your room or on campus energy is wasted? You can use a thermal imaging camera to see where and how much heat radiates from an object – or in this case, a dog. The Equipment Loan Center has a couple thermal imagers. The Williamstown Public Library also recently got a
Report on College Building
Do you have questions about how the college thinks about building? Like: How does it decide if and when to build? What makes one building project happen before another? And how does the college pay for it all? If so, please read the Report on Building, now available on the Provost’s website.
WEC Relaunches Compostable Cup Program
With spring semester now in full swing, students have busier schedules and thus, grab more cups of coffee on-the-go. Because compostable cups are not always properly composted outside of the dining halls, the Williams Environmental Council (WEC) reinitiated the compostable cup program in Sawyer and Schow libraries. The project was originally started by the Ghana Think
Jessica Munoz ’19 Presents Compost Research Project to the Waste and Recycling Group
Winter Study always allows a period for students to make their academic year a little more unique and individualized, whether it’s by conducting a project, contributing to research, or participating in a class or activity for the month. This past term was no different, especially for Jessica Munoz ’19 who presented her project on what
Fresh Fest at Images March 9th & 10th
Fresh Fest is an annual farm and food film festival at Images Cinema. Friday, 3/9, 7pm: Honey Docs (free) Two 36 minute short documentaries: Keeping the Hives Alive & The Last Honey Hunter. Followed by a panel discussion and honey tasting Saturday, 3/10 at 12pm: Wasted (suggested donation $5) A documentary featuring Anthony Bourdain, Dan
Keeping Up with Elayne Elliott
Time sure does fly. It feels like just last week that Elayne was arriving in Williamstown, starting to learn the job, and immediately involved in supervising a number of summer interns. Over the past nine months, not only has Elayne seriously upped the ZC’s communications game, deftly coordinated the Eco-Advisor programming, and handled crazy scheduling challenges