University of Minnesota Crookston Associate Professor and Sustainability Coordinator Katy Chapman and students attended the 2023 SELFSustain annual event on the U of M Morris campus engaging with other system campuses on sustainability efforts. The author of “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash”, Edward Humes, was the keynote speaker and theme was The Forgotten Side of Sustainability focusing on ideas that are often overlooked in the sustainability community like intersectionality, the humanities and arts, and how everything connects with sustainability as a whole.
Chapman, U of M Crookston students, and others went on a green energy tour at the Morris campus on an electric bus, rode electric bikes, and toured their dome greenhouse. Software engineering student Shelby Engels gave a talk on collecting energy data on the Crookston campus and he and student Zahra Pagirighalehnoei enjoyed touring Morris’ heating plant and watching the maple syrup lab.
“The conference opened a large window for me to different fields of environmental sustainability,” said Pagirighalehnoei. “I appreciated all their efforts to hold this conference.”
“It was fun to see what the Morris campus is up to in terms of progress in reaching goals in climate neutrality and it was also fun to connect with students and colleagues across the system and to hear what they’re doing in sustainability on their campuses,” added Chapman. “Larry Michaelson, who is from around Detroit Lakes, held the maple syrup lab and has done it as a large hobby. The lab was on the anatomy and physiology on why maple trees flow in the spring, and students learned how to tap on maple logs.”
A SELFSustain conference was also held on the U of M Duluth campus in late 2023.
2023 SELFSustain conference
