The newly created 5C Environmental Council held its first 5C Environmental Conference on Saturday, Feb. 12, in Scripps’ Balch Auditorium. The conference was seen as an important step toward better coordination of 5C environmental efforts.

The event featured two headline speakers, Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Policy Paul Steinberg from Harvey Mudd, and Pomona Sustainbiliy Coordinator Bowen Close PO ‘06. The event also featured a presentation by student representatives from each school and a series of workshops in which students and faculty coordinators shared their thoughts on environmental issues.

Close discussed improvements that Pomona College has made toward sustainability. She stressed that the event was possibly the greatest achievement toward sustainability that she had seen in the ten years since she came to Pomona, first as a student and later as an administrator.

“This conference is the first time there’s been any successfully coordinated effort amongst all five of the colleges,” Close said in an interview with The Student Life. “We tried for years to get together some sort of committee to look at things at the 5C scale, but this is the first time it’s worked.”

According to Close, the only 5C-coordinated efforts so far have been some dining hall initiatives like the “tray-less” campaign and the move to establish the Environmental Analysis program as a 5C major. In terms of future plans, Close said that “there is a lot of opportunity for using our collective purchasing, bargaining, and lobbying power to move forward with new infrastructure, curriculum opportunities, engagement programs, and more.”

During the conference, Steinberg spoke about the importance of student political activism and about the centrality of politics in the lives of Americans.

“What is the legacy of political action that we leave for the next generation?” he asked the audience.

Afterwards, attendees dispersed to various workshops on the lawns outside Balch Auditorium to discuss topics like food justice, water use, composting, and native landscaping, while enjoying a refreshment stand stocked with locally-grown fruit picked by Adam Long PO ‘13.

So far, plans for future coordination are still in the works, but some concrete proposals have materialized. Nate Wilairat PO ‘11, an organizer of the event and the Environmental Affairs Commissioner on the ASPC Senate, suggested that the colleges develop a 5C-coordinated and mechanized composting process. Another idea is to create a forum through which student-run food organizations at the 5Cs can exchange insights about sustainable products and environmentally-conscious vendors.

The 5C Environmental Council, which organized the event, was created last year as a project of the ASPC Environmental Quality Committee (EQC). Besides serving as a forum for the discussion of 5C coordination efforts, the organization also provides a venue for student feedback on the Environmental Analysis program that was recently expanded to all 5Cs.