On April 13, dozens of students across the 5Cs gathered in Scripps College’s Hampton Room to participate in the inaugural Sustainability Summit.
The pioneering event welcomed 22 environmental organizations from across the 5Cs to introduce their mission and efforts to other sustainability enthusiasts on campus.
Chase Allbritton SC ’28, the lead coordinator for the summit, said that the event’s main goal was to promote unity and community organizing across the various environmental groups.
She said she first came up with the idea for the summit in the fall of 2024 after recognizing the distance between sustainability clubs and organizations throughout the 5Cs.
“I thought that there was a need to have all these different groups in one space,” Allbritton said. “Because something that I have learned is that if you have multiple people working on similar projects and coming together, they’re going to figure out how they can make that project stronger, especially with things like environmental initiatives.”
As a sustainability assistant for the Scripps Office of Sustainability, Allbritton said she was able to propose the idea for the summit to the rest of the staff and bring her vision to life in the spring.
Working alongside CMC and Pomona’s EcoReps, as well as members from Sustainability, Environment, and Education Directive (SEED), Allbritton organized the first 5C Sustainability Summit.
Over the course of five hours, sustainability organizations and interested students participated in a series of discussions, workshops and community-building.
The summit offered three 45-minute discussion blocks that covered topics including “Reducing Consumption as a College Student,” “Communicating Climate,” “Evaluating Campus Impact” and “Climate Involvement off Campus: 5Cs in the Community.”
Wilbur Moffitt PZ ’28, who attended the summit with Claremont Environmental Justice (CEJ), said he appreciated the opportunity for the environmental groups on campus to have open discourse and work together towards their shared causes.
Moffitt echoed Allbritton’s observations from the fall, sharing his surprise to find that all the organizations felt disconnected.
“It’s insane, the idea that we are not communicating as much as we can be, or like exchanging ideas, if not just presenting ourselves as a unified front on every issue,” Moffitt said. “To me, it’s the easiest thing to fix in the world.”
For Isabella Newcomer SC ’27, the summit provided that solution. Through extensive discussions, Newcomer said she was able to share her own knowledge and takeaways from her time with the Scripps Sustainabiliteam and learn from other members of clubs that had similar interests and initiatives.
“It was really cool to talk to people [who] kind of shared that common interest and figure out other ways I can get involved with other specific sectors,” she said.
Moffitt said that this summit is only the beginning of cross-organization sustainability work.
“This will happen again, which is exciting,” Moffitt said.
Newcomer also shared her hopes for including other student-led organizations, such as the Motley Coffeehouse, in summits to come.
Similarly, Allbritton said she envisions including new voices in these upcoming discussions, including incoming first-years and those with minimal experience in the environmental field.
Allbritton also shared that a new student government working group was established at the summit and had their first meeting during one of the discussion blocks Sunday afternoon.
“We were just discussing how we want to collaborate and how we should have a lot more frequent meetings to figure out how we can plan with each other, support and brainstorm with one another,” Allbritton said.
She added that many projects in a specific organization cannot be accomplished due to a lack of resources and time, but the emerging working group will hopefully find ways to offer cross-organization support to make these initiatives happen.
According to multiple organizers and attendees, the summit was a success and offers a window into what is to come for sustainability groups across the campuses.
“I think everyone’s just very excited to keep working as a larger group and not just feel disconnected,” Allbritton said. “I’m really happy to know so many other passionate people who are gonna help me out, and people who, moving forward, I know together we can make a change.”
Facebook Comments