Students came face-to-face with the environmental concerns affecting both Washington University and the local community during a campus-wide Sustainability Week. Each day from Oct. 17 to Oct. 22, students participated in activities that focused on different issues selected by the University’s Office of Sustainability.

Grilled trout, Brussels sprouts with Missouri-apple-cider gastrique and sweet potato purée may not seem like unusual fare at Ibby’s, but on Tuesday eateries across campus all changed their menus to serve locally-grown food. The different menus were a part of Washington University’s Eat Local Challenge, an annual event that promotes eating local foods in season.

Following a yearlong search, Washington University hired Phillip Valko, a 2003 graduate, to fill the vacant director of sustainability position late this summer. Students hope that having a director of sustainability will both help student initiatives come to life and make the entire campus more sustainable on an institutional level.

We were pleased to hear that the University has finally hired a permanent Director of Sustainability after a year of searching for someone to fill the position. Having someone who can oversee sustainability projects, propose and implement ideas and coordinate initiatives is a necessity at this University.

The Green Cup, a student-organized sustainability competition, will pit Residential Colleges against one another in an effort to reduce electrical energy usage. The contest will take place simultaneously among fraternity houses. Students will be able to track their progress in real time through the competition’s website, greencup.wustl.edu, which goes live Monday.

On Jan. 24, Washington University released a new pledge in an effort to help students go green (formally called a “pledge for sustainability.”) Designed to encourage students and staff to consider their environmentally harmful decisions and make changes accordingly, the pledge calls for participants to reduce their carbon footprints. We commend this pledge, as we would any effort to promote responsible sustainability and reduce waste.

This past Monday, the Office of Sustainability released the new Wash.U. Sustainability Pledge. The pledge states that “Through each of us doing our part, the Washington University community can reduce our environmental impact and create a better future for generations to come.

In Washington University’s continued effort to remain green, the Office of Sustainability has come up with a plan that it calls a pledge for sustainability. The pledge aims to deal with the issue of sustainability on a micro level, teaching the Wash. U. community to take small steps towards becoming green.

On Nov. 18, the St. Louis Hillel at Washington University hosted what was arguably the most successful example of religious pluralism in recent memory at Washington University, the first event of a new program at Wash. U.—Sacred Meals.

Washington University has earned a B on the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s college sustainability report card for the 2011 school year and the report has garnered mixed responses from students and faculty.