Green Guide

Learn how sustainability is woven into life at Skidmore, from the free campus bike share to move-out. Click through any topic below to find resources, tips, and context that characterize the culture of sustainability on campus. The information below is only a starting point for these topics, and coursework at Skidmore, books, and further study will help you dive even deeper.

Terms That Inform This Guide:

The Skidmore College community embraces both the concept and the holistic, lived practice of sustainability. This recognizes environmental limits and shares the ethic that present actions should not "compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Brundtland Commission). The United Nations created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015, illustrating the interconnected issues facing communities around the world and calling nations to action. These SDG's are referenced in this Green Guide and in the work of Skidmore Sustainability Office.

Inherent in work towards building sustainable communities is recognizing and rectifying societal inequity and environmental injustice. Environmental injustice is “the disproportionate exposure of communities of color and the poor to pollution, and its... effects on health and environment, as well as the unequal environmental protection and environmental quality provided through laws, regulations, governmental programs, enforcement, and policies” (Maantay 2002).