Sustainable Living Center

Students living in the Sustainable Living Center (SLC) will learn how to reduce their environmental impact by minimizing energy inputs and waste outputs, grow food in the house's vegetable garden, and learn about sustainability through participation in the mandatory food co-op program. The community offers academic and social programs including communal dinners, discussion groups, workshops, and access to sustainability events and resources on campus.

At the SLC, we welcome both residents who are new to sustainability and eager to learn more as well as residents with lots of sustainability experience. Residents bring a wide variety of interests and backgrounds to the program. We expect all residents to be passionate, open, and willing to participate and learn. At the SLC we strive to create a place where residents are enthusiastically engaged, excited to meet new people, and committed to building a healthy home on campus.

SLC residents are expected to:

• Contribute $500 per term to the co-op fund
• Cook 1 Sunday evening house dinner during the term
• Participates in a termly House Day
• Attend weekly Sunday evening house dinners and meetings
• Sign up for 2 house grocery shopping trips to the Hanover Co-op per term
• Sign up for 1 house "chore" per term. Example house chores include planting and managing the SLC garden, organizing social and community building events for residents, connecting with faculty and driving academic enrichment of the program, cleaning the kitchen, organizing the living room, overseeing the house’s compost, creating art, and more!

• Rosalie Kerr
• Laura Braasch
• Marcus Welker 

1. Why are you interested in learning more about and living immersed in sustainability thinking and behavior? 
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a team member? What characteristics would your ideal teammates have that would complement your own?
3. At the SLC, we strive to create a place where residents are enthusiastically engaged, excited to meet knew people, and commit time to building a health community. How would you define a health community and what do you think it takes to build one? 

The Sustainable Living Center is located in North Hall, a standalone building on Choate Road near the intersection of North Main Street. View floor plans on the website of the Office of Residential Life.

“Over the past three years, I have used the Sustainable Living Center oven to roast eggplants for SLC Sunday dinners, to procrastinate studying for my finals by baking cookies, to experiment with the science of bread baking, and to bake countless cakes for friends’ birthdays and sustainability events. What I love about the SLC is that the kitchen is more than a place to cook; every time the oven heats up and the smell of baking bread wafts through the house, the kitchen magically becomes filled with residents and friends.

"In the kitchen this term, I’ve learned about spirituality and inclusivity at Dartmouth, about regenerative design and green roofs, about the neuroscience behind how we learn, and about campaign finance reform and how it affects climate change policy. I’ve also learned to make authentic chai tea and bake coconut granola bars from scratch. Most importantly, I’ve learned about my eighteen incredible residents’ fascinating lives and been there to listen, give advice, or just watch in amazement while they navigate the challenges of Dartmouth and the world beyond. I can’t imagine a better place at Dartmouth to live.”