Sustainable Living Center

Sustainable Living Center: The Sustainable Living Center, founded in 2008, is designed for students interested in learning about sustainability, including topics like environmental justice, ecological stewardship, food, community building, climate action, innovation, policy, and more.

About the Community

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.

 

Residency Expectations

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 an inclusive home on campus.

SLC residents are expected to:

  • Contribute $600 per term to the co-op fund
  • Cook 1 Sunday evening house dinner during the term
  • Commit to attending Sunday evening house dinners
  • Sign up for 2 house grocery shopping trips to the Hanover Co-op per term
  • Sign up for 1 week as a Kitchen Manager, to clean after house dinner and maintain general upkeep of the kitchen space.
  • Sign up for 1 house role per term. Example house roles 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!

Application Prompts

Please answer the following in approximately 150 words or less.

  1. We'd love to hear a bit more about your interests, passions, and/or experience within the wide realm of intersectional sustainability, including climate action and environmental justice. What perspective(s) would you bring to the SLC, or what areas are you hoping to grow in via living in the house?
  2. What does community mean to you, and how do you intentionally enact this vision of community in the groups that you're a part of? Feel free to share a specific story to illustrate. 
  3. In a cooperative living situation like the SLC, you'll get out of the experience what you put into it. Tell us about a time when you were living or working in a group situation and you demonstrated commitment and accountability towards a common goal. 

To apply to live in the SLC, go to your DartHub star portal and select Living Learning when you apply for housing.

Location

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