In the past few years, sustainability has taken the ISU campus by storm. Students and faculty alike are joining together to raise awareness about the go-green initiative, one example being a newer club on campus — Leadership for a Sustainable Community.

Leadership for a Sustainable Community is the student chapter of the LAS Green Team. President Aubrey Dalbec, junior in environmental science, and Treasurer Allison Vincent, junior in environmental science, said that having this affiliation is one of the things that make this club unique.

“There are a lot of sustainable clubs on campus, but we are unique because we have a broad network to work with,” Vincent said. “Being involved gives people to the opportunity have more contacts (for sustainable resources).”

Members of Leadership for a Sustainable Community are invited to attend Green Team meetings and encouraged to give their input on ideas and issues. Vincent said they “want students to get involved because they see campus differently.”

Dalbec and Vincent also believe diversity is important. Although both leaders are environmental science majors, they want students to know the club is open to students of all majors from any department. They explained that the more diverse the club members, the more perspectives there are to contribute to the ideas and goals they wish to accomplish on campus.

Last year, the team sponsored the event known as “Dumpster Dive,” in which student groups were asked to adopt a trash container and routinely check how full it was before it was tipped (or emptied) each day. The main objective of this project was to see if it was necessary for trash bins to be tipped every day. By reducing the amount of tips, the university didn’t need to have the trucks come out as often, saving both money and emissions from the Dumpster trucks.

“Dumpster Dive” was successful and the amount of tips were reduced. Leadership for a Sustainable Community hopes to find the same success in one of its first goals for this year.

This year, one major goal of the club is to promote recycling all around campus.

“All buildings handle their recycling practices differently,” Dalbec said. “The Green Team’s main goal is to make recycling [on campus] more universalized.”

Dalbec said Iowa State already recycles paper, cardboard and ink, but not bottles and cans … yet. One way the club plans to accomplish its goal is to implement the use of recycling bins for cans and bottles. Members of the team will be responsible for emptying those bins. The group is also involved in Earth Week, VEISHEA and Sustainability Day.

Dalbec and Vincent would like to invite students interested in joining efforts with the LAS Green Team and Leadership for a Sustainable Community to attend one of their meetings, which take place in 257 Science I at 7 p.m. every other Wednesday.