Protecting our environment remains a shared community value.
Purchase College embeds sustainability into all aspects of campus operations and life by empowering students and community members to protect our shared environment.
We outline some recent highlights from this semester.
Bioswales Improve Local and Regional Water Quality
West Loop
Several years ago, we transformed the grassy area separating the West 1 parking lot from the Loop Road by constructing a large bioswale—a system that mitigates runoff by capturing, treating, and filtering surface water.through engineered soils and all-native vegetation.
The West 1 system absorbs and naturally filters more than 26,500 cubic feet of surface runoff, decreasing the volume of water and reducing pollutants such as phosphorus, nitrogen, sediments, metals and pathogens from reaching Blind Brook and ultimately the Long Island Sound.
Central 3
In recent months, we installed a second bioswale system in the grassy area surrounded by Lincoln Avenue, the Central 3 parking lot, and the Fort Awesome residence hall.
Similar to the West Loop project, native plants will grow in the the large depression in the earth to mitigate surface runoff water.
Both are living laboratories that serve as the focus of student research.
Over two days in early September, campus community members spread out into our 500 acres to see how many species could be documented in 48 hours. Events organized by Associate Professor Allyson Jackson and Sustainabiity Coordinator Grace Afflerbach included freshwater and forest expeditions as well as a Nighthawk Watch and Birding Expeditions, the latter two led by Professor Emeritus Lee Shlesinger, resident of the Broadview Senior Living Community.
Using the free smartphone app iNaturalist, participants logged observations of as many types of living things on campus as they could find—plants, fungi, animals, insects, etc.
More than 40 participants logged over 1,100 observations and 347 different species in these categories:
The fall semester began with new vending machines throughout campus and none offer beverages in plastic bottles. Thanks to the Sustainability Advisory and Outreach Committee (SAOC) and the Purchase College Association (PCA) who worked together to take a big step toward achieving the goal of phasing out single-use plastic bottles on campus.
