In my welcome note back in Block 1, I was excited about the returning on-campus energy and the ways in which we hoped to move ahead this year in the Office of Sustainability; looking back, we’ve done just that. Our intern and volunteer teams are once again in-person and fully functioning. We’ve reinstated and evolved our programming, including our Sense of Place offerings and the Earth Week events that just passed. PikeRide was made available to all students, faculty, and staff, and we’ve ridden over 15,000 trips totaling nearly 19,000 miles! Our office did strategic planning around next steps and has set internal goals and directions for our teams — right now, we’re busy hiring the team that will carry that work forward into next year.

Nothing is going to go “back to normal” and we’ve got plenty of things we still need to rebuild and adapt to become a more sustainable campus, but we’re well on our way. As I look back on this academic year, my feelings of optimism this past fall were justified. Wrapping up the final loose ends on our academic year push, I’m feeling energized by the intermittent summer-like weather and am looking forward to another successful year in 2022-23.

I hope you all feel, too, that this has been a successful return to campus. It has been successful for our sustainability efforts, yes, but also more generally in how we’ve come together once again as a campus community; it feels long overdue, but refreshing. I wish you all a safe and enjoyable summer and I look forward to continuing to build our community in the coming academic year. If this past year has been any indication, we’ll be back at move-in and NSO before we know it!