How do you explain carbon neutrality to a group of first-years? Cue the carbon-shredding sharks, of course! Following an orientation barbecue for the class of 2016, the Sustainability Office hosted the first Carbon Neutrality Dessert Social, a creative effort to get new students engaged in campus sustainability initiatives.

Hedge-fund manager and philanthropist Louis Bacon ’79 has offered to place 90,000 acres of land in a conservation easement to help create the Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area in southern Colorado. It is the largest single conservation easement ever made to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Middlebury College has awarded Addison County Transit Resources (ACTR) a $100,000 grant towards the construction of its Community Transportation Center.

Environmental activist, author and journalist Bill McKibben accepted the inaugural Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism. McKibben received the $100,000 prize at Dickinson's Commencement on Sunday, May 20.

Hilary Platt '12.5 has been selected as one of the nation's top rising young leaders in the clean energy sector by national organization Focus the Nation. Twenty students from across the country have been selected for their dedication, passion, and unique contribution to increasing clean energy in America. They will meet for one week on Oregon's Mt. Hood at the ReCharge! Retreat. 

Marie Horbar ’09 and Nora Greenglass ’03 are the first recipients of full scholarships to Vermont Law School, part of a new program that also guarantees admission to VLS for qualified Middlebury alumni. 

During February and March, Middlebury participated in a national recycling and waste minimization competition, diverting over 100,000 pounds of waste from landfills in the process! 

After helping to design, build, fundraise, and the multitude of other tasks involved in the creation of Self Reliance, three members of the 2011 Middlebury Solar Decathlon team are now living in the home. Now we can get an inside peak into what it's like to live there. 

Rhiya's Watson Fellowship project will take her from Latin America to Africa to India to study distribution of cook stoves as a means to replace cooking fires—a major contributor to short-term climate change—and build empowerment.

Middlebury College campus sustainability leader Katie Romanov has won the title of America’s Next Eco-Star in the nationwide search for the standout among our country’s next generation of energy leaders.