Sustainability & Environmental Affairs

Meet at the front porch of Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest to join the popular Fall Family Weekend Campus Tree Tour led by passionate Middlebury horticulturalist and tree expert Tim Parsons. Learn fun facts and hear stories about various trees around campus. Tim will also explain how he manages our rural Vermont campus as an urban forest.

Check out Tim Parson’s blog, The Middlebury Landscape, or follow Tim on Instagram.

The Knoll welcomes Writer in Residence Emerita, award-winning Dominican-American novelist, poet, and writer Julia Alvarez, for an immersive poetry workshop at the Knoll. In case of location change due to weather, please visit go/knollhours/ for up-to-date information.

We’re delighted to release our community sourced book filled with memories, photos, art, and poetry submitted by 60+ alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends. Light refreshments provided, followed by a short program and readings from contributors.

 Looking to support your climate-related work? Get summer funding, develop skills, work with peers: join us for this info session to learn more and apply to be a Climate Action Fellow! Have an idea you’d like to explore? An unpaid internship you’d like to fund? A desire to supplement and connect your paid internship with a cohort of others working on climate this summer and into the academic year? Learn more in this in-person info session at go/caf.

2023-2024 Midd Climate Action Fellow Application window: March 6-April 7.

Join the Hearthunder Art Collective to collaborate on a kinetic butterfly art installation in preparation for this spring’s Art vs. Apocalypse events on the roles of art and creative expression in confronting climate change and environmental challenges!

All materials provided. No experience necessary!

A presentation on landscape ecology, land use change, biodiversity conservation, and ecological restoration in Chile by Dr. Adison Altamirano, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of the Frontier (UFRO) in Temuco, Chile. This seimnar will be followed by a short reception at 5:15 pm for Dr. Altamirano and his colleague Prof. Alejandro Herrera Aguayo who is also a faculty member at UFRO in Anthropology. Sponsored by the Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest.

1 hour conversation with the famous Midd alum, Mark Synnott. Mark started Synnott Mountain Guides over in Jackson, New Hampshire. He is an author of multiple books including “The Third Pole” and “The Impossible Climb”, and a member of the North Face Athlete team. This event will be an interactive conversation. We will begin with a background of Mark’s life and his transition from Middlebury to the professional adventuring world and then dive into a collective conversation with attendees on proper preparation and decision-making in an ever changing backcountry ski setting.

The event will delve into the role of Islam in promoting environmental stewardship and how it can inspire individuals to take action towards a more sustainable future. Our speakers, Rhamis Kent and Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, will share their insights from their respective works, “Saving Truth and Beauty in a Destructive World: The Islamic Solution” and “Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet”.

STUDENTS: Looking to support your climate-related work? Get summer funding, develop skills, work with peers: join us for this info session to learn more and apply to be a Climate Action Fellow! Have an idea you’d like to explore? An unpaid internship you’d like to fund? A desire to supplement and connect your paid internship with a cohort of others working on climate this summer and into the academic year? Learn more in this virtual info session at go/caf. Click here for the Zoom. 

What is the world we want to live in? The world we are already living into! How can we cultivate a stronger sense of connection to self, each other and the planet? Curious? Let’s talk! Join Carolyn Finney, Artist-in-Residence, and Sophia Calvi ‘03.5, Director of Programming, Franklin Environmental Center, for the third of three discussions they will host during spring semester.