The Knoll
Our student-powered garden offers opportunities to sink hands in soil, research, and connect with community.
The unmistakable urgency of the climate crisis is becoming ever more dire, and Middlebury is rising to meet the moment.
As an international institution, we are poised to use all of our networks, perspectives, and resources to help tackle this daunting challenge head-on.
Aligned with Middlebury’s commitment to prepare students to lead impactful, engaged lives and to tackle society’s most pressing challenges, the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs cultivates experiential learning and institutional action towards a more sustainable and just world.
Get Involved
Below are just a few of the many ways you can get involved with Sustainability and Environmental Affairs—on campus, locally, and around the world.
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Climate Action Program
More about CAP
The Climate Action Program supports vital work being done on campus while piloting new opportunities to drive real impact and student capacity. -
Sustainability Solutions Lab (SSL)
More about SSL
Provides paid, on-campus experiential learning opportunities for the practice and cultivation of critical thinking and professional skills. -
EcoReps
More about EcoReps
EcoReps help to create an environmental network through peer-to-peer education, events, student connections
Living Sustainably
From dining halls to dorms to driving around the town and state, your daily actions can help reduce carbon emissions and contribute to cultural shift that values sustainable living. Find out how.
Sustainable Middlebury
Upcoming Events
See Events for a complete list.
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Knoll Garden Spring Volunteer Hours
For 23 years the Knoll has been powered by students and the Middlebury community. Come join us in the garden this spring! No experience required; please check out go/knollhours for more detailed information.
The Knoll
Open to the Public
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MAREA Alumni Panel: Pathways to Careers in Renewable Energy
This new alumni-student network is all about connecting you with Midd grads working across the renewable energy space—people who’ve been in your shoes and are now building careers in a fast-growing, impact-driven field.
All April long, the newly launched MAREA (Middlebury Alumni in Renewable Energy Association), is hosting the 2026 Spring Alumni Speaker Series: Pathways to Careers in Renewable Energy. Each week features a different panel focused on a key part of the industry, so you can get a full picture of the many paths into clean energy.
Franklin Environmental Center, The Orchard-Hillcrest 103
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The Future is Nuts! Forests, food, and Bioregionalism with Elspeth Hay '07 and Cherry Liley
Can we build bioregional foodways for the Northeast centered on trees? Join Elspeth Hay (‘07), author of the new book Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food and Chez Liley of Wellspring Commons for a conversation exploring how our food systems might change if we broadened our vision of farming to include the native nut trees of our forested landscape, and how that might reshape our relationships to the world around us.
Aimed at students with an interest in sustainable agriculture, wildlands conservation, ecosystem restoration, food policy, and journalism, this discussion will delve into some of the assumptions underpinning our current food system and focus on practical ways to transform climate anxiety into action as we look to feed ourselves while regenerating and protecting our home ecosystems.
Elspeth Hay ‘07 is the creator and host of the Local Food Report, a weekly feature that has aired on the Cape and Islands National Public Radio station since 2008, and the author of the award-winning book, Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food. Deeply immersed in her own local-food system, Elspeth’s work focuses on the people, places, and ideas that feed us. Learn more at elspethhay.com.
Cherry (Chez) Liley is co-founder of Wellspring Commons, a nonprofit working to foster bioregional foodways in the Northeast, including reviving acorns as an important crop for the human diet, in ways that protect the standing forests. Learn more at wellspringcommons.org.
Axinn Center 229
Open to the Public