Sustaining The Sustainability Office

Carleton's Cowling Arboretum turns 100 this year! Maxima Gomez-Palmer and Nico Bolling both have worked as Cole Student Naturalists for the arboretum for several years. Their job always involves learning and teaching others about this amazing wild space on Carleton's campus, and recently they've been diving deeper into the arb's history so they can help lead events for the arb's centennial celebra...

Natalie Hoidal, a Local Food and Vegetable Production educator with the University of Minnesota Extension, talks us through what it means to be an extension educator and why she loves Minnesota's small vegetable farms. From researching ways that farms can manage insect infestations to connecting with farmers over how to cultivate resilience in the face of climate change, Natalie's work revolves ar...

Kathy Ness is a Northfield, MN, based artist and crafter who turns discarded cloth and old clothes into beautiful new clothing, bags, and other useful items. She sells these through her buisness UpCycleMN and organizes volunteers to make 'boomerang bags' that are available at the public library. In this episode, Kathy talks us through her creative process, and explains why she chooses to combat fa...

Aubree Derksen and Bill Saville are Minnesota locals who are active in opposing the construction of hyperscale data centers in their towns. They walk us through their perspectives on how data centers can be harmful to our area, environmental impacts of hyperscale data centers, the political activism they've been engaged in, and their opinions on the uses and harms of artificial intelligence. 

Grace Clemens, a Food and Environmental Justice fellow from the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) at Carleton College, talks us through her work collaboring with the Friends of Hauberg Woods. Hauberg Woods is a forested area in Northfield, MN where people have been working to restore the landscape for several years. Grace will talk about why restoring Hauberg Woods matters to her, a...

Lauren Williams is a 2025-2026 Common Good fellow from St. Olaf college. During the past year she worked with the 'Be Local Buy Local' group of small buisness owners in Northfield to find ways to get St. Olaf students more engaged with shops in downtown Northfield. Here, Lauren walks us through the process of forming her fellowship project and talks about why it's important that each of us try to...

Our hosts Declan and Farren talk through the Cannon River Community Science project, which Carleton College's Office of Sustainability has been running for over two years. The episode starts out with describing what community science means. We then discuss what aspects of water quality we measure, why they matter to us, and how water quality in the Cannon River connects to the health of the broade...

Janet Petri and Howard White, from Northfield's chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby, volunteer their time to support bipartisan climate policy. Central to the CCL's work is getting people to talk about climate change and vote for climate-smart legislation. For Janet and Howard talking about climate is just the start. Listen to hear about their involvement in climate activism ranging from the Nor...

David Wakeman, a Northfield Rotary Club volunteer, has been interested in urban systems since college. He is active on the Rotary Climate Action Team, working on projects like local energy efficiency, youth climate engagement, food waste, and more! 

Christy Marsden, from the Univeristy of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership, introduces us to the 'Community Climate Leaders' program that she has been helping build over the past few years. Marsden has been applying previous experience with the U of M extension service to bring community members together to learn about climate science and strategies to take action. 

Sarah Fortner, the Director of Sustainability at Carleton College, shares with us her experiences with climate advocacy and sustainability in higher education. 

Ava and Sylvia are two leaders in the ECOrganizers group of Environmental Coalition student members at St. Olaf college. They walk us through why they joined ECOrgainizers, their experiences with collaboration with other groups at St. Olaf, and some of the successes and challenges they've had while part of the Environmental Coalition. 

Join hosts Emilia Rodriguez, Declan Grubbs and Farren Groom as we talk though the highlights of the updated 2026 Minnesota Climate Action Framework. Learn what the framework is, how the climate emergency is impacting Minnesota, and the climate-action goals our state has set for itself in the coming decades. 

In the fourth episode of this series we met up with Suwannee from Carleton's Center for Civic and Community Engagement's cohort of Peace, Conflict and Democracy fellows to talk about the importance of political engagement in and outside of voting. Suwannee tells us about the events she coordinates with her coworkers to help people bridge political divides and make sure their voices are heard in lo...

Heron Mahn, Community Engagement Manager at Clean River Partners, chats about their experiences working for Clean River Partners, projects CRP is working on, and the impact of this organization. They do more than just river clean-ups, that's for sure!  

Join us as we talk with Carleton College's student farm workers Maeve and Daniel, and the farm manager Amanda, about the new composter their farm is building. We chatted with them about about their experiences while working on the farm, the importance of on-site composting, challenges in getting a composter built, and which projects they're looking forward to tackle next. 

In the first interview of the series, we talk with the Chair of Northfield's Environmental Quality Commission. Topics include initiatives that the EQC is working on and how the local government process works.