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To kick off Sustainability Week at Â鶹¹ÙÍø Providence, the BRIDGE Center and Â鶹¹ÙÍø Student Activists Supporting Sustainability (SASS) recently co-hosted a panel discussion titled “Rising Tide: Sustainability + Water Quality in RI.”

Although the topic was ostensibly sea-level rise — a crucial one for coastline-rich Rhode Island — the discussion constantly looped back to strategies for improving the Â鶹¹ÙÍø community’s waste-reduction efforts.

Panelists included:

• Natasha Martinez, Â鶹¹ÙÍø SASS president
• Ruth Solomon, Â鶹¹ÙÍø SASS vice president
• Diana Brennan, marine biologist and photographer
• Linda Crotta Brennan, author of “When the Rivers Burned: The Earth Day Story”

Author and historian Linda Brennan kicked things off with a quick history of Earth Day, which began in 1970 as a way to rally Americans around environmental causes.

The natural follow-up question was, of course, “How can we at Â鶹¹ÙÍø reduce our waste, particularly food waste? What can we save and repurpose through composting?”

Making a Difference at Â鶹¹ÙÍø

SASS VP Solomon talked about the importance of leveraging the wide range of knowledge at Â鶹¹ÙÍø. As an example, she offered her own experiences as a culinary student: “We’re learning about overfishing and using native species,” she noted. “Eating fruits and vegetables out of season is also such a Westernized notion. When I was in Sicily and tried to put a tomato and an avocado together in a salad, they were shocked: ‘They have different growing seasons!’”

Martinez, who is a Media and Communications Studies major, noted that a big goal of SASS is to bring the Downcity and Harborside campuses together (also a big initiative of the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Providence Student Government Association): “Together, we can really thrive.”

Sustainability Week Events

SASS has a whole slate of events scheduled for Earth Week, including the Sustainability Fair on 4/27, which is co-hosted by Â鶹¹ÙÍø Providence’s Energy Conservation Office (ECO) and BRIDGE Center.

Browse all the events . The signature events for the week are as follows:

• Tuesday, April 26, 7-9pm
• Pepsi Forum Auditorium

• Wednesday, April 27, 11am-3pm
• Harborside Green Space
• Rain location: Wildcat Center

to keep up with events, film screenings and ways to can get involved.

Wave banner photograph courtesy of .

(TOP) RISING TIDE: Â鶹¹ÙÍø PROVIDENCE RECENTLY HOSTED AN EARTH DAY DISCUSSION AT THE BRIDGE CENTER. PHOTO: / (BOTTOM) ECO PANELISTS, L-R: NATASHA MARTINEZ, RUTH SOLOMON, LINDA COTTA BRENNAN AND DIANA BRENNAN.