The Outdoor Education Center at Â鶹´«Ã½ incorporates numerous policies and practices in the areas of environmental awareness, sustainability, and social justice. While many of these practices have been in place for several years, the OEC continues to strive for the best possible educational and practical outcomes for the program with OA trips, OTL, leader training, and workshops.
Examples of this include our beach trips who work with the Wishtoyo Foundation, a Native American Chumash village and advocacy group that works with different environmental organizations and sues environmental polluters when pollution directly affects different social groups along the California coastline.
During our Orientation Adventure Lake trip, we work with the Friends of the Inyo, a non-profit in the eastern Sierras. The group does a night talk/slideshow centered around the social injustices created for the Southern California population when environmental problems affect the water supply in the Sierras, and thus the Southern California water supply. Students then do a service project the next day with the Friends of the Inyo. The OA group also visit the former Japanese Internment camp, Manzanar, on their trip.
Many other OA trips engage in different service projects such as beach clean-ups and trail maintenance.
In the past several years, many OA trips were planned with numerous service projects and OA will continue to add even more service projects in the future. Our plan is to expand this to all programs offered through the OEC.
Sustainability Efforts
In keeping with our commitment to environmental awareness and sustainability, and as social injustices occur frequently with a poorly treated environment, the OEC incorporates the following sustainability efforts:
- We consolidate transportation when possible using high occupancy vehicles.
- We use online forms for leader applications, first year sign ups, and post trip evaluations.
- We make all information available by email and/or from website to avoid snail mail (packing lists, itineraries, etc.).
- We only use human powered activities whenever possible (kayaking, biking, surfing, etc.).
- The OA program uses fruits and vegetables from the Pomona Farm in order to reduce the amount of store purchases.
- We strive to purchase locally grown food whenever possible.
- No beef is ever sent out on OA trips.
- There is one fully vegetarian meal on every OA trip.
- OA's extra food is donated to local food shelters through the Otay Foundation.
- The OA program works with the Green Bikes program on campus in helping to promote alternative transportation for students on.
- We use sustainable bulk containers for propane stoves, rather than using small non-refillable ones.
- We recycle all of our recyclable waste (cardboard from packaged food, printed paper, batteries from flashlights/two way radios/lanterns, etc.).
- The Alumni Association provides reusable water bottles for the OA participants, eliminating any disposable bottles.
- We teach and practice the seven principles of environmental stewardship as outlined by the Leave no Trace: Center for Outdoor Ethics. Each of these principles has a ripple effect to the local and global community, minimizing environmental and social damage.
- We only use recycled paper when possible.
- Trips bring back all compostable food scraps to take to the Pomona Farm.
- OA orders eco-friendly T-shirts from a local vendor in Claremont.