Events

2019: On May 3rd, CSI's Conservation and Humanity class partnered with at CSI Sustainability to plant trees along the baseball field between the dorms and 3N Building. 

2020: On April 24th, we celebrated Arbor Day virtually. We encouraged students and staff to post a photo of a tree while they are planting it or a tree that has caught their eyes.

2021: April 30th, CSI Sustainability in partnership with CSI Athletics planted 150 trees around the baseball field. In addition, we asked people to participate virtually by taking photos of their favorite tree or the one they just planted.

2022: On April 29th, tree planting: We are proud to continue our Arbor Day tradition of planting trees. This year marked the 150th year since Arbor Day began. Students planted trees and bushes in front of the baseball field.

2023: April 28th, more than 20 students from CSI and Lifestyles for the Disabled came together as a community and make Arbor Day tree planting possible by planting 19 trees around CSI's athletic fields.

These Arbor Day events were possible by a partnership with NYC Arbor Day Committee, John Bowne HS, Grow-Out Nursery, CSI Athletics, Facilities and Operations.

2017: College of Staten Island Sustainability hosted an Earth Day celebration. This event taught students about the history of Earth Day, its importance, how students can contribute to sustainability projects on campus, and learn about the winners of the CUNY Sustainability Competition. Students also got the opportunity to experience the proposed Staten Island Aerial Gondola.

2019: CSI's first recycle week was filled with various events to help promote recycling. It started with the Plastic bag drive and leaf bag giveaway. Then continued with a bottle and clothing drive. The Sustainable Student Organization (SSO) collected 1321 plastic bags and handed out 500 leaf bags to reduce the amount of plastic found in landfills and add an alternative to disposing of leaf waste.

2020: We partnered with DSNY and gave away 200 reusable shopping bags within 45 minutes into the event. This event was held on February 25th prior to the NYS single use plastic bag ban on March 1st. 

2021: Upon returning to campus, we hosted "We got your bags!" event outside 1C. We distributed 75 leaf bags in order to encourage residents of Staten Island to collect their leaves for residential pick up in these bags rather than putting them in plastic bags. In addition, we gave away 300 reusable plastic bags.

2022: The annual Bag drive took place on April 25th. Students and staff members were encouraged to bring their plastic bags so it can be recycled. In exchange, they could get a reusable bag sponsored by the DSNY. We succeeded by collecting 1,234 plastic bags and we gave away 37 reusable bags.

November 3rd, Snug Harbor Compost Project donated 75 small 1 lb. bags of compost for indoor use and 500 leaf bags in preparation for the NYC wide leaf pickup program. We gave away all small bags of compost and 105 leaf bags.

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CSI Sustainability with the Sustainable Student Organization (SSO) has launched a Bottle Drive Pilot in 1R with the Athletic Department. The collaboration has collected and sorted over 10,000 bottles. The Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program has been a significant contributor to sorting the bottles and holding weekly tabling events to educate the student population about the importance of recycling. The goal is to replace existing water fountains with water bottle filling stations to help reduce the number of bottles on campus.

From November 2018 to November 2019, CSI Sustainability collected, sorted, and redeemed 23,000 cans & bottles from 1R & the dorms. Bottles were sorted and collected with the help of the Melissa Reggio Higher Education Program students every Friday at building 2M. This would not have been possible without the support of Buildings & Grounds staff who assisted with transporting the bottles.

As of October 2022, we have collected 32,442 bottles on campus. We redeemed 23,247 bottles which raised $1,162.35.

CSI Sustainability and Sustainable Student Organization (SSO) in partnership with Facilities Management and Operational Services organized campus clean-up twice a year.

2019: On April 4th, the SSO hosted their first campus clean-up in partnering with other clubs such as IBS, The Banner, NYPIRG, GSA, and the Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program students. Students picked up over 25 bags of trash across the grounds of CSI.

October 15th, SSO hosted their second campus clean-up in partnership with AHRCNYC Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program, The Banner, NYPIRG, Women's Soccer, Track and Field, Men's Soccer, and The Garden Club. Students picked up over 14 bags of trash from across the grounds at the CSI campus.​​​​​​

2022: On April 14th, the campus joined us for the return of our semi-annual Campus Clean-Up. The goal was to collect as much garbage as possible on campus. In just 2 hours 25 bags of garbage were collected on the Great Lawn and along Loop Road.

October 13th, 25 CSI students from Creative Exchange, Verrazzano Honors, joined the second Campus Cleanup. Once again, in just 2 hours, 20 bags of garbage were collected on the Great Lawn and along Loop Road.

2023: On April 20th, CSI Sustainability hosted their annual campus clean-up event. Staff and students from several clubs and programs from CSI gather together at 1P and picked up trash along Alumni Walk between 1P and 1L. During the 2 hours event, they were only able to fill out one bag with garbage. GOOD JOB DOLPHINS FOR KEEPING CSI CLEAN!

2023: On October 6th, CSI Sustainability in partnership with Staten Island Chamber of Commerce hosted the Sweep Up Staten Island event to helped beautify our community. Our campus staff, students, and Staten Island residents, gathered to clean up the Willowbrook neighborhood and part of the CSI campus. 

Dayligth Hour is the annual social media camping promotes the use of natural daylight between the hours of 12 PM and 1 PM instead of electrical lighting in office space. Daylight in the workplace contributes to a myriad of benefits for occupants. People are encouraged to turn off their workplace lighting and celebrate the benefits of daylight.

2017: CSI participated in Daylight Hour on June 16th for the first time. Some of the few ways the CSI community reduced its energy consumption are by turning off ceiling lights with sufficient natural light, taking your lunch break from 12-1 pm & turning off everything, and meeting our team on the Great Lawn to raise awareness about our commitment to creating sustainable change.
 

2018:  CSI participated, in the Daylight Hour. As compared with last year's past, we aggressively promoted the event via social media, campus-wide emails, posted flyers, and other means of getting the word out. We had the full support and participation of the President's Cabinet along with several of the campus community. This media campaign yielded exceptional results as can be seen in the juxtaposing trends from 2017 and 2018. During the daylight hour, it is estimated that CSI saved approximately 144 kWh of energy.

CSI Sustainability Received the 2018 “Hype Master” Big Kahuna Award! The Hype Master Award goes to the College of Staten Island Sustainability Initiative for spreading the word! 

2019: On June 21st from 12-1 pm, CSI Sustainability hosted our 2nd annual daylight hour event, where we invited departments to reduce their electricity consumption. 

We built a gigantic origami for the paper engineering competition that was folded with the help of the Melissa Riggio students at our event.

CSI received the 2019 Social Butterfly Award for being the Paper Engineer Pros of Daylight Hour.

Here is a video from our event. Shining the light on Sustainability: The Daylight Hour at CSI

2020: This year Daylight Hour was celebrated virtually. We encouraged participants to take a picture of their home office with pets or kids, scenic view from their home office window or to show their creative use of daylight in their home office. 

2021: Once again Daylight Hour was celebrated virtually. We asked participants to take a picture of their home office using only daylight. We welcomed Family and Pets on these photos.

2022: Daylight Hour Hybrid Edition. We asked CSI Students/Faculty and Staff to show us their creative use of daylight in their home or work office.

CSI Sustainability received an award for the 3rd time!  WFH: Working From Home award for the participation of the Daylight Hour social media campaign in 2022.

2023: On June 21st, CSI participated in Daylight Hour at the West Fountain (turned yellow for the event) to enjoy the natural light. From 12-1 PM students from the Melissa Reggio Higher Education Program, faculty and staff participated in different activities such as Daylight Hour art, games, class with Danny the Dolphin, and Yoga (Sun Salutation Flow). Once again CSI won  the Daylight Hour Spirit award for going above and beyond celebrating energy efficiency

In the spring of 2017, CSI Sustainability in partnership with the Sustainable Student Organization (SSO) Club and CSI students came together to clean up the 6S garden. The process took months, students took out the roots of Japanese Knotweed by hand some of them over 6 feet long. 

Japanese Knotweed Eradication Project. This clean-up was made possible by College of Staten Island Sustainability, the Department of Biology, and the hard work of the Sustainable Student Organization (SSO). Japanese Knotweed is an invasive non-native plant that invaded the 6S pit area. During the spring and summer semester students cut down the Japanese Knotweed and dug out as many roots out as possible. They covered the ground completely with tarps in order to smother the weed underneath. The tarp prevents the sunlight to penetrate the area and new weed to grow back. They covered the tarps with mulch to make it more attractive.

In addition, students also stared a garden. They constructed raised gardening beds and learned about vegetable and flower life cycles. With Snug Harbor’s compost, they rotated crops for mineral and natural resource optimization. SSO plans to expand the garden next semester and educate the community about local food systems and provide awareness and availability of healthy foods.

Also, students gained hands on knowledge on how to transplants seedlings and how to propagate and take care of different types of vegetables, herbs and flowers. They transplanted seedlings from the greenhouse into raised beds in the garden. CSI Sustainability hosts annually clean up events in the 6S garden to maintain this areas.  

Special thanks to Biology Chair Chang-HuiShen, Faiza Peetz, James Saccardo, Kinnea Keating,Grozdena Yilmaz & the Pre-Med students.