Painting a Greener Rollins

Amanda Reid Kevin Dixon ’09

A portrait of our planet would likely depict vivid blue seas and swirling white clouds, but no accurate likeness of Earth can omit human beings from the picture. Think of this: it wasn’t until approximately 1800 that the world’s population reached one billion, but it took only 130 years to add the next billion, 30 years to add the third, and 15 years to add the fourth. In four more years, the world’s population is anticipated to reach 14 billion. The pressure of such a sizeable human presence can be either a powerful source of positive change or a potential source of destruction. Rollins students and faculty are passionate about facing the challenge and about leaving future generations with a landscape brighter than their own. What they are learning in Rollins classrooms and experiencing on the Rollins campus is helping them to paint that greener tomorrow.

Converging Paths: Sustainability at Rollins

Sustainability has been defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Rollins’ actions toward that goal are the result of a convergence of institutional commitment, student activism, and vendor participation. And they’re changing the College in perceptible ways. More…

Food and Sustainability

When life gives you lemons, make lemons aid your understanding of sustainable agriculture.

That lemon was the starting point, figuratively speaking, for environmental studies faculty Lee Lines and Barry Allen when they developed the first-of-its-kind experimental immersion curriculum for first-year students, entitled Down to Earth or Out to Lunch: The Unseen Landscape of Food in America. More…

The Genius Reserve Project

Tucked Among the Lakes under a history of magnificent old trees, the Genius Reserve is a birder’s field guide come to life.

A rare wood stork trolls the shallows, feeling for minnows. A glossy anhinga warms its wings in the sun while a grackle makes a clacky fuss from a sweet bay branch. Astonishingly, even a peacock struts in the dappled undergrowth. Nesting, feeding, or simply passing through, more than 100 species of birds have been spotted on the property, and that’s just the way those in charge of its careful restoration hoped it would be. More…

Hands-On Environmentalism

Ron Presswood ’85 was working as an engineer with the City of Satellite Beach in Brevard County, Florida in 2004 when a series of hurricanes devastated the area’s beaches and dunes. Fortunately, he had stayed in close touch with his Rollins faculty adviser, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joseph Siry. More…

New Urbanism and the Death of Sprawl

For half a century, if the American dream had an address, it would have looked like this: Big house on a big lot with big cars in a big garage.

The mortgage on that dream address appears to have come due. Because of the economic and environmental realities of our time, Americans have begun to question how and where they live. Many people believe the answer is a movement called New Urbanism, a systematic approach to city planning intended to do away with sprawl and urban blight. The state of Florida is at the forefront of that movement, and Rollins Professor of Environmental Studies Bruce Stephenson is one of its most well-known proponents. More…

Delving Deeper Into the Green

Sustainable development courses are as common now on college campuses as recycling bins, but Rollins College was at the vanguard more than 20 years ago, offering some of the first sustainable development classes in the country. More…