Lafayette envisions sustainability as a matter of environment, equity and economy; consequently, the basis of much of this work is community-based. The students, faculty and staff are part of the Easton, Lehigh Valley, and Delaware River basin communities.

By building relationships with our neighbors and ecosystems, we conduct research and develop curriculum that engages with and learns from the community.

community-center

Posing in a small greenhouse behind the Easton Area Community Center on Washington Street are, front to back: Julia Seidenstein ’14, Helen Xu ’14, Alexandra Behette ’13 and Asad Akram 13. These Lafayette students worked with young children at the center as the children created a bucket garden.

The College’s ongoing partnerships with local organizations, such as the West Ward Neighborhood Project (WWNP), Nurture Nature Center, and Easton Area Community Center, are examples where sustainability and community intersect. And the College’s community garden project, LaFarm, located off-campus in Forks Township adjacent to the Metzgar Field Athletic Complex, is naturally positioned not only as part of campus life but of regional food systems as well.

These issues are investigated in classes such as Sustainable Solutions and interdisciplinary projects such as Tech Clinic, both of which have worked in recent years with the City of Easton, the WWNP, 3rd Street Alliance and others to develop sustainable projects that simultaneously and necessarily consider the ecological health of the region and its people.