Sustainability Center
The MCC Sustainability Center leads campus and community efforts to model sustainable practices, focusing on green campus operations, sustainability education, and community resources such as the annual Green Guide and the ReUse It Corner. It supports projects that reduce waste and energy use, promote recycling and composting, and integrate sustainability into courses and events.
Student Environmental Action Club
The Student Environmental Action Club provides students with opportunities to get involved in environmental projects on and off campus, often partnering with the Sustainability Center. Club activities typically include meetings, guest speakers, field trips, volunteer restoration work, and advocacy or awareness events related to local sustainability issues.
How to join:
Earth Day is an annual event held on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection, and is widely recognized as marking the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The first Earth Day brought an estimated 20 million people in the United States into rallies, teach-ins, and demonstrations focused on pollution and ecological damage, and public pressure from this mobilization helped spur the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later that year, as well as major legislation like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.​
Earth Month extends this focus throughout April, providing time for ongoing environmental education, community projects, and advocacy efforts that encourage individuals and organizations to reduce their environmental impact and support sustainable practices. Colleges and libraries often observe Earth Month by curating resources on climate change, conservation, and environmental justice, and by hosting events such as workshops, film screenings, and service activities that connect local action to global environmental issues.
Sources:
National Environmental Education Foundation. (n.d.). Earth Month. National Environmental Education Foundation. https://www.neefusa.org/earth-month​
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). EPA history: Earth Day. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/history/epa-history-earth-day​
Sustainability is an approach to meeting current human needs while safeguarding the environment, public health, and resources so that future generations can meet their own needs. It emphasizes the interdependence of environmental protection, economic viability, and social well-being, often described as balancing people, planet, and prosperity in long-term decision-making.​
From an environmental perspective, sustainability involves protecting air, water, land, and ecosystems by reducing pollution, conserving energy and water, and using materials efficiently throughout their life cycles. This can include actions such as cutting waste, reusing and recycling materials, choosing cleaner energy sources, and designing communities and institutions that minimize ecological impact.​
Public agencies and organizations use sustainability principles to guide policies, campus planning, and everyday operations so that development and institutional growth do not degrade natural systems or worsen climate and health risks. On a college campus, sustainability can be reflected in facilities management, purchasing, transportation, and library practices that reduce environmental footprints while supporting equity, accessibility, and educational opportunity.​
Sources:
United Nations. (n.d.). Sustainability. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/sustainability
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2025, September 22). Learn about sustainability. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/sustainability/learn-about-sustainability
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Sustainability and the ROE. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/sustainability-and-roe​​