Sustainability Week comes to SMC
Santa Monica College (SMC) hosted its annual Sustainability Week from Oct. 20 to 22, featuring guest speakers, workshops and an environmental film screening designed to inspire students to take action toward environmental change.
“Sustainability Week is where we bring in guest speakers who shine a light on issues that we want to tackle,” said SMC Sustainability Director Ferris Kawar, who organized the three-day event.
On Monday, Oct. 20, a Watershed Presentation was led by Isabelle Duvivier, an architect with Verdant Venice Group. Students learned about reducing stormwater impact on downhill communities and participated in a hands-on workshop demonstrating sustainable rainwater management.
The following day, The Power of Your Vote event was held on the main quad. A talk was led by Gerda Newbold and Sheryl Rosenbaum of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), a nonpartisan national organization with more than 400 chapters across the United States (U.S.). Both speakers emphasized the power of legislation in addressing climate change.
“CCL focuses on four primary areas: carbon pricing, electrification, healthy forests, and permitting reform. Carbon pricing is the most effective solution in reducing carbon emissions,” Newbold said. “CCL’s preferred strategy is something called the carbon fee and dividend — or a carbon fee, with a cash back.” Basically, a tax fee on fossil fuels when they are extracted from the source, with the money distributed back to U.S. households.
“We’re a grassroots advocacy organization,” Newbold said. “I’m a volunteer, Sheryl’s a volunteer, everybody in all of our chapters are volunteers.” While there is some staff in Washington, CCL is “primarily made up of volunteer activists.” Whom, she said, adding that the organization “welcomes anyone across the political spectrum who is serious about solving climate change.”
Additionally, Newbold urged students to know their representatives and state assembly members . “It’s really important to engage with your elected officials,” she said, citing local officials Ted Lieu, Ben Allen and Rick Chavez Zbur as examples. “Elected officials pay attention to the issues that voters care about,” she said.
Newbold closed the presentation with Jane Fonda’s statement: “We’re facing two existential crises — climate and democracy — and it’s now or never for both,” Fonda said. “We can’t have a stable democracy with an unstable climate, and we can’t have a stable climate unless we have a democracy. And so we have to fight both together.” She stresses the link between civic engagement and environmental stability.
Newbolds emphasized that collective issues must seek bipartisan opportunities to promote climate action, making legislation “more enduring.” She cited the Inflation Reduction Act, which was enacted during the Biden administration but is now being repealed. “There wasn’t one Republican that voted for that bill,” she said.
Rosenbaum echoed the importance of achieving lasting change. “If you believe in democracy, this is how it works,” she said.
Rosenbaum, an environmental engineer, said her own turning point came after losing her home in the Palisades Fire. “That was a very poignant climate moment,” she said. “You feel things at a cellular level at that point.”
She now advocates for a new bill called the Fix Our Forest Act, which reforms forest management practices to make forests healthier and reduce the risk of wildfires.
CCL’s main focus is electrification to reduce fossil fuel use in homes, noting the health benefits and cost savings of clean energy. “We would love just a pure phase-out away from natural gas,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s a huge source of carbon emissions.” She educates people on how to implement healthier alternatives, “because you have air pollutants in your house from burning fossil fuels,” she said.
The Eco Action Club co-presidents were stationed alongside the presentation, offering donuts and coffee while encouraging students to register to vote. Their message, “We do our best,” reflected the event’s overall theme of progress through “learning phases of what that means.”
Wednesday’s closing event featured a screening of “The American Southwest” at the Cayton Center, a documentary tracing how water travels thousands of miles from the Colorado Mountains to Los Angeles. “It tells the story of how most of our water is acquired,” Kawar said.
Students from SMC’s new sustainability course, Sustainability Outreach 902, participated in the week’s activities. The free, non-credit certificate course, introduced this fall semester, teaches students how to turn environmental ideas into action. “It’s about taking projects out of the theoretical, making change in the world, and getting people to actually do something,” Kawar said.
SMC student Olivia Sandorf, who is enrolled in the course, said the class has been an empowering experience. “It seems so daunting to try to make change on campus,” she said. “But the ability’s there for anyone to get involved.”
Isabella Guglielmetti, president of Students for Stars, said her club is currently aligning with DarkSky to address light pollution on campus. “Most of the lighting is actually going up into our sky, not down onto the ground,” she said. “It’s affecting ecosystems, migratory patterns, and mating patterns, and we really want to bring a change to campus.”
Kawar supported the speakers’ call for local action. “The layers and layers of permits and bureaucracy stop anything from happening,” he said. “If you’re of voting age, you should be voting in every single election. It really matters.”
Sustainability Week reflects how we adapt to change. “You don’t have to do everything all at once,” Rosenbaum said. “Piece by piece, you can just become more clean in your own environment.”