GreenHouse community plants importance of sustainability in residents’ minds
By Sammy Gibbons | Mar. 14, 2016Hidden in the depths of the Lakeshore neighborhood residence halls is a living option with a feature unique to it: Aldo Leopold Residence Hall, which holds a small greenhouse on its roof, home to the GreenHouse Learning Community. GreenHouse is a group that allows students to learn about the environment and sustainability through doing hands-on experiments, reading materials by conservationist Aldo Leopold himself and other tools. The 93 UW-Madison students living in the learning community are given the opportunity to register for GreenHouse seminars; one is offered as an introductory course in the fall semester that students are highly encouraged to take, and four more are available in the spring that focus on various environmental topics, including globalization, agroecology and clothes-making. “There’s a lot of ‘DIY’ stuff that we do,” said Alan Turnquist, the GreenHouse Learning Community program coordinator.