APPLEDORE ISLAND, Maine — About seven miles off the coast of the Maine and New Hampshire border lies Shoals Marine Laboratory, a model for sustainable living. From wind and solar power to on-island composting, SML harnesses Appledore Island’s limited resources with maximum efficiency.

Operated jointly by Cornell University and The University of New Hampshire, SML offers students a wide array of courses and internships in marine biology, ecology and sustainability, with choices expanding each summer.

In an continued effort to develop energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly innovation, Ithaca is set to launch a multitude of new programs this summer directed at training workers in the local community.

According to Julia Mattick, director of the Tompkins County Workforce Investment Board, the Board will invest approximately $120,000 in 2009 to fund various programs meant to create and sustain green-collar jobs for Ithacans under the age of 24. The funding comes primarily from the federal government's workforce investment act and stimulus bill, according to Mattick.

Students from approximately 20 different campus sustainability organizations set up tables on Ho Plaza yesterday, offering information, educational activities and free giveaways to a large congregation of passing students and staff in honor of Earth Day.

Sustaining the environment can be stylish. In a Call Auditorium packed with people and filled with photos of biota-full building roofs and solar cell-paneled buildings, William A. McDonough made this claim as he was featured yesterday afternoon as the eleventh annual Jill and Ken Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecture “Cradle to Cradle Design.”

Named by Time Magazine as a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999, McDonough has served as an alumni research professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and a three-time recipient of the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development — the most prestigious environmental honor awarded in the United States.

A department has merged. A visual facility has been cut. A library is closing.

Across the pond, universities throughout the United Kingdom have either closed departments or are considering closing them due to a lack of funding.

By using energy more wisely on their computers, Cornell students could potentially eliminate the carbon footprint of roughly 2,755 automobiles.

Between now and April 17, the Cornell community has the potential to reduce its total 2009-2010 carbon emissions by approximately 15,773 tons from this year’s projected sum.

“If you ask a typical student where electricity comes from, they [would] say, ‘From the outlet,’” said Lanny Joyce, Cornell University manager of engineering, planning and energy and yesterday’s keynote speaker at “Spirit of Sustainability,” a lunchtime talk in Sage Chapel about Cornell’s energy conservation and sustainability efforts. The first of a month-long series, yesterday’s talk focused on the subtle contributions from all people on Cornell’s campus in order to reduce carbon emissions. Future speakers will address sustainability issues ranging from cutting-edge research to new construction.

Correction appended.

The salt that helps keep Cornell’s pathways free of slippery ice does more than stain shoes: it can also leave a permanent mark on the local environment.

When Prof. Peter Davies, plant biology, noticed inch-thick piles of salt on Cornell’s agriculture quad’s pathways recently, he wrote to the University’s Grounds Department explaining his concerns that de-icing salt is detrimental to surrounding vegetation.

Despite a hectic week of quarter-carding and campaigning, the issues surrounding the Student Assembly election barely made it to the agenda of the S.A.’s weekly meeting last night in Willard Straight Hall.

The S.A. announced at the meeting that 14 challenges have yet to be resolved before the election results can be posted. According to the S.A., the turnout this year — 4,432 votes — was significantly larger than last year’s turnout.

As reported by The Sun on Feb. 19, the current S.A. election is at its most competitive since 2006, boasting 43 candidates running for 19 available positions.

This week, thousands of students, including some 80 Cornell students, joined forces inside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. in an effort to solve the global climate crisis. The second national youth summit of its kind, Powershift 2009 was a four-day statement calling for bold, immediate action towards enacting green-friendly legislation.