Committee outlines monthly sustainability themes, pushes food-waste diversion and highlights 805-tree giveaway

The Clemson Sustainability Advisory Committee reviewed a proposed calendar of monthly sustainability themes and decided to begin promotion on a two-month lead time so the city's communications team can prepare graphics and photos. Members proposed tying committee promotions to existing, partner-run events (farmers' markets, native-plant sales and Green Crescent Trail events) rather than duplicating work. "If we have that plan, that's easy enough," one member said about promoting local events.

Members discussed household and institutional food-waste diversion. A committee member (speaker 5, Eunice Lehmanacher) described third-party services that collect surplus food for redistribution and composting, naming Goodr as an example, and urged the committee to pursue pilot programs with the university, local restaurants and schools. "There are entire companies whose job it is to take food out of landfills and put them into people, and it doesn't cost anything," the member said.

Parks staff reported spring maintenance, installation of structured root cells downtown to support new large-canopy trees, plans for a Greenwood-area pavilion and a successful tree giveaway: "This year, we gave away 805 trees," staff said. Staff also said the South Carolina Forestry Commission planned a controlled burn at Mountain View as conditions allowed. Members raised concerns about the Pendleton Road bike path (holes and grass overgrowing) and discussed options including repair, piecemeal sidewalk upgrades or conversion to an 8-foot multiuse path.

Next steps: committee members will collect event dates and photos, assign initial months (June and July), return with specific proposals on food-waste diversion and invite park staff to present the final green-infrastructure report at a future meeting.