JCCC Center for Sustainability

Rent green event supplies to minimize waste at your next event – perfect for neighborhood events, community festivals, cultural gatherings, races, or other outdoor events! Check out the link to learn more

Green Events - Bridging The Gap Rent green event supplies to minimize waste at your next event – perfect for neighborhood events, community festivals, cultural gatherings, races, or other outdoor events!

Big things are growing at JCCC! 🌽🥕

Open Petal Farm, part of the JCCC Center for Sustainability, is entering an exciting new chapter. The farm is being renamed Stu Shafer's Open Petal Farm in honor of the late founder of the JCCC Sustainable Agriculture Program, Sociology professor, and passionate advocate for sustainability.

The farm is also expanding through a new partnership with Johnson County K-State Extension Master Gardeners to create the JCCC Food Forest — a perennial learning garden that will provide hands-on educational opportunities, support sustainable growing practices, and feature a variety of edible plants for the community to enjoy.

Join us this Friday from 5–7 p.m. for a public dedication celebration and learn more about the future of this unique campus resource.

We can't wait to see what's next for the farm and the Food Forest as they continue to grow and serve our campus and community!

Repair Café & Clothing Swap: Saturday, June 6, 9am-1pm. Event will be held at Tomahawk Ridge Community Center; 11902 Lowell Ave., Overland Park, KS 66213-1100. Items that can be fixed at this event: Bikes
Clothing/textiles (no alterations, please)
Computers (Virus/malware removal, file transfers, other basic repairs)
Electronics
Jewelry
Lamps
Small appliances (e.g., replacing cords on handmixers, toasters, irons, etc.)

Repair Café and Clothing Swap, Overland Park, KS | Recycle Spot , Sat, Jun 6 2026, 9am - 1pm

Today is the last day of school for many kids throughout Kansas City. Make sure to recycle what you can- papers, non-plastic folders, and notebooks (remove the metal rings first). And donate any usable school supplies to our friends at Scraps KC where they will be made available to teachers and students next school year. Have a great Summer!!

The 9Rs of Circularity provide a practical blueprint for this shift:

1️⃣ Refuse – Eliminate unnecessary consumption at the source
2️⃣ Rethink – Redesign systems for efficiency and longevity
3️⃣ Reduce – Minimize resource use without reducing value
4️⃣ Reuse – Extend the life of products through repeated use
5️⃣ Repair – Restore instead of replace
6️⃣ Refurbish – Upgrade existing products for renewed value
7️⃣ Remanufacture – Rebuild products using recovered components
8️⃣ Repurpose – Transform old materials into new functions
9️⃣ Recycle – Recover materials when no other option remains

Each step moves us further away from extraction and closer to regeneration.

Peak Migration Window: In the overnight hours, an estimated 548 million birds were on the move according to the Cornell Labs BirdCast. Much of New York State was under a “High” Lights Out Alert Level. Why turn off the lights? It helps reduce collision risk by lowering the skyglow and attracting fewer birds into heavily illuminated urban areas. It also improves habitat quality by keeping nocturnal environments darker for resting birds near stopover areas. The symphony of birdie chirps has been getting better each day, Spring is in the air!