CELL News
Our CELL News section provides information, updates, and feedback for past, current, and future CELL students. A CELL experience is more than an exciting “study abroad” program. The purpose of any CELL experience is to ignite a life-long commitment to living sustainably and to giving and receiving support for this commitment through community. Students are introduced to concepts of sustainability during their semester abroad program, but more importantly, once they return home, they learn how to employ these concepts in their own lives through living sustainably and through implementing sustainability action plans in various communities.
Recent Blog Posts
Blog 1
Before coming to Iceland, I remember telling all of my friends and family how “sustainable” Iceland is from its geothermal plants to hydroelectric dams. After visiting the hydroelectric plant and meeting with environmental activist Andri Snær Magnason, I have decided...
Sustainable Agriculture
During our semester in Iceland, we discussed many aspects of life relating to sustainability including energy and electricity, transportation, water and sewage, food, and general consumption, among others. One topic we have revisited several times in just the three...
Green Roofs
After spending three weeks in Iceland, the CELL group has learned quite a bit about both the Icelandic culture, and various methods of enacting sustainability. Although most Icelanders have the luxury of pumping naturally hot water into their homes for heat, much of...
Iceland’s Waste Water Treatment
Yesterday we visited Klettagarðar, one of the two waste water treatment plants in Reykjavik, Iceland. We were surprised to learn that prior to 2000, all waste water (that includes sewage too) was pumped right from Icelanders’ homes to the ocean shores. The woman...
Loss of Culture and Language
Cultures and languages represent a unique view of the world. According to Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken, the rate of language extinction is greater than that of species, and more biologically diverse areas have more diversity in languages. Iceland tries really hard to...