Life at Stanford – at least for students – can feel very transient. It’s challenging to put down roots and invest in a community that will only hold you for four or five years, a stopping place on your way to some unknown future. Julia Hok (Earth Systems coterm, 2025) knows this reality is often what prevents students from taking sustainable action: there is a disconnect between people and place. That’s where initiatives that center community and tradition kick in. Events like Hok’s Big Swap, a clothing swap event run by-and-for students, aim to use Stanford resources to codify cultural norms of sharing and increase the efficacy of reuse initiatives. “As a society,” Hok says, “we thrive on connection, relationships. Connections with each other is what makes up community, and reuse is not just about doing things for the sake of the environment or a zero-waste goal. Reuse isn’t just a job – it’s also something we do every day. It’s a part of culture, our behaviors, how we perceive waste, what our consumption patterns are, how we interact with each other.”
After the original Big Swap’s resounding success in April, it became Hok’s mission to unravel how exactly something becomes tradition – so that this same culture of generosity, enthusiasm, and local environmentalism can continue for years to come. So Hok and her co-organizers threw a second Big Swap in early June, shortly before move-out, in part to establish the tradition and impart knowledge on how exactly the event is organized, so that Big Swap can become the Stanford tradition it deserves to be, long after Hok’s graduation this June.
Olivia Webster, MS&E ‘28, reflected on the absolute pleasure of “seeing people from all years coming together to support the movement of reuse.” To Webster and participants like her, Big Swap is an opportunity not only to support environmental initiatives on campus, but to eat good food, dance to music, laugh with friends – all in all, to revel in Stanford springtime. For, in Hok’s words, “reuse is about more than environmentalism – it’s about caring for each other. Choosing each other over ourselves. Living in generosity.”
Stanford has set a new benchmark for sustainability at live events through its first major concert hosted by Stanford Athletics and Stanford Live. Sustainable Stanford hosted a fireside chat with sustainability leadership from Live Nation and Warner Music Group in tandem with this milestone.
From reducing embodied carbon in construction to piloting organic landscape management, the annual Student Sustainability Symposium highlighted how student-led innovation is driving sustainability at Stanford.
Laura Segura Gonzalez, a second-year design student, is leading jean upcycling workshops to combat fast fashion waste, empowering students to transform old jeans into something new.
