Amherst Sustainability Festival, Word Nerd, paper industry

Today we’re looking for answers about sustainability, because it’s Earth Day.

So, in the most literal sense, we chat with organizers behind the Amherst Sustainability Festival, bringing together demonstrations, over 50 vendors of a wide variety of disciplines, workshops, bands and entertainment on the Amherst common this Saturday to inspire change for a better tomorrow. Stephanie Ciccarillo, Amherst’s director of sustainability, chats with us about this free event and how her department strives to shift the practices of the town.

For the more esoteric, we look at the sustainability of industry in times of uncertainty. Reporter Melissa Sances has just released a fascinating report on the entropy of the former Strathmore Paper Mill in Turners Falls as it faces demolition that begs to question not just our ongoing issues regarding industry of old, but pursuit of these truths in a time where revelations of this sort can be incredibly polarizing.

And Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, explores the sustainability of one word’s direct object usage as we look at the place, time and frequency with which we use the word “whom.”