First Earth Week promotes sustainability
The first-ever Earth Week at USU begins Monday, hosted by Student Sustainability, giving students an opportunity to interact with and learn more about the environment.
Blake Thomas, Natural Resources senator in the Academic Senate, said the week’s goal is to raise student awareness of sustainability efforts and change their opinions about them.
“It’s just a constant reminder of what we do to the environment and the earth each day and ways that we can minimize that impact,” Thomas said. “I feel like individual efforts are important, but that ultimately won’t solve sustainability problems. It requires much larger thinking and groups of people.”
Thomas said he hopes the week will increase the number of students working together to solve sustainability problems.
“We just want to have a community on campus that supports that movement and see how far we can basically spread those ideas,” he said.
Roslynn Brain, an assistant professor involved with sustainable communities, said the week was planned in collaboration between the Student Sustainability Office and the sustainable living class at USU.
“We had a goal of doing a weeklong event that participants who come to any one or combination of events will walk away from having made a lasting impact on sustainability,” Brain said.
Brain said the goal of the event is “one week – lasting change,” and there will be many fun activities for students to enjoy.
Earth Week runs from April 9-13, and each day is themed with different and specific sustainability topics. Brain said one of the biggest highlights of the week is Food Day on Thursday.
“We’re having the first farmers’ market of the year right here on USU campus,” Brain said.
From 10-2 p.m., students can buy local produce on the Quad from dozens of vendors. Members of the entire community, not just students, are invited to shop at the market.
Between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Thursday, students will also have the opportunity to attend a presentation by Christopher Forester, from UVU, entitled “Should Mormons Be Vegetarians?”
Thursday night is a seminar about cooking with local foods, hosted by Tamara Steinitz from the department of nutrition, dietetics and food science. Free samples will be available at the seminar, which will be held in the Family Life kitchens in NFS 208 and 210. Brain said the capacity is 75, so participants will be chosen on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Monday is Land Day, featuring recycling education as well as a free store on the TSC Patio, where students can collect donated items by other students at no cost.
Thomas, who oversees student research and programs in the Student Sustainability Office, said a free Reduce, Reuse and Rock concert will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in the TSC Auditorium, featuring local band Uncommon Collective.
Kristin Ladd, a graduate instructor in the English department, oversees campus outreach in the Student Sustainability Office.
“We wanted to start the event with an evening event that’s more fun,” Ladd said. “It’s not a panel or anything, it’s just music, and students can come and just hang out and celebrate sustainability.”
Students can buy reusable water bottles for Water Day on Tuesday at the TSC Patio. A screening of the documentary “Tapped” will be held at 7 p.m., followed by a Q-and-A session with a panel of experts.
Wednesday is Air Day, and Ladd said students can participate in a bike parade that will start at 11:30 a.m. in front of Aggie Blue Bikes, next to the Nelson Fieldhouse, and end at the new Agricultural Sciences Building, which will be open for a tour at noon.
Thomas said the ride is not a race, and beginners as well as bike enthusiasts are encouraged to come. The main goal, he said, is to promote fresh-air activities and Aggie Blue Bikes’ free three-month bike rentals. Other events will be held throughout the day.
The week will culminate with a combined-theme sustainability fair on the TSC Patio with free giveaways Friday. The winner of The New iPad survey and drawing conducted last week by the council will also be announced at 11:30 a.m.
Thomas said the events cater to every student and hopefully every student can make time for them. For what is being provided, it will be worth the time, he said.
“It’s all been programmed on such a small budget,” Thomas said. “Ultimately, the only money from the Student Sustainability Office that’s being invested in this is the minimal cost of printing posters for the event. Otherwise, funding has come through Dr. Brain, which is still a minimal of that.”
Planning, designs and artwork provided throughout the event were all done by students, Ladd said.
Student suggestions are more than welcome, because planners are hoping the week will be an annual event, she said.
“If any students have a passion for something and want to bring more to the table or know somebody or have a great idea, we’re completely open to that,” she said.
– ariwrees@gmail.com