Enter the EcoLeaders Earth Day Raffle!

This Earth Day, I will be attending St. Edward's University's Master's in Environmental Management and Sustainability Research Symposium. I had the opportunity to present my research last year, and am looking forward to learning about what this year's class has been working on. If you are in the Austin, TX area, feel free to come check it out! 

http://think.stedwards.edu/sustainability/sites/think.stedwards.edu.sustainability/files/MSEM%20Symposium%20Flyer%202015.pdf
 

We held "Earth Day" earlier this month, since finals are this week and nobody attends events during finals week here. We asked a lot of sustainability themed student orgs to table out on the diag. Chefs from the dining halls came and had demos about using local ingredients, there were raffles for reusable water bottles, eco-freindly cleaners made from vinegar were being given away, and the campus farm taught students how to plant kale and radishes!!! It was a blast.

Our campus is hosting a Reusable "Mugshot" Campaign where we will be taking mugshots of people using paper and plastic "trash" cups for beverages! Everyone who gets a photo taken will be entered in a raffle to win a reusable mug and people seen using reusable mugs will be given free beverage coupons from our coffee shop! We are also hosting a Keynote address by Jacquie Ottaman. She is a sustainability strategist, green marketing pioneer and thought leader and she will recount her personal journey of integrating sustainability into her marketing career and offer ways students, faculty and community members can do the same. Following we will awarding certificates for the Certified Green Office, Greeks Go Green and Campus Conservation Nationals. 

Happy Earth Day! We had a variety of events as a part of our Earth Day Celebration. We had music in our student union, as well as a bike give away and the Farmer's Market. Outside we had eletric and hybrid cars on display and a blow-up obstacle course. The blow-up obstacle course was probably our most visible and unique thing we did this year. We promoted individual wellness, which is part of Bemidji State University's sustainability model. We also promoted that the obstacle course was using electricity from our student union and that BSU purchases enough wind energy to power it. We had a great turn out and it was fun to see students, faculty, and staff alike racing through the obstacle course! 

My students and I created a PSA video to encourage the reintroduction of wolves back to Colorado!!! It was a lot of fun and the students came up with great slogans!

Greetings! Here at the University of Arizona, the student group, Students for Sustainability, I am a part of works with the Tucson community every year in its city celebration of Earth Day. This past weekend, we participated in the Earth Day Celebration at a city park. There, we had all of the committees represented, and had fun information and activities out for people. This spring, oneof our senators has initiated a local farmers market on our mall area, and we had the second installation of that today. Students for Sustainability has been tabling at the markets and giving out reusable bags, which were created through an initiative called "Break the Bag" where we received funding to create resuable bags to give to students for shopping in our campus convienent stores. 

Happy Earth Day everyone! Hopefully our work can encourage and create sustained consciousness among our communities :-)


 

So many great celebrations for Earth Day! If you didn't get a chance to tell us about your celebrations yesterday you can still chime in today. We'll pick the raffle winners tomorrow morning so keep sharing your stories, EcoLeaders!

For Earth Day at St. Edward's University we celebrated on campus with many organizations and non-profits from all over Austin! St. Edward's University Rock Climbing club, Jo's Coffee, Bon Appetit, Wild Basin Creative Research Center, Environment Texas, Global Animal Partnership, Car2Go, Agua Dulce, Johnsons Backyard Garden, Austin Resource Recovery, Business Council for Sustainable Development, ZipCar, Blue Avocado,
Texas Parks and Wildlife. I was also able to present my reserch yesterday "Evaluating University Student's Understanding and Perception on Sea Level Rise in the State of Texas". I have been working on my research all year in my Masters of Environmental Management and Sustainability and it was a great opportunity to be able to present my findings to my school on Earth Day!


  
 

At Trinity University (San Antonio TX), we held our annual Earth Day Festival on Earth Day. At the festival, we showcased sustainability-related organizations on campus. Among the represented organizations, our Students Organized for Sustainability (SOS) gave away mason jars planted with flowers and native grasses and the Trinity Bee Alliance hosted a honey-tasting with honey from our campus hive. This is just one of the events that is part of our still ongoing Earth Week Celebration. We kicked off the week of event by participating in an EcoExchangeEdu Showcase, a showcase of campus sustainability initiatives and student research presented by a collaborative of area colleges and universities. Other events included a workday in our community garden, yoga in the garden, a food waste benchmark effort by SOS Waste Watchers, an art show exploring the interconnectedness of global issues based on the fieldwork of students in Nicaragua, and a farmer's market benefitting a local food pantry featuring produce from our community garden. Still to come is a social bike ride with a potluck in a local park and a campus exchange designed to keep clothing and usable goods out of the landfill.