The University’s Offices of Sustainability and Community Relations joined with U.Va. Dining to host the second annual Earth Week Expo Tuesday afternoon, highlighting environmental conservation and sustainability efforts on Grounds and in the larger community.
Nina Morris, spokesperson for the Office for Sustainability, said this year’s event focuses on climate change and efforts being taken to react to its effects. For example, Morris said, the University’s Building Services division, which recently received “Green Seal” certification for using environmentally-friendly products and practices, showcased some of its environmental efforts at the Expo.
U.Va. Dining and the Parking and Transportation Office also touted their sustainability efforts at the event. Dining’s Sustainability Manager Chris Stevens said one of Dining’s main environmentally friendly initiatives is composting waste from its dining and retail locations around Grounds. Dining currently sends most of its waste to an outside company for composting, but is working to compost more by establishing alternative composting mechanisms.
“I’ve been working with a student … to put [composting] bins on the [Newcomb] patio to support expansion of the program,” Stevens said.
Beginning last year, Dining worked to increase its compost program to include retail locations as well as dining halls, and more than 20 dining and retail locations now compost, Stevens said.
Members from the Parking and Transportation Office discussed a new bike-sharing program to be implemented late this summer. According to a spokesperson, the program will start with 120 bikes around Grounds, “primarily along the McCormick Road corridor,” and will offer low-cost annual memberships as well as short-term bike rental options.
The event also featured expositions on environmental sustainability and climate change presented by students in the University’s Global Studies minor class. For the project, each student partnered with a local business to improve the business’ sustainability efforts. First-year Architecture student Ethan Feldman, who was one of the presenters, partnered with the Downtown Business Association for his project.
“We started at the beginning of the semester and met with our businesses to talk about how to become more sustainable,” Feldman said. Seeing many sustainability efforts already in place, the group decided to work on creating a networking initiative to broaden the reach of existing environmentally friendly policies.
“We helped them create a newsletter to get sustainability information to businesses in the Downtown Mall,” Feldman said. “My goal was to give them enough information — a template — and then let them continue doing it.”
The Expo closed with a featured presentation by Environmental Science Prof. G. Carleton Ray, who spoke about the origins and significance of Earth Day as well as about his research on climate change.
“Earth Day was a result of this mounting obsession of the fate of the planet that we live on,” Ray said. “The result was the largest [group] of environmental legislation ever.”
Ray, who was recently recognized by the Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences for more than 50 years of environmental work, also touched on how global warming and climate change affect mammals living in the ocean. He spoke about how walruses specifically were affected by climate change, noting, “they’re really important; they’re one of the largest consumers in the Arctic.” Ray said melting oceanic ice was causing problems for the walruses.
The event drew a diverse group of attendees, including University students and faculty, as well as staff and members of the public. Environmental Science Prof. Stephen Macko said he enjoyed seeing the efforts of groups around Grounds to increase sustainability, and said he was glad so many people came to the event.
“I think the whole idea of having Earth Day awareness is important to the community,” Macko said. “It’s our Earth; it’s our only home.”
Morris said she was very happy with how the event turned out this year, and saw it as a great way for people to learn about how to be savvy about sustainability.
“I think it’s bigger and better [than last year],” Morris said. “We have more participants and already more attendees.”
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