Join sustainability efforts during the weeklong Earth Day celebration

In recognition of Earth Day on April 22, the Office of Sustainability, Students for Sustainability and the Associated Students of the University of Arizona are hosting a weeklong celebration that includes several events, all of which are free and open to the campus community.

In addition, the Office of Sustainability will oversee zero-waste practices (to ensure no materials are sent to a landfill) at the Agave Heritage Festival. Members of the office also will staff a table at the Children's Museum Tucson Earth Day Festival and will give presentations at local primary schools.

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"We're everywhere!" said Kenzie Jackson, the office's campus and community outreach coordinator. 

Sustainability, she said, is an all-encompassing, year-round priority at the University, which has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2040. 

The efforts have paid off. The University was just named one of the Top 10 Green Universities by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and is among The Princeton Review's Top 50 Green Universities. 

At the center of the University's efforts is the Office of Sustainability, which was created in 2011 and houses various sustainability-related campus initiatives.

"We've put together a very handy resource page that I like to call Sustainability 101," Jackson said. "It organizes and details all our community programs, and can also guide you in reaching sustainability at a personal level: composting, gardening, using the CatTran and so many other ways to reduce your classic consumption. Any and all of this can help what we're doing."

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The Earth Day events planned for the week of April 22 are:

• Sustainability Summit | April 22, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
  The third annual Sustainability Summit will feature University and Tucson clubs and organizations that are committed to environmental efforts tabling on the Mall. Summit speakers will highlight four areas of sustainability: business, art, science and activism. 
• Movie Night | April 23, 6-9 p.m.
  In collaboration with Arizona Environment – which is part of the Arizona Institute for Resilient Environments and Societies – and The Loft Cinema, Earth Week events include an outdoor screening of "Princess Mononoke," an animated film that explores the consequences of unhealthy human intervention with the environment, and the attempt to save suffering natural habitats and the creatures that live in it. The movie will be shown at the Highland Bowl in front of Highland Commons.
• Stories and Crafts | April 25, 5-7 p.m.
  This event, also at the Highland Bowl, invites participants to make "seed balls" – seeds pre-planted in a mixture of dried soil materials that can be taken home to sow – and to paint pots while enjoying a community open mic.
• Sustainable Cooking | April 26, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
  Co-sponsored by Asian Pacific American Student Affairs and the Adalberto and Ana Guerrero Student Center, this cooking workshop will teach attendees to make easy sustainable recipes – recipes that use ingredients and practices to minimize waste – such as spring rolls, guacamole and Korean cucumber salad. The class will be at the APASA cultural center, located in Suite 409 of the Student Union Memorial Center.

The Office of Sustainability's ongoing initiatives are:

• Compost Cats Bucket Program | A residential composting program accessible to any University or Tucson community member for a $12 monthly fee (free for students). Participants collect their household food scraps in a bucket provided by Compost Cats and, once per week, deliver them to a designated drop-off site. Student "compost systems specialists" then turn the food scraps into compost, which is used in community gardens or donated to local parks. Program leaders say that, within the past four years, the effort has diverted nearly 200,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill.
• University of Arizona Community Garden | Founded in 2012, the Community Garden offers 38 plots that students, faculty, staff and Tucson residents can rent to plant their own food. The space is also used for educational programming on green learning and sustainable practices, and has incorporated community-donated compost, diverted wastewater from the Highland Garage Water Harvesting Cistern and the efforts of 10-20 University volunteers. 
• Campus Sustainability Fund | Much of the sustainable work on campus is made possible through the Campus Sustainability Fund. The fund offers mini grants and annual grants for projects that focus on waste reduction, energy use, education outreach and related sustainability efforts. Any member of the University community can apply; an estimated $550,000 is awarded each year.

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"Community is everything," said Halley Hughes, a graduate student in agricultural education and co-director of Students for Sustainability, an organization housed jointly under the Office of Sustainability and ASUA. "We all share this planet, so long-lasting sustainability can only be reached by all of us working together. That's why we so deeply value the privilege of University support and funding. It's that which allows us to provide opportunities and resources to our students, faculty, staff and surrounding community."

Jackson and Hughes pointed to recent successful projects, such as the Harvill and Koffler building retrofit projects as well as community partnerships with the Saguaro National Park Stewardship Program and the Palo Verde High Magnet School Water Harvesting Garden.

Hughes gave a talk titled "Heal Yourself and the Planet in One Small Step" at the TEDxUArizona held in November.

Isabel Miranda Kidwell is a student writer in the Office of University Communications.