First-Ever Campus Sustainability Month a Huge Success

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Office for Sustainability hosted the first Campus Sustainability Month this October with multiple events across the University of Arkansas community. Campus Sustainability Month, previously Campus Sustainability Day, began with Know Tomorrow, followed by Bike Fest, a screening of the food waste documentary, Just Eat It, and Project Green Challenge.

This year marks the first year the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education has promoted its national Campus Sustainability May event, and upgrade from national Campus Sustainability Day.

Know Tomorrow kicked off Campus Sustainability Month Oct. 2 on the Union Mall. The event, organized by RIC Sustainability Director Kenneth Hamilton, was in held in conjunction with the upcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Students were able to learn about climate change, what they can do to mitigate it, and how to use social media to voice their concerns.

“The Know Tomorrow event went well,” said Summer Sherrod, president of the Student Sustainability Club and event co-coordinator. “We had over 35 students sign up to show their support for the U.N. climate talks on the University of Arkansas Know Tomorrow website. We were able to educate students about climate change, crowd source ideas for reducing our carbon footprints, and give away some awesome prizes. It went really well!”

Bike Fest was the second event of the month. Students congregated on McIlroy Avenue to learn about biking opportunities through UREC Outdoors, register their bikes with Razorbikes, and enter for a chance to win a free bike donated by Pepsi. More than 300 students took part in the event, and Edgardo Flores was the grand prize winner. The runners-up were Travis Parrish, and Richie Donahou, who each won bike gear and accessories. The event included slow bike races, demonstrations from UREC Outdoors staff, free food, and the opportunity to learn more about biking on campus through Razorbikes.

“Bike Fest was a great opportunity for those interested in promoting cycling in and around the University of Arkansas community to get together and educate U of A students on a variety of cycling resources available to them,” said Jonathan Vogler from UREC Outdoors.

“Bike Fest was a huge success, especially since it was our second year,” said Cassandra Gronendyke, administrative specialist for the Office for Sustainability.

The third event was a screening of Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story as part of World Food Day, Oct. 15.

“I think watching the film made a lot of people face some very conflicting emotions,” said Cameron Caja,  the student who spearheaded the formation of Razorback Food Recovery. “On the surface, there is this ridiculous situation where you could just get all the food you want to do whatever you wanted with it. Meanwhile something darker is rising up inside you as you consider that this comical situation of excess is real, that we are feeding our landfills better than our people.”

Caja said the film inspired a thoughtful post-screening discussion among the audience members.

“Each of the students, staff and faculty had meaningful questions and challenged themselves to acknowledge their own responsibility in the situation,” Caja said.  “We have built a market system remarkably resilient to making the small changes necessary to end hunger entirely in this country.”

To learn more about food recovery, the University of Arkansas Food Recovery Project's legal guide can be found at law.uark.edu/foodrecovery.

The final event, spanning the entire month, was Project Green Challenge. Students registered online at projectgreenchallenge.com, and would receive small challenges each day to be more sustainable. This event ran for the entire month of October, and the results were announced last week. Summer Sherrod and Matt Gal were finalists and will travel to the Eco Summit in San Francisco to compete with other finalists from around the world.

 “It’s great that we went from a day to a month, and that is a great leap in awareness,” said Michael Repovich, zero waste program director at the University of Arkansas Office for Sustainability.

Campus Sustainability Month on the UA campus was sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the University of Arkansas Office for Sustainability, Student Sustainability Club, and Residents’ Interhall Congress.