Beginning Monday, NC State is celebrating Campus Sustainability Week with various activities to further educate the Wolfpack community on an array of sustainability topics.
Campus Sustainability Week will be happening the week of Sept. 16. Lani St. Hill, outreach coordinator for NC State Waste Reduction and Recycling, explains the purpose of having a week devoted to sustainability early in the year.
“During April we obviously have Earth Month here at NC State and it is wonderful and a great chance for student organizations and departments to showcase what they’re doing on campus, but it’s very late in the year,” St. Hill said. “So we wanted to give people a snippet of what’s happening now. So students from the very beginning can see like what we’re doing on campus in terms of sustainability.”
Throughout the week, students have the opportunity to learn about various issues and topics related to sustainability, and they will have the chance to engage in hands-on experience.
“There’s events, speakers, tours, there is of course highlighting things that we’re doing anyway,” St. Hill said. “There is a lot more, so you can get very in-depth on a particular subject if that’s what interests you.”
Kaley Cross, a third-year studying environmental science and Zero Waste Wolfpack vice president, said she encourages students to attend the Sustainability Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 19 from 6-7:30 p.m. at Stafford Commons.
“I think it’s a good overview of a lot of different organizations and projects or like the Sustainability Office or our office or different resources that a student might need later on,” Cross said. “Even if they’re interested in a project or they see a problem on campus and want to begin to solve that.”
Mary Alvarez, a fourth-year studying sustainable materials and technology and Zero Waste Wolfpack intern, echoed Cross’ advice for students interested in getting involved to attend the sustainability fair.
“I think it’s mainly geared towards educating students,” Alvarez said. “Also because we have a lot of people come up to us in football games or our table and they’ll be like, ‘How do I get involved?’ Well, there are multiple ways and so it is a really good way to spread that information.”
Cross said that the fair will bring attention to the subject of sustainability on campus and make it easy for students to get involved.
“Yeah, there are tons of student organizations to be involved in and it’s just kind of a way to put all those organizations into one place.” Cross explained. “So if you know that you’re interested in sustainability but you don’t know exactly what aspect, then students have the opportunity to figure out what they’re most interested in about sustainability.”
Additional activities include the All Carolinas meal at Fountain and Clark Dining Halls and a tour of the Floating Islands Project. According to Alvarez, these activities hope to bring more attention to projects happening at NC State that most students might not be aware of.
“It’s really a big campus, and it’s really easy for us to overlook these projects,” Alvarez said. “All these projects are known to us. But most students don’t know things like the Floating Islands Project, which is kind of a big deal in the realm of sustainability.”
Students can visit the campus sustainability website or view the Campus Sustainability Week schedule to learn more.
