Mary Goughnour
Students gather at the Earth Fair on Wednesday Apr. 13, 2016 in the Brickyard. The Earth-focused fair featured dozens of exhibits, demonstrations, and ideas as to how you can help make a difference in the environment.
Hundreds of people visited the Brickyard Wednesday for this year’s Earth Fair, part of NC State’s celebration of Earth Day, which featured about 70 different vendors who all provided different perspectives on sustainability within their fields.
The event began in the Brickyard at 10 a.m. Vendors included the Climate Reality Project, NCSU Libraries and the NC State Stewards, a student activist group advocating for sustainability.
The event hoped to reinforce NC State’s commitment to sustainability and teach students about how they can make better environmental choices. One of the central themes was combating climate change through more efficient energy use.
“NC State has committed to be climate neutral by 2050,” said Tracy Dixon, the director of the University Sustainability Office. “What we’ve done is looked at where all of our greenhouse gas emissions are coming from, and we look at that every two years to see where we’re going, and since 2008 we’ve seen a 13.5 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Climate Action Pack, a group committed to combating climate change, had a table set up at the event where students could sign its petition and learn more about climate change.
Shawn Blazer, vice president of the group, brought students to the table by telling them more about the group’s plans for sustainable climate practices.
“We’re the only climate change awareness group on campus,” Blazer said. “There are a lot of environmental groups that aren’t really geared towards climate change. And this semester we’ve chosen to go to more exclusive events and get our name out there.”
Many of the tables had prizes or games that students could play. The University Recreation booth had a spin-the-wheel where students could potentially win a prize. Other booths had hats and shirts for sale, and some gave away candy.
Andrew Harrell, a junior studying biological engineering, helped out at the event as part of a new group on campus known as the Students Sustainability Resource Coalition. His table allowed students to draw leaves onto a tree using chalk where they would show different areas of importance in terms of sustainability.
“We’re trying to connect organizations together, and we’re also trying to connect students to those organizations, organizations to administrators,” Harrell said. “We’re trying to get our name out there, to build credibility within the NC State community.”
The Earth Fair is one event of a much longer campaign to work towards more sustainable practices on campus and in the future.