This Wednesday, Oct. 23, West Virginia University will celebrate National Campus Sustainability Day at the Mountainlair from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. along with hundreds of other colleges and universities across the country.
National Campus Sustainability Day serves to encourage students, faculty and staff to adopt a sustainable lifestyle on college campuses. WECAN, WVU’s Sustainability program, will be celebrating the event with co-sponsor the Student Government Association by hosting games, offering information, giveaways and more.
“We’re excited about partnering with the WVU units, departments, and students across campus to raise awareness and engage various stakeholders on different sustainability initiatives and activities,” said WVU Director of Sustainability Clement Solomon.
WVU Eco Representative Amanda Harker exhibits passion in her daily duties of promoting sustainability on campus.
“Being involved in Sustainability Day is extremely rewarding,” she said. “It gives us the opportunity to share what we are doing at the office, and helps us make sustainability a campus wide focus. As a student, I find this event extremely rewarding.”
During the event, students are encouraged to sign the WVU sustainability pledge. Those who take the pledge agree to examine the social and ecological consequences of their actions, reduce personal consumption and wasteful behaviors, engage in sustainable campus and community activities, and encourage others to follow their example.
To learn more about the campus sustainability pledge, go to http://wecan.wvu.edu/getinvolved/pledge_example.
One of the new projects WVU will be sharing information on at the event is the upcoming transition to single-stream recycling. Single-Stream recycling is a system in which all recyclables, including newspaper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, junk mail, etc., are placed in a single bin or cart for recycling. Recycling employees will be on hand to demonstrate how the new system works and discuss how it will be rolled out to campus.
There will be information available at the Mountainlair along with laptops to sign the pledge and follow WECAN on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Sustainability staff and Student Government Association members will be there to assist students.
“It’s great to see SGA partner with the Office of Sustainability and support the student-led push for a sustainable campus,” said SGA committee member Bryan Bellow.
“Campus Sustainability Day should serve as a reminder that WVU, being such a large institution, carries a lot of influence in the city and state, and should direct its power towards projects that improve energy efficiency, watershed health, and the daily lives of students and Morgantown residents.”
For more information about WVU’s sustainability efforts and achievements, visit http://wecan.wvu.edu.
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CONTACT: Clement Solomon, Director of Sustainability
304-293-7202, Clement.Solomon@mail.wvu.edu
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.