CSU Celebrates Earth Week

CSU is Celebrating Earth Day with a week of green events starting today and running through Monday, April 23. A highlight of this year’s festivities is the Earth Day Celebration and Student Sustainability Fair on the Lory Student Cent Plaza from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. today. (Wednesday, April 18th)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18th

Cenergy Expo 2012

Wednesday, April 18
Time: 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Lory Student Center, Main Ballroom
The Cenergy Expo is an annual university event that attracts more than 300 professionals. The expo promotes connections between CSU faculty/student research and clean energy industry, government, investors, start-ups, non-profits, and the media. It includes two keynote addresses, faculty talks, a poster session, exhibitors, and education-related activities. The event is sponsored by Clean Energy Supercluster and Cenergy.

Earth Day Celebration and Student Sustainability Fair on the Plaza

Time: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Lory Student Center Plaza
The fair will feature booths from vendors and organizations from CSU and Fort Collins, including a green career section, student organizations, local non-profit organizations, businesses and more. Attendance is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the Live Green Team.

Give a Watt: Pedal it Forward

Time: noon – 1 p.m.
Lory Student Center, Senate Chambers
Join us for the Pedal it Forward – Alternative Transportation Panel Discussion. We'll have energy harvesting bikes and will kick off a "Transportation Challenge." Discussion topics will include bike safety, transportation and sustainability, Green Ride and the Bike Ambassador Program. A second seminar will take place on April 25. The event is sponsored by the School of Global Environmental Sustainability and the City of Fort Collins.

Biofuels: Facts, Fictions and Forecasts

Time: 5-6:30 p.m.
Avogadro's Number, 605 S. Mason Street
April's "Managing the Planet Panel Series" will focus on biofuels and their role in our energy future. A CSU Panel of Experts will include Ken Reardon, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Graham Peers, Department of Biology; Courtney Jahn, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management; and Robert Duffy, Department of Political Science. The event is sponsored by the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.

Bike Parade and Bike-in Movie at the Student Recreation Center

Time: 6 - 9:30 p.m.
Northwest side of the Oval
Ride your bike in a parade through campus with other alternative transportation enthusiasts! Join us at the Oval and wind through campus to the Rec Center for the bike-in movie, Dumb and Dumber. Parade prizes and free giveaways will be awarded including pizza, ice cream, bike lights, helmets and bike mechanic offering free repairs. The event is sponsored by the Campus Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Spring Film Festival - Growth Busters

Time: 7 - 10 p.m.
Behavioral Sciences, Room 131
David Gardner, the filmmaker of "GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth," explores the most critical question of our time: How do we become a sustainable civilization? The documentary examines cultural barriers that prevent us from reacting to the current levels of population and consumption that are unsustainable. The event is sponsored by the Student Sustainability Center.

Thursday, April 19

Green CSU Tour

Time: 1 – 3 p.m.
Lory Student Center Transit Center
Tour a 5.3-megawatt, 30-acre solar plant; the Earth Bin composter; and the biomass boiler on CSU's Foothills Campus. A bus will transport 45 tour goers to this campus. Reservations are required. Contact Stacy Grant at stacy.grant@colostate.edu to reserve your tour spot and/or if you have questions. The event is sponsored by RamTracks, Facilities Management and the Live Green Team.

Self-guided Green Campus Walking Tour
Take a walk on the green side. Take this self-guided tour of 22 locations on campus using the Green Campus Walking Tour brochure and the signs to guide you. This tour will be available throughout Earth Week . The event is sponsored by Facilities Management and the Live Green Team.

Friday, April 20th

Arbor Day Tree Campus USA tree planting event on the Oval
Time: 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
CSU Oval
A tree planting event will be held to celebrate CSU's recognition as a Tree Campus USA and Colorado's Arbor Day. Oval Drive will be closed from approximately 5 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Friday, April 20 for this event. Student volunteers will plant 27 Valley Forge elms in an effort to extend the legacy of the Oval. This is only the second supplemental planting in the Oval’s history. The previous supplemental planting of 16 American elms occurred in 1996. The last mass planting on the Oval took place in the 1920s. CSU Facilities and the Colorado State Forest Service will help with planting instructions. The event is sponsored by the Campus Tree Advisory Committee.

One Geographer's Journey, Hurricane Katrina recovery work
Time: 3:30-5 p.m.
Clark Building, Room A-203
Dr. Chris Emrich, from the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute (HVRI), University of South Carolina, will present "One Geographer's Journey along the Road of Recovery from Disaster." Dr. Emrich will take us through a visual tour of the Hurricane Katrina recovery work that HVRI researchers have been involved in along the coast of Mississippi. The event is sponsored by Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis, Geospatial Centroid, Department of Sociology, and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.

Annual apparel design show features recycled military parachutes
Time: 7:30 p.m.
University Center for the Arts, Griffin Concert Hall
One of the highlights of this year’s fashion show, "Beyond the Surface," will include a collection of draped garments made from parachutes used by U.S. military troops. The parachutes cannot be reused by the military; students are repurposing the parachute fabric by using them in original apparel designs. Garments will include wedding dresses, gowns, cocktail dresses, jackets and casual clothing. The students are partnering with AspenPointe of Colorado Springs, a non-profit organization for veteran rehabilitation creating change through social innovation and joint business venture opportunities. The event is sponsored by the Department of Design and Merchandising.

Saturday, April 21st

National Sustainable Design Expo
Time: noon – 5 p.m.
National Mall, Washington, D.C.
A student team from CSU will compete in the U.S. EPA's People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) student design competition, featured at the Eighth Annual National Sustainable Design Expo. The Colorado State team, led by faculty advisor Eulanda Sanders, is working on a project titled, "A Sustainable Design Paradigm for Smart Performance Textiles and Apparel."

The goal of the CSU project is to develop sustainable "solar powered-natural fiber" smart outdoor technical apparel prototypes that utilize and harvest solar energy to power electric devices. The innovative aspect of the project is that the combination of UV-resistant natural textiles with flexible solar panels in functional outdoor clothing is non-existent in the marketplace. The team is competing for a P3 Award and additional funding to take their idea to market, pilot scale testing or implementation in the field. The design competition will begin on April 21 and continue through April 23. The event is sponsored by the Department of Design and Merchandising.

Showing of the 11th Hour Movie
Time: 6 – 8 p.m.
Everyday Joe's Coffee House, 144 S. Mason St.
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars is hosting a free showing of The 11th Hour at Everyday Joe's Coffee House on Saturday, April 21 after CSUnity. Meet members of NSCS while learning about our impact on planet Earth. The event is sponsored by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

Sunday, April 22nd

City Earth Day Celebration
Time: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
CSU's Behavioral Sciences Building, Room 131
Join us for Earth Day 2012 festivities including a film fest, nibble garden, and bike tour!
• Sustainability Film Fest on Earth Day: "Mindful Movies" including Carbon Nation, Food Fight, I AM, Dirt!, and No Impact Man, among others, will be featured. It's free, and the festival runs from 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
• Nibble Garden: Help us dig a "Nibble Garden" along the bike trail, adjacent to Shire CSA. Raspberry, snap pea, and other hardly perennial donations are needed to plant the nibbling garden along the trail. Planting will take place from 2 - 4 p.m.
• Sustainability Green Brick Road Bike Tour: Join community members for a bike tour of some of the innovative sustainability projects throughout Fort Collins. Stops include LEED buildings, experimental gardens, notable trees and more! Bike tour times are noon and 3 p.m.
The event is sponsored by the City of Fort Collins and CSU's Student Sustainability Center.

Monday, April 23

TedxCSU: Growing Greener Generations
Time: 2 – 8 p.m.
Lincoln Center, Fort Collins
Growing Greener Generations is the inaugural TedXCSU conference, a symposium featuring more than 10 educational speakers presenting on various topics related to sustainability, including former governor Bill Ritter, author Hunter Lovins, and Fossil Ridge High School student Sanjukta Santra. The event is sponsored by the TedxCSU student organization, Campus Activities, Department of External Relations, KUNC, SLiCE and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.

Thinking like a Mountain: Leopold, Land Health, & Resilience
Time: 3 – 4 p.m.
Natural Resource Building, Room 108
'Resilience' has become the buzz-word du jour but what does it mean for human society and the environments within which people live? What does resilience mean for sustainable lifestyles and how might the concepts of resilience science be applied to the real world? One set of answers to these questions can be found in the stories and philosophies of Aldo Leopold. Mike Jones of the Stockholm Resilience Centre will present the seminar. The event is sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Conservation, Environmental Governance Working Group, Institute for Society, Landscape, and Ecosystem Change and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.

More information about all Earth Week events can be found at www.green.colostate.edu.