With the beginning of April, Earth Month is officially under way.
Earth Month is sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and lasts April 3-24.
Courtney Washburn, sustainability outreach coordinator at the Office of Sustainability, said the focus of the events is to encourage living a sustainable lifestyle.
“The theme of Earth Month is keeping our world green,” Washburn said. “The events that we have for Earth Month … have a wide variety, so we’re trying to reach a number of different people.”
There have already been several Earth Month events on campus. First there was the Sustainability Career Panel, which had different individuals discussing how their jobs relate to supporting and sustaining the environment. There was also the Go Green Fair & Bike to Campus Day event with more than 20 local organizations like the UT Farmer’s Market, Campus B, EcoVols, and UT Dining.
The next series of events is the Brown Bag Series. Running through April 9-13, the series will feature several presentations on sustainability. The presentations are from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the UC Room 226.
“We’re really excited about that,” Washburn said. “They’ll be talking about different things from environmental justice to alternative fuel to environmental ethics.”
Students and faculty are encouraged to bring a lunch to the presentations.
Earth Month will feature a Weatherization Workshop on April 17. Focused primarily for students who live off campus, the workshop will teach participants ways they can weatherize their home and even provide the tools needed to carry out the process. The workshop will be held at the UC Room 217.
“These are just going to be simply (tips),” Washburn said. “Everyone who attends will leave with a tool to weatherize their homes.”
Washburn said it will definitely be a hands-on lecture.
Another major event for Earth Month is the Bike-In Movie. The movie will start at 8 p.m. on April 19 at the Humanities Amphitheater. Students will be watching Pixar’s “Wall-E.”
United Residence Hall Council (URHC) is one of the organizations helping with the Bike-In Movie. URHC was one of the main sponsors for the event and will be helping with food distribution and recycling. They will also be promoting all of the other events for Earth Month.
David Hayes, freshman in logistics and representative of URHC, said that he’s glad the university is getting behind the green initiative.
“Sustainability is one of the most important topics of today because … (it) is providing for future,” Hayes said. “UT has come a long way, but we have the potential to become one of the most sustainable campuses in the country.”
Although EcoVols selected “Wall-E,” it was the UT Film Committee that purchased the movie rights.
Jessica Covington, UT Film Committee chair and junior in special education, will be there with the committee that night. She hopes that the contributions of the committee will help facilitate the goals of Earth Month.
“Personally, I’m very excited to see Earth Month taken so seriously,” Covington said. “I hope that having such a large event will be a platform for student involvement and allow them to make inquiries about what EcoVols hopes to do and why it is important.”
Aside from providing the movie, the UT Film Committee will also help set up and tear down the event. They will also have a table where those interested can learn more about what the committee does and the fall movie schedule.
A host of other groups are helping with the event, including WUTK-FM, Aramark, and the UT Outdoor Program. There will be food, raffle prizes and opportunities to learn about bike safety.
April 22, Earth Month will have its Litter Clean-up. Students will group together to clean up several areas around the area, including the Agriculture Campus, Fort Sanders and the main campus. Students will clean up for about an hour and then meet back for complimentary food and drink.
A full list of Earth Month events can be found at http://environment.utk.edu/news/earth_month.html.
“I think it’s just great to encourage students to participate in Earth Month as much as they can,” Washburn said. “There’s a large variety of events for a reason, to speak to many different types of people.”
