Earth Month 2025 | Healthy People, Healthy Planet: Strengthening Connections

April 22 is Earth Day, and the med center is celebrating all April long! This Earth Month will highlight the link between human and environmental health, and the importance of strengthening connections with one another for mutual well-being. Check out the list below to learn how to participate in the Earth Month celebrations and engage with one another.

Personal Electronic Waste and Document Shredding Event

April 29th, 10am-6pm & April 30th, 6am-2pm | UNMC Grounds Building (Annex 23)

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

Have unneeded electronics, batteries, bikes, or documents laying around? Attend our annual recycling event! This year, we are partnering with the Community Bike Project of Omaha to collect damaged or un-used bikes. CBPO will fix up the bikes and donate them back to our community. Bring your bikes, e-waste, and old media to be recycled. Sign up to be a volunteer for the e-waste event! For more details, visit this webpage.

Campus Cleanup

April 24th, 12-1pm | 42nd & Emile

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

Join us in picking up trash around campus over lunchtime with the Blue Bucket Project. We will meet at the intersection of 42nd and Emile near the stethoscope. We will make sure our campus is litter-free while also making connections with one another! Invite your friends, coworkers, and classmates! RSVP by filling out this form!

Arbor Day Tree Planting Ceremony

April 25th, 12-1pm | Greenspace by the Sorrel Center

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

Join the Office of Sustainability, HEAL, and the ERG in the bi-annual tree planting event – there will be games, donuts, and coffee! Graham Herbst, community forestry specialist for eastern Nebraska for the Nebraska Forest Service, will present about the benefits of trees, especially for community resilience and health. Help improve green spaces on campus while learning more from HEAL about student sustainability efforts. Click here to submit your idea to name the eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) being planted this year. Inclement weather backup date is May 2nd, 12-1pm.

Kelly Johnson: Webinar on Capital Projects on Campus that Support Sustainability

April 1st, 2pm | Zoom

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

Everyone is invited to hear Kelly Johnson, the Director of Systems/Energy Engineering Services at the med center, speak about capital projects supporting sustainability. Attend via Zoom by clicking here.

Farrah Grant: Climate Hope Presentation

April 21st, 12-1pm | MSC 2014 OR Zoom

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

The LGA ERG will host Farrah Grant, an instructor from UNO, who will present on the concept of Climate Hope. Climate Hope is the belief that, despite the daunting realities of climate change, solutions exist and progress is possible. Attend in-person in MSC 2014 or via Zoom by clicking here.

OneHealthcare EcoChallenge

All Month | Online

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

Join the OneHealthcare EcoChallenge, where you can take sustainable action directly related to healthcare and health topics. Click here to join the med center team and earn points! Top-scoring participants will be recognized and receive a local gift card at the end of the month. 

 

HEAL Events

All Month

Audience: Faculty, Staff, and Students

• Clothing Swap Event (2nd week of April) – Collaboration with AAPISA and SAGH (Awaiting BOSS proposal results)
• Keep Omaha Beautiful Clean-up Event (April 19th) – Collaboration with GSA (We will be providing bagels)
• Earth Month Photo Contest (April 1st – April 26th) – Collaboration with LGA-ERG and the Office of Sustainability
• Earth Week Succulent Giveaway (April 21st) – Collaboration with Student Senate
• Lunch and Learn Event (April 22nd) – Collaboration with GSA
• Earth-Friendly Trivia Night (April 23rd) – Collaboration with ISA

Visit HEAL’s social media for more details about these events!

• Instagram: @healunmc
• Facebook: UNMC Healthy Earth Alliance-HEAL

 

Other Community Events

• Earth Day Omaha at Elmwood Park – One of America’s oldest, continually running environmental events, Earth Day Omaha will celebrate its 36th consecutive year on Saturday, April 26th, 2025. This year’s event will build on a long history of success as the region’s premier environmental event, reaching a local consumer base most interested in the environment and sustainability. Hosted in the center of the city at Elmwood Park, the event is free to the public and provides entertainment for all ages.
• Medical Equipment Rescue & Reuse Event – April 8-12 (see site for times) at 8111 Dodge Street, Suite 141, Omaha, NE. If you have durable medical equipment that needs recycled or might be able to be reused, consider participating in the Rescue and Reuse-Omaha event. Visit this site to see the dates and times that you can drop off your equipment. If you’d like to volunteer, click here!
• Omaha Spring Cleanup – April 12, 26, and May 3, 10, and 17 (9AM – 2 PM). A joint effort between the City of Omaha and participating neighborhood or homeowner associations. The annual free event provides Omaha residents with the opportunity to recycle or dispose of large or bulky items that are not accepted through curbside waste services (such as old furniture, appliances, tires, and mattresses).

 

Want to continue to support campus sustainability efforts after Earth Month comes to an end? Consider attending these upcoming events!

Campus Urban Prairie Clean-Up

May 2nd, 12-6pm: show up anytime | Lot 54, 16, 64 and DRC II

Interested in stretching your green thumb while supporting biodiversity on campus? Join the Prairie Maintenance Group here, no experience necessary. Don’t have time to join the group but still want to be involved on May 2nd? RSVP Here. We will provide the tools and expertise, you get your hands dirty helping us weed, plant and scatter seeds.

LGA Plant Swap Social

May 8th 4-5pm | UNMC Ice Rink (weather dependent)

Get to know your fellow LGA members while getting some new greenery and a snack in the process. Bring in a cutting, seedling or full grown plant you have grown tired of to swap with somebody else. LGA will also be providing a limited number of plants to give away. Enjoy a snack from Veg.Edible while you chat about horticulture. RSVP Here.

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