Earth Month Wrap-Up
The first campus Earth Month puts up impressive numbers
In years past we have always had “Earth Week”—a weeklong celebration of International Earth Day. You requested more events and to have events spread out so it was easier for you to attend. We were happy to oblige and even happier to combine forces with UNO to be able to offer additional events while making sure you were aware of community events brought to you by the Nebraska Science Festival.
A special thank you to all of our awesome volunteers—without you this week would not have been possible!
All month long we asked you to join the Drawdown EcoChallenge and our team ranked 40th in the nation, with an impressive environmental and personal impact!
We kicked things off by providing you with personal care recipes, so you can reduce your exposure to chemicals, save money, and because we tested and use all of them, know they work. If you missed out, click here for copies.
UNO hosted the Sustainability Expo this year and we’ll host it on our campus next year. Snow (?!) and then rain forced us to move the “Yoga on the Green” sessions inside. As usual, it rained during the personal document shredding and electronic/battery/techno trash recycling event, but it’s still our most popular event with hundreds of you dropping off items:
- 141 eyeglasses donated to the TEI clinic; ~8000 pop tabs to Ronald McDonald House
- 401 pounds of VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, and floppy disks
- 5,657 pounds of electronics
- 2,740 pounds of TVs and computer monitors
- 7,280 pounds of paper for shredding
- 150 pounds of alkaline batteries
- 16,228 total pounds (that’s almost 2,000 more pounds than last year and equals 8.1 tons or 4.5 average US cars!) diverted from the landfill. That impact?*
- 15 trees saved
- 151 gallons of oil not used
- 340,040 hours of electricity saved
- 4,603 gallons of water
We ended the week celebrating our status as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation, replacing an Eastern Redbud tree that was removed due to disease, giving away Red osier Dogwoods and wildflower seeds, and asking Master Gardner Susan Siebler lots of questions.
We want to provide activities that are meaningful to you, both personally and professionally. If you have any additional comments, suggestions, or changes for next year please email us.
*Estimated impact; actual totals may vary slightly depending the exact mix of electronics turned in.
