Thank you for supporting the planet during April, learn about what happened!
The med center hosted several events and opportunities throughout the month of April to celebrate Earth Month. Thank you to all who participated!
The annual personal document shredding and electronic recycling event on April 18-19 was a big success this year. Thanks to the support from volunteers and those who donated, we diverted from the landfill:
- 5,109 lbs of electronic waste
- 2,402 lbs of personal documents
- 261 lbs of alkaline batteries (approximately 4,000 batteries)
- 140 lbs of assorted media (VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, and floppy disks)
- 17 lbs of rechargeable/button batteries
The med center community donated:
- $612 and 200 cans of food to the Maverick Food Pantry
- 43 pairs of eyeglasses to the Truhlsen Eye Institute
- 24 lbs of pop tabs to Omaha’s Ronald McDonald House
A big THANK YOU to the volunteers that were able to help out: Barb Wright-Kennedy. Julie Sommer, Sarah Maas, Jackson Schiefelbein, Pat Wortmann, Allison Anderson, Paul Baltes, Brenda Hatcher, Cathy Binstock, Stephen Peters, Euem Osmera, Emily Wiley, and Art Heires. The event wouldn’t have been as successful without you!
All April, the Office of Sustainability hosted the EcoChallenge, an online platform that encourages participants to weave sustainable actions into their daily lives. As a team, we consumed 52 meatless or vegan meals, spent 3,703 minutes outdoors, and saved 37 gallons of water. The Office of Sustainability is continuing the challenge with a focus on biking through June 5 – sign up to log your biking miles here!
The Office of Sustainability also hosted multiple cleanups around campus to collect litter. Teams collected a total of 2.3 lbs of Hefty Orange Bag materials, 3.5 lbs of recycling, and 11.7 lbs of landfill waste. Thank you to everyone who participated!
Chad Kruse and Kelly Johnson joined Sustainability Manager Jerrod Bley to discuss how new development on campus incorporates sustainable design guidelines and impacts our sustainability goals. Thanks so much Chad and Kelly for the insights!
At the Arbor Day tree planting event, students and staff had the opportunity to plant a tree and learn more about trees in Nebraska from Graham Herbst, Community Forestry Specialist for Eastern Nebraska. Visit our new Scarlet oak named “Treeth Urban,” located in the green space west of the Harold M. and Beverly Maurer Center for Public Health.
Earth Month is a great way to participate in sustainability initiatives and activities, but you can join us all year round! Sign up to be a LiveGreen Ambassador and be a part of the core group of colleagues who are driving sustainable change at the med center.
