UC San Diego Community
to Usher in Earth Week, April 16-20,
with a Whirlwind of Green Activities

April 2, 2007

By Pat JaCoby

There will be a lot of listening to your mother (Earth) as the University of California, San Diego community shows that it is easy being green during an action-packed Earth Week from April 16-20.

The weeklong series, planned by UC San Diego students and staff, includes some 30 events, ranging from a clean car show and a video competition to nightly organic dinners and celebrity author book signings. Also taking place are exhibits of UCSD environmental research, an Eco Job Fair, a garbage sort and tours of the campus cogeneration plant, one of the largest and most efficient university-owned cogeneration plants in the state, which supplies more than 90% of the campuses’ electricity.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will kick off the week at noon, April 16 in the UCSD Price Center, with a sustainability awards ceremony honoring the campuses’ sustainability leaders. Recycled glass trophies will be presented to the award winners in categories such as: undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, faculty, alumni, teams and leadership in sustainability champion.

 “As stewards of our campus community, we are compelled to address environmental challenges and implement innovative sustainable solutions. The 41,000 of us who populate the campus daily can create the synergy for future innovation—both on and off campus--through our personal commitment to sustainability,”commented Chancellor Fox on UCSD’s Earth Week activities.

Also on April 16, Nigella Hillgarth, executive director of Birch Aquarium at UCSD’s Scripp’s Institution of Oceanography, will present Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” slideshow at 4:30 p.m in the Price Center. The slide show and the documentary film that it is based on refer to the seminal research of UCSD founder and Scripps scientist Roger Revelle and his colleague Charles David Keeling, who were the first to precisely measure the increase in CO2 from human industrial activity.

Students will compete for cash prizes for the best sustainability research project.  Exhibits will range from evaluating plant-based composite materials for compostable plates and cups to improving our understanding of the global nitrogen. In addition to the exhibits, on April 19, UCSD students will present a proposal for a 100% biodiesel “Greenline” bus pilot program on campus.

“We’re using the video competition and the research exhibit to showcase the very wide range of research that students are conducting, and how diverse and interdisciplinary sustainability research at UCSD is, among students as well as faculty,” said Lisa Shaffer, executive director of UCSD’s Environment & Sustainability Initiative, which was established in 2005 to harness and direct sustainability research and other academic activities to develop solutions to local, regional and global environmental problems via industry and governmental partnerships.

A first-time Eco Job Fair will be held April 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Career Services Center. “The purpose of the Eco Job Fair is to bring together socially and environmentally conscious businesses and organizations with exceptional UCSD students who want to apply their skills and enthusiasm in the sustainability arena,” noted Jenny Kressel, employer events specialist. “Participating employers will recruit students for positions across a wide variety of fields, including technology, renewable energy, consulting, communications, life sciences, nonprofits and government.”

“Beyond Fire: Responding to Climate Change,” a presentation by George Tynan, professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, also is scheduled  on April 17 and will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Price Center. Tynan is the current chair of UCSD’s campuswide Advisory Committee on Sustainability.

A free electronic-device recycling program for faculty, staff and students will be held April 18 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Parking Lot 411 on Myers Drive. Employees can drop off their old computers, monitors, laptops and other electronic devices, said Valerie Fanning, Environmental Health and Services, and then E-World Recyclers of Vista will separate and recycle the items.

Along that same line, a “garbage sort” using trash from the previous day’s work at the Price Center will be held from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m., April 18 in the Price Center plaza. Participants will lay down tarps into which recyclables and non-recyclables will be sorted, said Krista Francis, sustainability coordinator for UCSD’s Auxiliary & Plant Services.

Also on April 18, Green Campus Walks will be held at both 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. from the Price Center Plaza to illustrate UCSD’s commitment to sustainability through its green buildings, reclaimed water, rooftop gardens, energy conservation and other methods.

Original video projects of 10 minutes or less produced by UCSD students that demonstrate imagination and raise awareness of environmental and sustainability issues will be screened during a public “Vidfest” to be held at 2:00 p.m. April 18 in Fung Auditorium in the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall, co-sponsored by a community group, Heal Our Mother Earth (HOME) International. First, second and third place winners selected by a panel will receive scholarship awards ranging from $1,500 to $500. Following the screening, student participants in both the Vidfest and the research competition will be recognized at an awards reception beginning at 4:30p.m., presided over by the UCSD Vice Chancellor for Research, Arthur Ellis.

A number of local bands will play during a “Good Soda Fresh Air Tour” scheduled in the Price Center Plaza at noon April 19. The tour markets a new sugar-free, nutritious soda. Also on April 19, authors Francis Moore Lappe, author of the iconic “Diet for a Small Planet” and UCSD alumnus and science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson will lead book discussions in the UCSD Bookstore at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

A cleanup at Tourmaline Beach is slated at 10 a.m. April 20, followed by a 1 p.m. tour of special facilities at the Scripps’ pier.

Organic dinners are scheduled each night of the week at different campus eating establishments.

For more information about UC San Diego’s Earth Week activities please visit:
http://earthweek.ucsd.edu  For more information about green practices and other sustainability efforts at UCSD visit: http://sustain.ucsd.edu.  Information on the UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initiative can be found at http://esi.ucsd.edu.

Media Contacts:

Krista Francis, 858 534-7139
Dolores Davies, 858 534-5994
Pat Jacoby, 858 534-7404