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Campus Celebrates Its Green Side During Earth
Week
Ioana Patringenaru | April 23, 2007
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| UCSD student Jessica Wall plants a eucalyptus tree Wednesday during Earth Week. |
 Click here to view the slide show. |
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They planted trees. They recycled their old TVs and
printers. They even sorted trash.
Students, staff and faculty rolled up their sleeves
and proved that it’s easy being green last week
during Earth Week at UCSD. The weeklong celebration
included hands-on activities, faculty talks and a
video festival. Leonardo DiCaprio himself congratulated
students for their efforts—albeit in writing.
Earth Week aims to educate the UCSD and San Diego communities and raise awareness of global warming and its impact on the planet. It’s also a showcase for the university’s many environmentally-friendly programs. Organizers also stressed the need for a larger number of people to use green practices, both on and off campus.
“Everything that you can do to help this effort will sustain life,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said Monday.
She spoke during a sustainability awards ceremony at the Price Center. UCSD has been conducting environmental research for a long time and is committed to green practices on campus, the chancellor also said. That commitment was on display at the ceremony. Winners included staff members who made it easier for employees and students to ride buses for free; are working to include solar-powered, electric vehicles into the campus’ fleet; and designed Major Planet and Toby the Wonder Dog, the sustainability mascots for Housing and Dining Services.
Two days later, about two dozen students proved their commitment to cleaning up the planet by sorting trash during lunch. About one ton of garbage awaited them, right smack in the middle of the Price Center Plaza. Volunteers were trying to salvage recyclable items mixed in with regular trash. Before wading into a sea of garbage, they suited up with white jumpsuits and plastic gloves.
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| Students look for recyclable items while sorting garbage. |
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Alonso Noble, assistant superintendent for Landscape Services and Refuse and Recycling, guided students and answered their questions. Cardboard boxes? Yes, they’re recyclable, he said. CDs? No. Paper tissues? No. Aluminum cans? Yes. “This is good,” Noble told the students. “You guys are doing great. Thank you!” Erika Trevis, a third-year anthropology major, found many items that were new or barely used, including jewelry, notepads and even unopened boxes of food. “It’s kind of sad, actually,” she said.
By the time she and her colleagues were done, about 40 percent of the trash turned out to be recyclable, Noble said. Despite that result, he said that the UCSD community is becoming more aware. The campus recently placed 24th in RecycleMania, a contest, where 200 universities vied to increase recycling and cut back waste. That’s up from 49th place last year, Noble pointed out.
The following day, Thursday, another group of students showed off their efforts to clean up the planet, this time by cleaning up the air we breathe. Members of the Biofuels Awareness Action Network hope to turn the Hillcrest-campus shuttle into a vehicle exclusively powered by biodiesel. They call their project “greenline.”
Biodiesel produces fewer emissions than regular fuel and can be made locally from vegetable oil or animal fat, explained Meagan Moore, a member of the group. Fleet Services currently operates about 40 shuttles powered with a mix of diesel and biodiesel, said Garage Manager Jim Ruby, who received a sustainability award for his work. The Hillcrest shuttle would be the first to be powered by biodiesel only
“We want to push alternative fuels and biodiesel is a great way to do that,” said Moore.
The shuttle would serve as a model, she said. Students also plan to partner with faculty to study biodiesel’s emissions, health effects on rats, life cycle and cost, she said. Other Action Network members are trying to create a reactor than would make biodiesel on campus. The group reached an agreement with Price Center restaurants to pick up their waste oil, which they will try to turn into fuel. Thursday, these students heard encouraging news from Jon Karanopoulos, a teacher at the School of Science and Technology in the San Diego Unified School District. Karanopoulos and students in his automotive classes have successfully made biodiesel to power about half a dozen school vehicles. It’s easy, the teacher said, and it costs only about $1.10 a gallon.
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| A student at the Early Childhood Education Center's Open House, dubbed "ECEC Goes Green." |
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Finally, Friday afternoon, the youngest members of the UCSD community joined in the Earth Week fun. The Early Childhood and Education Center hosted an Open House, dubbed “ECEC Goes Green.” Children worked on projects that helped them understand sustainability and the value of conservation, including planters made of recycled paper and recycled art.
Other Earth Week activities included a beach clean up, tree planting, nightly organic dinners, book signings, exhibits of UCSD environmental research, an Eco Job Fair 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 campus’ electricity. |
