Mother Nature forces Earth Day event indoors
As it turned out, that inclement weather planning paid off. The crowd that stopped by wasn’t as large as for previous Earth Day events, however the stormy weather didn’t stop the hardy.
“We were disheartened to move the event inside, but were glad we did,” said Sustainability Officer Jarrett Smith who coordinated the event. “We had a lot of folks show up at the start and we gave away 400 veggie starters in about 45 minutes.”
Earth Day exhibitors offered an opportunity to recycle old cell phones, along with handing out other helpful ‘earth friendly’ information. Individuals also could sign up to participate in Bike to Work Day coming up on Wednesday, June 26. More information on that annual activity will be available in the weeks ahead.
One of those attending Earth Day 2013 was School of Medicine researcher Diana George (photo above right) who stopped to speak with Katie Symons (photo above on left) with Waste Management – that’s the company the university works with for recycling materials from the Anschutz Medical Campus. George shared with Symons that recycling is happening in her office area.
Smith reports that we average 45 tons per month of recycled items from campus. See more regarding campus recycling efforts.
Even though the weather was discouraging, there are encouraging results to report regarding campus sustainability efforts as measured by STARS -- Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System that looks at sustainability in Academics & Research, Operations, Administrative and Community Engagement for which CU Denver l Anschutz Medical Campus received a Silver rating in 2012.
Sustainability Successes
- Water use reduced 18 percent from 2006
- 27 percent reduction in energy use per square foot
- 25 percent reduction in GHG Emissions
- Energy Efficiency upgrade project in Research 1 building resulting in $900k per year savings
- Reward from Xcel Energy for number of energy efficiency rebates university has received.