Join us in our celebration of Earth Day this year. Each year on April 22, we partner to demonstrate support for environmental protection. We do so through gratitude of our space and surroundings, bringing environmental issues to the forefront of our conversations and focus for the day, as well as taking action to support our planet and its inhabitants.
Puget Sound holds a designation as a Tree Campus Higher Education through the Arbor Day Foundation. Our electronic tree canopy map that holds an inventory of all campus trees. The map helps us track maintenance of our trees, protect campus biodiversity, identify where to plant new trees, and calculates tree carbon dioxide offsets.
To continue our long standing practices, we are planting more trees this year for Earth Day! Join us on our Loggers Live Green Facebook page for a livestream of a tree planting. We will be live on Thursday, April 22 at 11:00 a.m.
COVID-19 adversely impacted student, faculty, and staff ability to collaborate on sustainability. We invite you all to read through our examples of sustainability at Puget Sound. Due to COVID-19 requirements and related changes to university operations, various activities had to be suspended from spring of 2020 through this spring. Most suspended endeavors will return in the upcoming academic year. We look forward to when we will be able to engage in person extensively with campus community members to learn and grow, guided by our Strategic Plan which includes goals for sustainability and environmental justice.
Historical Earth Day Events
Prior to COVID-19, we celebrated Earth Day annually all week long. Various departments and organizations partnered to host multiple sustainability and environmental related events activities. Events included a Sustainability Expo, where we showcased many sustainability endeavors on campus in a large meet-and-greet gathering. One of many regular event examples was Box Castle, where Facilities Services collected boxes from the recycling waste stream over a three-week period to build a giant box castle in Marshall Hall. It was a great visual reminder of how much waste we accumulate in a short amount of time. We look forward to week long engagement next year!
How Can I Participate?
There are various ways you can explore engaging with sustainability on campus, particularly for next year! Check out our Sustainability Contacts tab on the side of the page for some resources and to find out how you can get involved.
Grizz Shows How To Do It
Finally, check out videos below of Grizz folding some sustainable behaviors into a daily routine. Sustainability includes making small changes and additions to everyday life habits. Those habits matter wherever Loggers are.
Printing Green
A simple way to save paper is to print double sided! Here Grizz shows us what and what not to do with Print Green.
Above we see Grizz printing sustainably and below we see Grizz being wasteful with printing habits.
Recycling
Learning how to recycle can be a challenge. Grizz learns the hard way to avoid single-use plastics and opt instead for recycling and reusing when possible!
Above we see Grizz tossing items into the trash, whereas below Grizz shows how to recycle properly, including what goes into each type of bin. Take a look at our recycling guidelines (PDF).
Reducing Water Usage
Spending all day cheering on Loggers can be hard work! Grizz loves taking a shower after a long day, but sometimes can lollygag and end up wasting water.
Above we see Grizz showcasing sustainable behavior by taking shorter showers and conserving water. Below is a remind of what not to do if you want to conserve water.
We look forward to resuming week long Earth Day endeavors and much more with the entire community next year. Loggers Live Green!