VCU news

By Megan Schmidt

Kicking off Virginia Commonwealth University’s Family Weekend 2014 on Friday, the fifth annual Campus Sustainability Day was marked with sunshine and HAVOC.

The VCU Athletics band, The Peppas, had the crowd rocking as students dropped by between classes to sample fresh, locally sourced food, learn about VCU’s single-stream recycling program and talk with departments and organizations on campus that strive every day to make VCU a clean, green place to live, work and study.

Erin Stanforth, director of sustainability at VCU, was thrilled with the enthusiastic response.

“I think it’s awesome,” said Stanforth, who was attending her first Campus Sustainability Day since she joined VCU this year. “We’ve had like 1,000 people here. The Peppas really drew a lot of people in. It’s fantastic.”

Students enjoyed upcycling old or rarely worn T-shirts into exciting new garments and reusable bags in an effort to give them a second life and forestall their inevitable trip to a thrift store or landfill.

If you noticed an abundance of people riding Segways on campus, they were participants of free green tours, hosted by VCU Goes Green and Segway of Richmond. The tours visited seven sustainable spots, such as the Cary Street Gym and the School of Engineering West building.

The event, which was held in the Student Commons Plaza, hosted representatives from VCU Dining Services, RamBikes, the Outdoor Adventure Program, Hemp Hearts, Virginia Waste Services and three student clubs – Eco-Fashion, Verde and Green Unity at VCU.

Sustainable RVA and representatives of sustainable academics at VCU also were on hand to discuss the new undergraduate sustainability certificate approved by the Board of Visitors this spring.

“It’s been really busy,” Bill Godfrey, adjunct instructor with the Center for Environmental Studies, said. “There are two pages of names on our sign-up sheet of people who want more information and we ran out of printouts about the course.”

At the end of the day, Stanforth hopes that event participants realize “VCU is a more sustainable place than they thought and hopefully they learned something about sustainability and ways to get involved.”

For more information about sustainable campus initiatives, visit http://www.vcugoesgreen.vcu.edu/.

Subscribe for free to the weekly VCU News email newsletter at http://newsletter.news.vcu.edu/ and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox every Thursday.