With multiple clubs and local organizations lined up on the Lory Student Center West Lawn promoting sustainability, it could only mean one thing: Earth Day.
Colorado State University has an annual tradition on Earth Day of throwing a festival celebrating sustainability and raising awareness for the environment in hopes of not only educating students but encouraging action, whether it is joining eco-friendly organizations or writing a letter to Congress.
One organization helping students take action is the Student Sustainability Center. The SSC assists students in starting their own sustainability-based projects, whether that be through finding resources, funding, support or connections.
“We’re always looking for more faces at our weekly meetings and also to start up new projects,” said Raegan Synk, the SCC’s media and marketing coordinator. “I think a lot of people don’t know we are here and that we can help start these projects. … And so yeah, we’re just here to help spread sustainability mindset, right?”
“Putting on a festival like this lets us connect with people who would be less educated about the resources that are available to them. So it’s awesome to connect with all the programs, see everything that’s going on here (and) to be part of the change that we want to see in the world and take climate action.” –Max Poling, Compost Queen employee
Currently, the SCC is focused on three main projects: the Patchwork Project, the Community for Climate Anxiety and the Native Plants Project.
The Patchwork Project — previously known as the Patchwork Initiative — focuses on sustainable fashion, while the Community for Climate Anxiety fosters a community-based group for people to talk through negative feelings associated with climate change. The Native Plants Project focuses on growing native plants both in and around campus.
“We are a very casual group,” Synk said. “We’re just here to make sure everyone has support and the resources that they need to thrive and be sustainable. We have so many things, and we’re just really here to help people be their most sustainable self.”
To put on this event, the sustainability department within Housing and Dining Services partnered with the President’s Sustainability Commission.
Chandler Barger is the sustainability intern for Housing and Dining Services and helped facilitate the event by contacting local and student organizations as well as booking the band Cactus Cat to play while students visited different tables.
“We had a lot of excitement around the event,” Barger said. “There are a lot of student orgs that are really committed to sustainability. … I think the biggest hurdle was just — this is my first year planning it — learning all of the logistics of all of it.”
At a time when communities are polarized, CSU’s Earth Day Festival worked to unite people and provide outlets for those who are concerned about the future of sustainability and the climate. While the SSC has the Community for Climate Anxiety, another organization dedicated to participating in the discussion surrounding climate change is the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
It aims to get students thinking about climate change because once awareness begins, it is easier to start building conversations on the topic and finally take action.
The CCL even featured an interactive part that asked, “What actions will you do?” Students could place a button in whatever action they planned to take next regarding the climate, such as using less fossil fuel or beginning to talk about climate change.
“We are encouraging chapter members and other people whenever we can to write their members of Congress,” Fort Collins CCL leader Jim Greuel said. “Several times a year — and one time a year in Washington D.C. in person — we actually lobby Congress. … We lobby both parties equally and go in there with respect and try to find some common ground.”
Greuel is not just fighting for his community. He said the issue matters to him, as he is a father of two and has the potential to be a grandfather someday, so he raises awareness with future generations in mind.
If attendees didn’t want to change their routines to live more sustainably, there were companies promoting their desire to help, such as Compost Queen.
“We’re the local food waste recycling service here in Fort Collins,” employee Max Poling said. “We operate the only food processing facilities that are open to the public in Larimer County. … And with that, we’re picking up food waste from homes and businesses, taking it to a decentralized network of small farms around Northern Colorado, and we’re turning it into a high-quality food scrap compost.”
Compost Queen processes food through aerated static pile composting — a heat-induced composting process that allows them to accept meat, dairy, bones, cheese and all produce items.
At a university that praises sustainability as a core value, organizations and activities at the Earth Day Festival served as a reminder that change is a possibility; there just needs to be action taken to get there.
“Putting on a festival like this lets us connect with people who would be less educated about the resources that are available to them,” Poling said. “So it’s awesome to connect with all the programs, see everything that’s going on here (and) to be part of the change that we want to see in the world and take climate action.”
Reach Sophie Webb at life@collegian.com or on Twitter @sophgwebb.
