Welcome to the Virtual Interactive Earth Day Festival!
This festival is a celebration of all sustainability initiatives, groups, organizations, departments, colleges and more at Colorado State University and the Fort Collins community. It is a chance to not only highlight the amazing things they do but also to share messaging, accomplishments, and opportunities to participate and be engaged! Take your time, sit back, relax and browse around and read an article, play a game, participate in a challenge and more! Thank you for your ongoing support in sustainability!
The boxes below highlight student groups, departments, organizations at Colorado State University and the Fort Collins community. Explore their websites and social media to learn about their sustainability programming, initiatives, accomplishments. Also, check out the opportunities to watch a video, listen to a podcast, play a game, participate in a sustainability challenge, volunteer and more!
ASCSU Environmental Affairs
ASCSU is the student government, and we represent the student body at CSU. The Environmental Affairs Department is responsible for leading and engaging students in sustainable initiatives across campus. Our department works with many different campus groups – see some of our recent initiatives below!
CABLE
The Consortium for Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Education (CABLE) is a nationwide organization of 20 colleges and universities led by The Ohio State University and supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA). Multiple departments at member universities make up the individual strands of a cable, but when woven together with other universities their strength is multiplied to form CABLE. This creates a new mechanism that leverages public and private relationships and resources to enhance the advanced bioeconomy workforce development efforts of universities across the country.
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS
Liberal arts disciplines bring a unique and human perspective to issues of the environment, with research and creative artistry that explores difficult issues, enables understanding, and promotes engaged dialogue. In video presentations recorded remotely, Director of International Studies Dr. Andrea Duffy shares what history can tell us about the future of climate change and English professor and Guggenheim fellow Camille Dungy shares three impactful environmental poems.
Colorado Water Center
The Colorado Water Center leads interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach to address complex and evolving water-related challenges in Colorado and beyond. We do so by fostering collaboration between higher education and water stakeholders, synthesizing objective water knowledge to inform decision-making, and inspiring the next generation of water leaders.
CSU Hydroponic System
The lettuce-growing operation in the Horticulture Center has grown into a devoted team of individuals known as the Campus-Grown Food Partnership. This teams goal is to aid in incorporating perspectives on sustainable foods and give students hands-on learning opportunities in one of the campus’s living labs. The lettuce and other produce is provided on campus to the dining halls all of which is labeled by the “grown on campus” sticker!
CSU Parking and Transportation Services
Are you a student interested in learning how you can be more sustainable and safe on your commute? Enroll in CSU Moves to learn key strategies to navigate campus safely and sustainability while enjoying this nature documentary themed training. https://pts.colostate.edu/csumoves/
Are you an employee looking to reduce your commuting emissions? Reach out to Parking and Transportation Services to learn the latest in saving time, money, and the environment with your commute. https://pts.colostate.edu/employee/
CSU Zero Waste Team
The Zero Waste Team are a student-led group enthusiastic about reducing waste on campus and in their personal lives, through outreach and education. As a team, they participate in events across campus including athletic events, Ram Welcome, Ag Week, and they host a mending club. Normalizing waste diversion and zero waste culture across our campus is something they strive for everyday! They have partnered with the Post Landfill Action Network. More information on P.L.A.N. at https://www.postlandfill.org/.
Defend Our Future
Defend Our Future is a non-profit and student-led organization, affiliated with the Environmental Defense Fund, that is dedicated to advancing environmental justice, clean energy, and climate solutions in order to grow our economy and protect the world for future generations.
Eco Leaders
Eco Leaders are peer educators in the residence halls and Aggie Village apartments who help raise awareness about environmental, social and economic sustainability issues and encourage environmentally-responsible behaviors throughout the academic year. There is one Eco Leader per residence hall and four at Aggie Village Apartments who engages campus residents in sustainability areas such as waste reduction, energy conservation, social responsibility, sustainable transportation, recycling and composting.
Farms for Orphans NGO
The mission of FFO is to provide training, tools and ongoing mentorship in climate-smart agricultural practices to vulnerable youth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) so they may grow their own healthy food and achieve economic autonomy through the sale of their farmed goods.
Fort Collins Food Co-Op
The Food Co-op is not your typical grocery store. The Co-op is not-for-profit, community based and open to all, dedicated to responsible recycling, composting and food donation, often offers the first marketing opportunity to new, local, vendors, strongly believes in the power of recirculating dollars in the local economy, values farmland over building sprawl, aims to educate consumers about their food, researches each product that hits their shelves for product purity and production integrity, and chooses local and organic every day.
Graduate Student Council
The Graduate Student Council represents and advocates for Colorado State University (CSU) graduate and professional students within the university and beyond. Their goal is to improve the experience of graduate education.
To celebrate Earth Day, the Council is highlighting the power of nature to turn trash into gold. With backyard composting, you can turn your smelly food scraps into beautiful compost. Reduce your food waste and help your garden at the same time!
The Live Green Team
The Live Green Team, sponsored by Housing & Dining Services, consists of student and staff volunteers who aim to make a positive impact on the global environment by taking collective action on campus.
MANRRS
MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences) provides a community of friends as well as a network of employers for its members. This network exists to support and sculpt their professional skills. We act as a springboard that launches members into the professional world. MANRRS offers students an opportunity to enhance leadership, organizational, and public speaking skills as they receive a professional critique of resumes and other documents in an environment full of supportive friends. When not working on perfecting their careers, one can find the members giving back to the community through volunteering!
Plastic Score
Fight plastic pollution every time you dine out or get delivery with the new app PlasticScore! PlasticScore is a crowdsourced zero waste rating for restaurants, where they fund the recovery of plastic waste for every sustainability review, and use the data to help restaurants improve!
To celebrate Earth Day, we’re recovering an extra 6 plastic bottles worth of waste for anyone that leaves their first review this week – just use the code “EDCSU” when you sign up!
President’s Sustainability Commission at CSU
The President’s Sustainability Commission (PSC) has the important role of providing the President and Cabinet a variety of perspectives on sustainability from an environmental, economic, and social justice lens. The mission of the PSC is to promote and facilitate the effective integration of sustainability across all aspects of the University.
Rams Without Borders
RWB-CSU is an organization that works with communities in developing countries to improve quality of life through sustainable engineering & community development projects.
Shift FoCo
What is Shiftfoco.com? Shiftfoco.com is a free online platform where you can choose between 73 different actions you want to take to save yourself time, energy, and money. Participate in the Earth Day Challenge! The Earth Day Challenge is a fun way for you to make more sustainable choices while saving time, energy and money. Shift and the Sustainable Living Association are challenging our community to lose 5,000 pounds of CO2e, greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, per household by April 19th.
The Spoke
The Spoke, a living lab, is Colorado State University’s on-campus bicycling maintenance and educational training center servicing our University students, faculty, and staff. The University’s living lab is operated by students, where it is their goal to work with each of our customers, sharing knowledge, techniques and best practices on bicycle maintenance, safety, and repairs. The Spoke carries many of your day to day bicycle and board maintenance and safety supplies. They can also register your bike too. Stop by and check them out!
Student Sustainability Center
The Student Sustainability Center is a University-wide, student-run organization that engages students from across campus in topics of sustainability through guest speaker events, club meetings, local sustainability tours, and a weekly Green Bulletin newsletter. Housed under the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, the SSC is committed to improving sustainability at CSU and building the skill sets of students across campus, by empowering students to address the intersectionality of social, economic, and environmental sustainability challenges.
Transfort – City of Fort Collins
Want to start utilizing some alternative transportation around Fort Collins and Colorado? Visit Transfort to learn about the bus route and start planning your trips today.
Vindeket Foods
Vindeket Foods’ mission is to empower each of us to take ownership in the food cycle to restore our earth, our communities, and ourselves. They believe that nothing created should be wasted, food waste is a collective problem, food waste impacts civilization negatively on every level, healthy, organic and local foods should belong to everyone, and the action of contributing time or money for something proves its worth.
Sign up here to volunteer!
Featured Sustainability Source Stories
‘It’s our land-grant mission’: CSU experts to talk about the future of sustainability
A panel of scientists from Colorado State University will talk about research on urban green spaces, resilience, and equity in North America on Sept. 17 during the 2020 virtual Salazar Symposium.
Melissa McHale, associate professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, will serve as moderator. She said the aim of the session is to highlight the work of CSU researchers…
CSU ranks high on Sierra magazine’s ‘Cool Schools’ green ranking
For the seventh consecutive year, Colorado State University is one of the nation’s most sustainable higher education institutions, according to the Sierra Club’s official magazine.
Sierra magazine ranked CSU No. 7 out of a record 312 institutions in its annual “Cool Schools” green ranking. Since 2014, CSU has finished in the top 12 seven times in the competition, which highlights…
CSU reducing water use during Horsetooth Outlet project, drought and wildfire
The citywide push for an early shift to winter levels of water use – including water use restrictions – is in support of a maintenance project called the Horsetooth Outlet Project, coupled with concerns about drought conditions and possible effects on water quality from the Cameron Peak Fire. The watering restrictions on treated water do not apply to CSU raw water or other raw water irrigation in Fort Collins, and certain other exceptions which must be registered with the city.
Partnership to increase solar energy generated on CSU campuses
Colorado State University will soon have twice as many reasons to sing “Let the sunshine in.”
A recently signed partnership with Namasté Solar and Solaris Energy has the potential to double the amount of solar energy on the Fort Collins campuses, bringing the university closer to its goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
Colorado State University ranks as top performer in 2020 Sustainable Campus Index
Colorado State University once again was recognized as one of the country’s most sustainable academic institutions by one of the leading sustainability organizations in higher education.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education ranked CSU as its top overall performer in the category of Doctoral Institutions in its annual Sustainable Campus Index…
LSC’s new photovoltaic solar array funded by students
An 80-kilowatt solar array recently installed on the rooftop of the Lory Student Center is Colorado State University’s first student-funded solar array. It is projected to generate 113,750 kilowatt hours of clean electricity in its first year, equal to that consumed by 13 average households annually.
The system’s installation was completed in December 2020, an effort spanning the course…
Additional Resources
Looking for more? Explore the buttons below, compete in a sustainability challenge, watch an interesting documentary from our list of recommendations, testing your waste sorting skills or take a history tour to learn about sustainability at CSU.