Sustanability Upcoming Events

Tree planting with Gompers' kids
11:30am - 1:00pm - Meet between Post & Bellamine

Tuesday during free period (11:30-1:00) all members of the SJU community are welcome to join two classes from Samuel Gompers Elementary to plant flowers on SJU's campus (between Bellarmine and Post Hall). The school children will be receiving a cup with soil and a seed so they can watch it grow and there will be an outdoor reading of Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" if time permits.

Students from West Philadelphia Auto Academy will discuss their experience developing highly-fuel efficient cars and the current international competion that they are in. This team has beat out university teams in national competitions for alternative-fuel cars and their efforts have been covered in the national media.

The second high school represented on the panel is Saul High School, which trains students in animal husbandry, horticulture, and farming. A group of students will talk about how they are working with Weaver's Way, a co-op in Mt. Airy, to grow produce and sell through Community-Supported Agriculture. CSA is a fast-growing method of supporting locally-grown food which cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions from transport.

Masterman High School, one of Philadelphia's magnet schools, is the third school represented on the panel. A group of students will discuss their efforts in composting. All three of these initiatives represent areas that Saint Joseph's University can learn from as we work to reduce our carbon footprint.

Wednesday, April 21, 8:00pm

Free popcorn - Bring your own container
Stand setup selling Sustainability Promise t-shirts

"Sustainability: A New Consumer Movement," investigates what it means for consumers to live a sustainable lifestyle. Film made by student Adam Schmidt, professor Diane Phillips, and alumni Thomas Ferraro.

What does it mean to be a green consumer? What does it mean to live a sustainable lifestyle? We started this project with the aim of exploring how consumers construct the meaning of a 'green consumer' and how their decisions and behaviors help them construct sustainable lifestyles.

What we found is that consumers define sustainability in different ways and enact a variety of different behaviors to construct, maintain, and enhance their sustainable lifestyles. Further, those resulting multi-dimensional lifestyles are clearly personal. They tap into deeply held values, connect to communities, and evoke strong emotions. Sustainability is a new consumer movement.

Thursday, April 22 - Earth Day

10:30am - 1:00pm in the Sourin Hall parking lot

• Dumpster Dive
• SEPTA hybrid bus, Zipcar and Greater Valley Forge Transportation company
• Recycling information
• Tye Dye your own organic t-shirt with 1851 Records
• Drum circle/ acoustic band/ music

Students and faculty will go through a dumpster to sort recyclable items from non-recyclable materials and have them on display to demonstrate how many recyclable items are thrown in the trash every day.

SEPTA will bring one of their new hybrid buses and a representative will be on hand to answer questions.

A representative of Zipcar, the "smarter alternative to car rental or ownership" will be present with one of their cars and information about their program.

Representatives of Greater Valley Forge Transportation company will be on hand to talk about car pooling, bike to work programs and other green transportation options.

Members of the SJU Recycling Committee will be there with information about how to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

1851 Records will have a "Tie Dyeing" station with non-toxic inks and organic t-shirts for students to make their own tie dye shirts. All this will be accompanied with a drum circle and live music.

"Earth Fest"

• Donate sneakers - sneaker drive
• Raffle Tom's shoes, t-shirts, cd's
• Tom's shoe stand
• Sustainability Club stand - selling organic club t-shirts
• 1851 stand - selling eco-wallet cd's

A concert celebrating Earth Day, the environment, and sustainability, featuring bands from the 1851 Records label. There will be music, and raffling of prizes, selling of organic t-shirts, and cd's by 1851 Records available with eco-friendly cd covers.

Saturday, April 24th

NOAH, Overbrook's Civic Association, is doing another tree planting on April 24th. We had a wonderful experience with the students from St. Joe's who helped us in our fall planting and would love for you to promote this event as well. We will be planting about 50 trees, so we need as much help as we can get. As always, we will do a demonstration tree planting, and we will provide lunch and water.

The meeting place is 66th and Lebanon Ave. at Little People's Village at 9:30 a.m. on April 24th.

NOAH also has a new website: www.noah19151.com, and the event is listed there as well.