Campus Hosts Earth Day Fair on April 13
The campus community is invited to hear what UCSF and organizations around the Bay Area are doing to protect the planet during an Earth Day fair on Wednesday, April 13.
Organized by the UCSF Recycling and Refuse Program, the Earth Day fair will take place - rain or shine -- from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in Saunders Court, on the Parnassus campus. The fair gives faculty, staff and students an opportunity to learn about waste reduction, alternative transportation, composting, conservation, and environmentally safer health care materials choices, among other planet-friendly tips.
This year, dozens of off-campus organizations are participating in the Earth Day festivities. They include: Baykeeper, Bluewater Network, Building Resources, California Academy of Sciences, Center for Environmental Health, City Care Share, Friends of the Urban Forest, Green Resource Center, Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary, Health Care Without Harm, Marin Conservation League, Neighborhood Parks Council, Pesticide Action Network, Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Department of the Environment, SCRAP, Sierra Club, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Union of Concerned Scientists, Walk San Francisco and the Wild Care Terwilliger Nature Center.
UCSF groups that will participate in the fair include Environmental Health & Safety, Science & Health Education Partnership, Transportation, Outdoors Unlimited and the Environmental Sustainability Committee, which will offer free organic apples.
Formed in May 2003, the UCSF Environmental Sustainability Committee, which has representatives from a cross-section of the campus and medical center, is working toward a sustainable university which protects and enhances the environment and health of all. Among its ongoing initiatives are to host educational activities, including the "green bag" lecture series; promote environmentally preferable purchasing, monitor and control energy and water consumption and implement the UC clean energy standard and green building policy.
In related news, UCSF will offer computer take-back days, when the campus community will be encouraged to drop off their old computers and computer parts for recycling. The free service will be offered on the UCSF Parnassus, Laurel Heights and Mission Center locations May 4, 5 and 6. Watch for an update on this initiative in UCSF publications.
And on Thursday, May 19, the campus will participate in "Bike to Work Day" to promote cycling as a healthy, economical, practical and eco-friendly form of transportation. For more information on this event, see the campus calendar listing.
Source: Lisa Cisneros