Hundreds of students, faculty and community members celebrated the 6th Annual UCSF Earth Fest on May 18 at the Parnassus campus.
With information ranging from recycling electronics and inhibiting air and water pollution to supporting organic farmers, more than 60 Bay Area organizations set up tables to promote eco-friendly products and educate the public on how to lead greener lives.
The event was organized by UCSF's Kathryn Hyde and Susan Bluestone in conjunction with San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's "Bike to Work Day." Hyde and Bluestone are co-coordinators of UCSF's Refuse & Recycling Program and active members of the UCSF Sustainability Committee. Both have been promoting environmentally friendly programs at UCSF for more than seven years.
"This is the largest Earth Fest UCSF has ever had, and we are thrilled with the number of people who have come out to see it," said Hyde.
Showing their spirit at UCSF's Earth Fest, are from left, Myron Frazier, a Mission Bay groundskeeper, event organizers Kathryn Hyde and Susan Bluestone, and Robert Pizzi, a manager in the Facilities Management office.
Purveyors offered organic tastings, such as Capricorn fair-trade coffee, Crave Bakery gluten-free brownies, and all-natural ice-cream from Straus Family Creamery.
Companies sold products that make homes and offices more earth-friendly, including Greenhome.com, Green Fusion Design Center and Cole Hardware, which will soon be the first hardware store in San Francisco to be "Green Business"-certified.
"Not only do we sell a variety of environmentally friendly cleaning and gardening products, we run a community recycling program for things like old batteries and paint cans, and follow environmentally friendly business practices," said Julia Strzesieski, executive coordinator of Cole Hardware.
Handcrafted gifts were also available from World of Good, Baksheesh and designer Jenny Hurth, who makes vinyl bags out of large banners discarded from Moscone Center trade shows. Both World of Good and Baksheesh work with artisans in more than 30 underdeveloped countries to promote art and culture from across the globe, and to support low-income artisans with fair-trade practices.
"We not only pay our artists a fair price, which often supports their entire village, we invest 10 percent of the profits back into their community," said Allison Falk, director of World of Good, a two-year-old company in Berkeley. "These investments have funded a school in Guatemala, a computer lab in South Africa and an HIV clinic in India."
Organizations from UCSF included
Campus Life Services,
Environmental Health & Safety,
Outdoor Programs, UCSF Sustainability Committee and Capital Projects and Facilities Management.
Established in
2004, the UCSF Sustainability Committee, led by Steve Wiesenthal, associate vice chancellor for Capital Projects and Facilities Management, promotes practices that protect and enhance the environment and the health of faculty, staff and students and the community at large. Their efforts have led to the design of more "green" buildings on campus, broader-scope recycling programs and environmentally friendly practices for campus maintenance.
"We recycle about 30 gallons of recyclable items per day from campus garbage bins. Very few cans and bottles get by us," said Nick Crescenzi, groundskeeper at the Mission Bay campus. "In landscaping, we use quieter lawn mowers and natural chemicals where possible, such as hot pepper oil instead of petroleum-based chemicals, so it's better for the entire ecosystem."
