Students, staff and faculty will take part in a week-long campaign, Campus Sustainability Week, also known as #DoItintheDark, from Oct. 23-27, to promote environmental awareness surrounding energy.
Campus Sustainability Month (CSM) is typically a month-long event, but this year it was decided that it would be hosted for one week only. Campus Sustainability Month is an international celebration held every October to embrace sustainability in higher education.
The main organizer of the event is the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), whose websites states that “the goal of CSM is to raise the visibility of campus sustainability and provide campus sustainability advocates with a platform through which to deepen campus engagement around sustainability.”
Campus Sustainability Week aims to reduce energy usage by promoting electricity and water conservation by encouraging students to reduce their energy usage by turning out the lights when they leave rooms and unplugging items when they are not in use.
Last year marked Stevenson’s first time participating in the collective effort as it joined the AASHE.
In participating, “students can learn how to be more sustainable and also celebrate sustainable practices on campus,” said Kim Tucker, director of the Center for Environmental Stewardship (CES).
During Campus Sustainability Week, students will be able to build Bat Boxes on Pandini’s Patio on Oct. 23 and place them in the native plant garden that the CES received grants to install, according to Diamonique Clark, ’16. A stream clean-up is planned alongside Dr. Johnson’s Science of the Chesapeake Bay class outside Wooded Way on Oct. 27 from 10 a.m.—12 p.m.
An event called Native Plant Garden Work Day, in which students will break new ground by installing erosion control as well as plant some trees and shrubs at the Owings Mills North entrance to the Dell Family Pathway on Oct. 27 from 1-4 p.m. at Owings Mills North.
Students who wish to learn more about the event may contact the Center for Environmental Stewardship at [email protected], or visit their Facebook and Instagram pages at Stevenson CES.