Earth Week

Earth Day – April 22, 2015 marked the 45th anniversary of the environmental movement. Earth Day is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a billion people participate in Earth Day campaigns every year.[1] On our campus, we typically celebrate the entire week. Earth Week is a time to enact change and real movement toward consciousness about how our decisions affect our campus environment and the planet. Earth Week activities are coordinated by Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) and co-sponsored by iSEE. iSEE should continue to support Earth Day activities.

Campus Sustainability Week

National Campus Sustainability Day is celebrated each year in late October. Campus Sustainability Day is a time to recognize the success, challenges, and innovations of sustainability in higher education.[2] In collaboration with many partners iSEE could host Sustainability Week in late October each year, to include activities to educate and encourage the campus and community to go green! The week would be a celebration of the University's sustainable successes, and provide educational motivation to make even more progress. Participants could visit the University's most sustainable sites, and watch intriguing presentations about environmental ideas.

iSEE Congress

In fall 2014, campus convened the first iSEE Congress to advance understanding of the state of science on the great challenges for agriculture in the coming decades.  The Congress focused on providing a secure and safe supply of food, feed, and fuel to support an ever-increasing human population using agricultural practices that are ecologically sustainable and adaptable to climate change.  The intent was to provide a forum to catalyze an agenda for actionable research on this issue that addresses technological, societal and policy solutions. 

Each year, iSEE will convene a major Congress on a grand societal issue related to sustainability to catalyze actionable research, networking opportunities and disseminate the state-of-art knowledge on ways to address this issue.  This event will be coordinated with a major student and campus focused event, to promote excitement and mobilize action in all realms of the campus sustainability programs.

[1] http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement

[2] To learn more about Campus Sustainability Day visit http://campussustainabilityday.org/