Pitt Students to Host Sustainability Symposium April 16

PITTSBURGH—Students from the University of Pittsburgh will present their work to reduce the environmental footprint of Pitt students and the University at the seventh annual Student Sustainability Symposium from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 16 in the William Pitt Union Ballroom, 3959 Fifth Ave., Oakland. The event is free and open to the public.

The theme of the symposium is “Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want,” and it will feature display booths and panel discussions about student-led projects, including a campaign to start a campus thrift store, “greening” of Pitt athletic events by promoting recycling, a sustainable food education program in Pittsburgh schools, expanded composting at the Petersen Events Center, and a new standards checklist for sustainable off-campus housing.

“No one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves ‘How can I make the world worse off today?’” says symposium co-organizer Jess McDonald. “Yet, in our everyday choices, we do just that. I think that the Sustainability Symposium is a great way for students to become aware of how their behaviors affect the world around them.”

McDonald, a senior environmental studies major, has pushed sustainability at Pitt forward by organizing a BYO[BAG] initiative, which has reduced plastic bag use at campus dining locations. During the student presentations beginning at 1:45 p.m., McDonald will be speaking about the project. She also will maintain an informational table on Grounds for Growth, a project she started at the Oakland Bakery and Market to reuse spent coffee grounds.

The event will include these lectures and panel discussions:

• 10 a.m.: An introduction by Dan Marcinko, sustainability coordinator for Facilities Management, on the University’s first “Report on Sustainability”
• 11 a.m.: An administrative panel discussing sustainability issues at Pitt, featuring an audience question-and-answer session
• 11:45 a.m.: An Environmental Roundtable Discussion with student organizations, including Free the Planet, Take Back the Tap, Students for Sustainability, Engineers for a Sustainable World, the Green Fund, Plant to Plate, Panthers for Animal Welfare, Alpha Phi Omega, and PittServes
• 1 p.m.: Keynote speaker Mark Dixon, producer of the award-winning documentary Your Environmental Road Trip
• 1:45 p.m.: Student presentations from the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health, the Pitt Environmental Action Coalition, and the Real Food Challenge
• 3 p.m.: An eco-jobs panel, discussing sustainability-related career and employment opportunities in the Pittsburgh region

The symposium is cosponsored by the Environmental Studies Program in Pitt's Department of Geology and Planetary Science in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and by Pitt’s largest environmental student organization, Free the Planet. 

The annual student symposium was initiated in 2007 in response to the 2007 Rachel Carson Legacy Challenge issued by the Rachel Carson Homestead Association.

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