University Earth Day events preach importance of sustainability

Arizona State University’s sustainability programs have become a defining aspect of the school’s values, evidenced by ASU ranking No. 1 in the nation for sustainable practices, and air and climate in 2024, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. It’s only natural that the university used the celebration of Earth Day on April 22 to preach the importance of sustainability and the urgency to protect the environment.

On Earth Day, University Sustainability Practices (USP), ASU’s sustainability office, hosted its annual Earth Day Walk at Mountain America Stadium to celebrate the planet while also spreading awareness on ways to preserve it. 

Participants chose to walk either 1.5 miles or 3 miles around the stadium. The 1.5-mile walk represented the urgent need to limit global warming and keep the Earth’s average temperature under 1.5 degrees Celsius, per the goals of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty signed by a majority of countries to limit global warming. The 3-mile walk symbolized the environmental, economic and social pillars of sustainability. 

ASU also hosted a food drive where people could donate nonperishable food items to help those in need. USP says that around 400 people attended the walk, and participants donated 106 pounds of food, which equates to 88 meals. 

In addition to the walk around concourse of the football stadium, there were numerous student organizations related to sustainability tabling at the event to tell walkers about their clubs as well as general sustainable practices. 

One such organization was Campus Student Sustainability Initiatives (CSSI) at ASU. This student-led organization brings students together to participate in large-scale sustainability projects. It currently has three major initiatives that they are coordinating. 

The Soil Initiative uses land granted to the organization by Encounter Farms in Mesa to create and manage its own garden. The club also coordinates with the Really, Really Free Market, which is held on the third Sunday of every month at Tempe’s Daley Park. Community members can bring items to exchange and provide for those who need them, free of charge. 

The organization’s Firefly Initiative created an advocacy group to help protect forests and is currently aiming to halt the passing of the Fix Our Forest Act, a greenwashing bill that could bypass critical environmental laws and scientific input that is instrumental in preserving forest ecosystems, through Congress.

Raisa Mahmud, the student organization's president, said that she and the other officers are in the process of revamping the club, and the Earth Day Walk was the group’s first tabling event in some time. She is in charge of the Soil Initiative and feels fulfilled in bringing together a group of students to work together under a common cause.

“My favorite part of CSSI is bringing together the community and having the collective action,” Mahmud said. “It is a lot of work, but I think we've been getting into a schedule and a routine, and I think it's been working out for us. Hopefully, we can expand more in the future and have more people come to our club.” 

She feels that events like the Earth Day Walk help CSSI spread awareness to people who may not have known about its initiatives before and show how they apply what they learn in the classroom to real-life situations. 

“It matters to spread awareness because we're so community-based,” Mahmud said. “The heart of this club is trying to find ways to collaborate within the student community and even outside of our community, and also trying to apply what we're learning into the real world so we can actually make impactful change.”

Another organization tabling at the walk was the Zero Waste Department, which aims to implement programs to help the university reach resource goals of 30% waste reduction & 90% diversion from landfills at ASU. 

Salomae Mulder is a student worker at Zero Waste, and her table involved an activity where people could guess how long it would take certain items to decompose. The activity aimed to spread awareness of the importance of recycling and reusing items appropriately.

“We're hoping people learn that the end of life for items is not actually landfill,” Mulder said. “Many things – like this laptop – actually take over a million years to decompose, and a lot of people aren't aware of that. So it's important to recycle and make sure that your items are going to sustainable solutions.”

Zero Waste was also giving out reusable bags as well as bandanas that were going to go to a landfill. Mulder thinks Earth Day is a great opportunity to connect people with the resources necessary to practice sustainability and preach the importance of these practices every day.

“I think (Earth Day is) essential, not only to build community, but to give people access to the resources,” Mulder said. “Because in day-to-day life, I think there's a disconnection between sustainability. But this event serves to make sure that Earth Day is every day.” 

Another opportunity that USP promoted was an Earth Day design contest, where students and staff could create a piece of art representing the importance of the holiday. Jan Janiczek, the graphic designer principal of Academic Enterprise Communications, won the contest with a design based around flowers and the pollinators that live off of them. The design showed numerous Arizona poppies with different pollinators and inhabitants of the flowers perched on individual petals. His winning design was displayed on the walls of the SFDC after the contest.

Janiczek said he wanted his design to represent Earth Day as a whole, but chose to base his design around flowers and pollination because he thinks it is an under-discussed sustainability issue. He references the declining population of bees in recent years and hopes to spread awareness of flowers, pollinators and natural habitats.

“I wanted it to be something that was small, that could be overlooked by a lot of sustainability issues and stocks,” Janiczek said. “I chose pollinators and flowers because the impact that they have is huge, but there's not a lot of discussion around that.”

He hopes that students who see the design on the SDFC glass feel compelled to think about how important pollinators are to the environment and what they can do to help spread that awareness further.

“I hope (students) are reminded of pollinators and flowers, and how important they are,” Janiczek said. “I think society – especially in like suburban culture – has people pride themselves on their lawn that is nicely cut, but that doesn't do much for the environment when we're talking about keeping populations of pollinators alive. I think planting trees and different plants that produce flowers and feed pollinators can go a long way.”

Janiczek thinks there’s work to be done in many aspects of sustainability, including preservation of pollinators, but he takes pride in being a part of a university that emphasizes sustainable values. He hopes that the events that USP puts together, like the Earth Day Walk and Earth Day Design Contest, can help encourage future students to attend and make a difference in the world. 

“I think getting potential students – whether that be high schoolers, veterans or whoever – and communicating what ASU does for sustainability is important,” Janiczek said. “I can pride myself in getting more people excited about it and interested in learning about it and maybe having a career in it where they can make an impact.” 

Full list of vendors at Earth Day Walk

• University Sustainability Practices
• Sustainable Purchasing
• Sun Devil Hospitality Sustainability
• Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
• EHS
• Trademark Licensing
• Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
• Plant Futures at ASU
• Graduate Women's Association
• ASU Farm
• Nature at ASU
• ASU Library's Naturespace
• Graduate Student Government
• SunDevil Campus Stores
• Eco Reps, University Sustainability Practices
• Zero Waste
• USGBC
• Garden Commons
• Learning Engineering Institute
• ASU Family
• ASU Project Management Network
• School of Applied Professional Studies
• Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter
• Community Resources and Development
• Mill + R.City
• Sun Devil Hospitality- Sustainability
• USG-T Sustainability
• City of Phoenix; Office of Environmental Programs
• NAMA