Campus Sustainability Day

Tomorrow, colleges and universities across the nation will be observing "Campus Sustainability Day." This is JMU's first time participating in the event, and they intend to "trash" our campus in order to make an impression on students. Does this sound like an oxymoron? Probably. For those of you who have not heard about this event, allow me to explain.

According to JMU's website, tomorrow at 9:00 am, three dumpsters full of trash (taken from UREC, a faculty building, and a dorm) will be unloaded on the steps of ISAT. Then, students from JMU EARTH, JMU Recycling, the Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World, and health classes will sort through all of the garbage to determine how much of what was thrown away could have been recycled. The results will also be compared based on which location each dumpster came from.

This event is kicking off JMU's waste reduction effort, which is one of the main areas of sustainability that JMU is focusing on as part of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment that President Rose signed earlier this year.

This is just another example of how the environmental movement is impacting JMU and in turn, how JMU is contributing to the environmental movement by encouraging students to adopt lifestyles that contribute to sustainability. So, if you're not doing anything tomorrow between 9:00-11:00, make plans to stop by ISAT and witness this "trashy" event.