Happy Holidays: Here’s to a Happy New Year and Cleaner Air
While we are in the season of giving and making commitments for the new year, consider supporting the community programs we offer through the Sustainability Practices and Research Center. In spring 2018 we will be offering an electric lawn mower exchange program, geared toward improving local air quality. Two-stroke gas engine mowers are heavy polluters and can easily be replaced with electric ones. We plan to make this program accessible across the economic spectrum. If you would like to contribute to this and other community programs around sustainability practices, please donate now.
On November 30th, a brief ceremony was held to present the award of this year’s H2Oath Water War to Weber State University by the Utah Division of Water Resources. Director, Eric Millis, presented the award to Drew Hodge, Water Conservation Specialist at WSU, and President White. Millis congratulated the University for keeping energy efficiency as an ethic and for its close victory over Utah State University, in the pursuit of water conservation, winning by 32 pledges! President White accepted the award emphasizing that “water is a precious resource” that becomes increasingly important in a growing population.
As a key part of water conservation at WSU, Drew Hodge spoke on the use of the funds for students studying water conservation and related topics. He also pointed out that Weber State is an exceptional place to study these fields as we saved over “23 million gallons of secondary water over 2016” during the hottest summer in July on record. Next year, the Wildcats could be back-to-back champions of the University Water Wars and continue to lead the pack on sustainability.
Save the Date for the Intermountain Sustainability Summit: Feb. 28th-March 2nd
Plan to begin your Intermountain Sustainability Summit experience with an evocative performance of Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project at the Perry’s Egyptian in Ogden. The Crossroads Project is a collaboration of the Fry Street Quartet with climate physicist Dr. Robert Davies. The performance weaves art and science together through music, prose, and stunning visual imagery --photographs by renowned environmental photographer Garth Lenz and paintings by Rebecca Allan and the quartet’s commission of Rising Tide by American composer Laura Kaminsky. This event is free, and all over the age of 8 are welcome to attend on Wednesday, February 28th at 7 p.m.
The keynote of the summit will be Naomi Oreskes, author of the Merchants of Doubt and numerous other publications on Thursday, March 1st. Participants can choose from an additional 20 sessions. Session tracks include Clean Energy Infrastructure, Green Buildings, Urban Water, and Sustainability, as well as an interactive, participant created track.
The Eco Expo Hall will also host dozens of exhibitors with sustainability solutions from business, government, and nonprofits. For those looking for a deeper understanding of a specific topic additional half-day, and day-long workshops will be offered on climate communications, and green building design on Friday, March 2nd.
Student Faculty Research Awards
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The call is out for submissions for both the Faculty and Student Sustainability Research Awards that recognize excellent completed projects. The prizes, amounting to $2,000 to be awarded in March 2018, are sponsored by the Sustainability Practices and Research Center and the WSU Alumni Association.
Faculty Awards:
Two $500 awards will be given to recognize outstanding completed work in one or both of the following categories:
1.) Traditional scholarship (i.e., conference or journal-targeted academic research/writing); and
2.) Applied scholarship (i.e., tangibly benefiting the community, campus, or students/teaching, etc.).
Student Awards:
Two $500 awards, one provided by the WSU Alumni Association and the other by SPARC, are available for outstanding student sustainability research. Awards are for research projects completed during the 2017-2018 academic year.
For more information, go to www.weber.edu/environment/. All submission documents/information must be submitted via email to Dr. Christy Call at ccall2@weber.edu by March 1, 2018.