January WSU Sustainability Newsletter

Join the February Clear the Air Challenge

Sign up for the February Clear the Air Challenge and choose a WSU team!

The Clear the Air Challenge is a month-long event that helps improve Utah's air quality through friendly competition. Everyone can help reduce emissions by becoming more aware of how driving affects local air quality! 

Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Air Quality provides a quick guide to understand the science behind our air quality. In addition, UCAIR has a wonderful video explaining the causes of an inversion.

Weber State University has several teams that engage in friendly Clear the Air competitions to see which department or team can gather the most points. All WSU team efforts are also aggregated to form a larger Weber State team, where WSU can compete with other universities and organizations.

Join the challenge here, or contact Isabel Hernandez at ihernandezmartinez@mail.weber.edu for more information. 

The Intermountain Sustainability Summit

Weber State’s annual Intermountain Sustainability Summit will be held March 18 - 19, 2021 as a virtual event for sustainability professionals, emerging leaders, students and those seeking to promote a more sustainable future.  

The Summit brings sustainability professionals, emerging leaders, educators and college students from across Utah and surrounding states to learn, build collaborations and prepare for taking action. The Summit hosts two days of events. Day one, Thursday, March 18 brings together a full day of diverse programing. Day two, Friday, March 19, offers in-depth workshops. Day one sessions and day two workshops can be registered for independently.

Thursday, March 18 events include 2 keynotes, live and prerecorded sessions, the Eco Expo, the Student Poster Contest and more. 

Friday, March 19 will offer a choice of three workshops: 

8 am to noon: Local Landscapes, Gardening and Climate Adaptation  
9 am to noon: Building Community is Radical Activism
1 pm to 5 pm: Climate Action Planning: Creating Low-Carbon Resilient Communities

Registration
Registration for professionals, community members and emerging leaders can be found on the Summit website. Special registration is available for WSU students, faculty and staff. Additionally, scholarships are available for emerging sustainability leaders on the registration page.

Student Poster Contest

The Summit highlights student action and research at the Student Poster Contest.  

Students may submit a poster now through Monday, Feb 15, by completing the poster contest submission form and then uploading a copy of the poster here. 

Students whose posters are accepted will receive free Summit registration to the virtual events on Thursday, March 18 and will be encouraged to present their posters in a Zoom session within their category.

Poster categories may include but are not limited to: 

• Sustainability Research (Undergraduate & Graduate)

• Green Design (e.g., architectural, landscape, engineering, technology)

• Sustainability in Action (e.g., program, policy, environmental justice, advocacy successes)

• Sustainability in Creative Arts, Education, and the Humanities (creative writing, dance, music, or visual arts)

• Green Economy (e.g., economics, finance, green jobs) 

For questions, please contact Katherine Meyr at katherinemeyr@weber.edu.

Sustainability Research Awards

Are you engaged in sustainability research? WSU students and faculty can apply for the Sustainability Research Award, awarded by the Sustainability Practices and Research Center (SPARC). 

SPARC offers two $1,000 awards to recognize exceptional, completed faculty sustainability research projects. Awards will be given 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 community, campus, or students/teaching, etc.).

Eligible submissions include any research/applied project involving some primary research in the area of sustainability completed during the 2020 calendar year or in the 2021 Spring semester.

Apply here by Monday, March 1st. Submissions will be judged on the following:

• the link to sustainability, expansively defined.

• the generation of new content or knowledge for sustainability

• the research approach, including creativity/originality, and

• the impact (practical or scholarly).

For consideration, the form below must be completed, and all submission documents/information must be emailed to Dr. Mary Foss, maryfoss@weber.edu, Environmental Initiatives Committee, by March 1 of each year.