sustainability

Locals celebrate Earth Day with a music and arts festival
By Hannah Carande
April 25, 2016 - 8:05pm
A sustainability-themed music and arts festival brought people together to celebrate Earth Day on Sunday.

Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22. Events are held worldwide in order to show support for environmental awareness and protection. This holiday is important to our community and our world, as the global temperature continues to rise and species continue to go extinct.

Syracuse residents raised awareness with Earthfest, a sustainability-themed music and arts festival celebrating Earth Day in Thornden Park Amphitheater on Sunday.

RecycleMania encourages competitive recycling
By Jackie Homan
April 19, 2016 - 5:57pm
Syracuse has come in 48th place in the eight-week competition which keeps track of the recycling data of 207 schools nationwide.

It started 15 years ago with a friendly competition between two rival Ohio colleges. Both Ohio University and Miami University had similar recycling programs, and both wanted to increase their recycling rates in dining halls and dorms. So the schools’ recycling coordinators decided to motivate students by channeling their competitive spirits — and RecycleMania was born.

“We didn’t know if it would work or not,” said Stacy Wheeler, president and co-founder of the tournament that became RecycleMania. “After the second week, I realized that we had created a monster.”

Red Cup Project announces winning design
By Jessie Yuqing Shi
April 13, 2015 - 10:50am
They hope to have the project constructed at Thornden Park on April 19.

The Red Cup Project announced “The Red Cup Spheres and Lines” as the winning design for the competition a few weeks ago at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Gateway Center. 

Campus Commuter Challenge offers commuters chance to win prizes
By Claire Moran
March 1, 2015 - 5:04pm
Using Zimride, the challenge was created in hopes that more people will consider sustainable commuting practices.

The Campus Commuter Challenge will allow all Syracuse students, faculty and staff to earn points for every commute in which they don’t drive alone and enter for a chance to win a $50 MasterCard gift card. 

SU cleans up for RecycleMania
By Danielle Roth
March 24, 2014 - 6:17am
The national recycling competition reaches Syracuse as students and staff continue to work toward sustainability.

The discarded beer cans on a Friday night ended up in a 1,612-pound heap of garbage Saturday afternoon. Ten students from the Waste Watchers course last fall donned hard hats, leather gloves, boots and white Tyvek suits to dig through it in the hot, humid Syracuse Haulers building.

Journalist: Why aren't we doing anything about global warming?
By Zachary Goldberg
October 22, 2013 - 8:18pm
The world is warming -- and scientists are confident that humans are at least partially to blame. So Dan Grossman wonders why aren't we doing anything about it?

Last week, Dan Grossman, a George Foster Peabody Award-winning journalist addressed my class for a guest lecture. He posed a very blunt, striking question: Why aren’t we doing anything about global warming?

Earth Day 2013 events roundup
By Ellie Wilkinson
April 17, 2013 - 11:56am
Cleanups aren't the only way to show your love for the planet on April 22. Check out some of these other local events, and you can celebrate Earth Day all week long.

Earth Day is Monday, April 22, but Central New York has started the party for our planet a week early.

Nearly 5,000 volunteers picked up trash last Friday and Saturday in Onondaga County as part of the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency’s Earth Day cleanup. In those two days, they collected over 8,400 pounds of garbage. Cleanups are planned through this week and into the weekend around the county, if you’re looking to help out.

Sea turtles illustrate the harmful effects of light pollution
By Gwendolyn Craig
March 19, 2013 - 11:53pm
Renowned photographer Jim Richardson used examples from nature to explain how too much light affects all kinds of life.

Jim Richardson has been all over the world.  He’s published photos for over 25 stories in National Geographic and he's taken pictures from Kansas to Scotland.  But Richardson doesn’t flaunt his travels.  Rather, he started off his lecture at Hendrick’s Chapel on Tuesday night by showing us a place we all share, but so often forget — our place among the stars. 

"We live here,” Richardson said, pointing to a photo of a starry night.  “We live in the galaxy up there, the Great Milky Way." 

The Christmas question: Are real or fake trees greener?
By Jingnan Li
December 23, 2012 - 5:22pm
Artificial Christmas trees may last longer, but experts say that real trees are ultimately more sustainable and Earth-friendly.

With Christmas around the corner, people are flooding into stores for presents and thinking about how to decorate their homes for the holiday. One of the biggest decisions is about the centerpiece decoration, the Christmas tree. If you're environmentally conscious, you may be wondering which is better: the real tree, or the artificial tree?

Putting the garden to bed
By Danielle Preiss
November 8, 2012 - 3:30pm
Volunteers at community gardens around Syracuse pull up the last fruits and vegetables and make preparations for winter.

Deborah Keirsey worked quickly. She was undeterred by the rain drizzling down or the finger-stiffening cold as she scooped shovelfuls of dirt away to make room for a young fruit tree. There wasn’t much time left before dark; Keirsey knew there was ample work to get to. After a few turns, her shovel hit something solid. “You’ve got some sparks there!” her daughter, Jessyca, yelled out as Keirsey finally took a moment to laugh.