GreenUR takes initiative on campus

Students walking through the University Forum Monday afternoon may have noticed a group of "dumpster divers" emptying the dumpster that usually sits behind Gray Court.

The students, members of GreenUR, the University of Richmond's student environmental group, were conducting a waste audit, checking how much students had thrown away and what could have been recycled. The event was part of GreenUR's Environmental Awareness Week.

Senior Carly Vendegna, the group's president, said the waste audit was very successful, both because a lot of club members had attended, and because there had been a lot of student interest.

During the audit, Vendegna said, GreenUR members sorted through baguettes, cake and "a lot of underwear, and answered questions about what could be recycled --beer cans -- and what couldn't -- solo cups."

This year, Environmental Awareness Week comes just after the university earned a B on the Sustainable Endowments Institute's 2010 College Sustainability Report Card.

Vendegna said the Sustainability Report Card had been encouraging, especially because Richmond's grade had improved each year, but she hoped environmental awareness on campus would continue to become more important to students.

"Our goal is to reduce energy consumption on campus by 30 percent by this time next year," Vendegna said.

One way the university is trying to make students more aware of their energy consumption, Vendegna said, is the use of a system that monitors energy output from residence halls on campus.

"It's a really cool system, so we wanted to use it during Environmental Awareness Week," Vendegna said.

Last week, Vendegna said, the amount of energy used by each residence hall was recorded. At the end of this week, the residence hall that has reduced its energy consumption by the largest percentage will receive prize money provided by the office of the president.

This afternoon, a composting workshop with a company called Backyard Farmer was held in the forum. The demonstration included a worm bin and a model compost bin, and Vendegna said it was a dry run for a composting system that may be set up on campus near the 1800 block of the University Forest Apartments.

Junior Michael Rogers applied for a grant to install a compost system, Vendegna said. The plan has been approved, but students must prove they will participate in composting before it is enacted.

On Wednesday, the Heilman Dining Center sponsored Vegetarian Awareness Day, encouraging students to consider the environmental effects of eating meat.

Raising a cow, for example, takes a lot more fossil fuel than growing wheat, Vendegna said, because raising animals requires fuel for transportation and feeding livestock. Animal farming also creates a lot of pollution, Vendegna said, because manure can run off into surrounding streams.

GreenUR also showed the movie "Baraka" Tuesday night and will screen "Fresh," a film about the alternative food movement, at 8 p.m. today in the Whitehurst Living Room. Molly Harris, the leader of Richmond's Buy Fresh, Buy Local Chapter will speak, and organic pizza from Pizza Fusion will be served.

Tomorrow, GreenUR will set up a table in the Tyler Haynes Commons, where it will provide free fair trade chocolate. Smoothies produced by a bicycle-powered blender will also be served.

Contact staff writer Emily Baltz at emily.baltz@richmond.edu