Sustainability groups on campus plan to spread information and to screen a documentary as part of the second annual Campus Sustainability Day on Wednesday.

Students of Sustainability at Syracuse University and other organizations are aiming to promote awareness of students’ effect on the environment. The day’s events include a table in Schine Student Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. where students can get information on ways they can be environmentally aware, a social media contest with various prizes, a screening of the movie “Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic?” held in Gifford Auditorium at 8 p.m. and a Solo Cup art installation.

SoS, now in its third semester since being founded, focuses on informing the students and faculty of conscious consumption, the industrial food system, the benefits of vegetarianism and veganism and other related issues, said Colton Jones, a senior psychology major and co-president of SoS.

Campus Sustainability Day is intended to get students to learn about what’s around them, Jones said.

“(There are) a lot of things going on outside this institution,” he said. “We need to be more conscious.”

For example, the table set up in Schine will provide information on topics that students are unfamiliar with or tend to seek out, he said.

The social media contest will allow students to upload images of how they are being sustainable on campus, said Christine Edgeworth, a senior geography major and co-founder of SoS. Students can win prizes including reusable water bottles and Strong Hearts Cafe gift cards, she said. Students’ names will be drawn every hour for prizes.

SoS also wants to encourage people to challenge themselves and step out of their comfort zone, Jones said. Along with providing information, the organization is creating large-scale works of art to promote environmental issues, Edgeworth said.

The red Solo Cup art installation will be a continuation from the Red Cup Project that was seen around campus last week in which four students placed cups in different places on campus. The purpose of the project is to make students aware of the university’s party scene and the fact that Solo Cups can’t be recycled in Syracuse.

Art is the best way to reach out to people and get them involved, Edgeworth said. It is also an outlet to inspire and show people how they affect the environment without realizing it, she said. SoS was started for students who are interested in sustainability, but didn’t have an open place for their ideas, she said, and it is a place where they can see their visions through.

SoS also works to attack issues that today’s generation is left to fix, Jones added.

Along with Divest SU, an organization at SU that focuses on fossil fuels and renewable energy, SoS is working with SU’s Sustainability Division. This sustainability entity will also be holding its own competition for Campus Sustainability Day.

There is a logo design competition for SU’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives as well as a campus project design competition that allows students to see their ideas for sustainability become a reality on campus, said JoAnne Race, senior administrator at the Office of Sustainability Initiatives.

The core responsibility of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives is to educate campus members on how they can be conscientious on issues of sustainability, including energy use and building and transportation efficiency, Race said. Race said she hopes that through this day people will be more aware.

“We want to get students to know that the way they behave affects the campus and environment,” she said.

Published on October 22, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Ali: Ali Linan