Biology

The WKU Office of Sustainability and GreenToppers will host the seventh annual WKU Earth Day Festival on April 26 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Centennial Mall on the main campus. The festival features sustainability demonstrations, art, music and food from campus and community.

The Earth Day Festival offers opportunity for both campus and community members to share their sustainability efforts, learn from and be inspired by what others are doing, and to celebrate with music, art and fun. The more than 30 participants include campus student organizations, university departments and classes, community organizations and local businesses, and more.

This year’s festival will feature a Free T-shirt Trade sponsored by the WKU Store and a Free Recycling Event sponsored by WKU Recycling. The WKU Store, in the true spirit of reuse, invites festival attendees to bring a clean gently worn T-shirt for trade for a different T-shirt at their table. WKU Recycling has teamed up with partners to offer recycling for electronics, glass, plastic, light bulbs, batteries, textiles and personal document shredding.

Also new this year, 100 percent of the electricity used to host the festival will be matched with renewable energy generated in the Tennessee Valley, provided by Bowling Green Municipal Utilities and TVA’s Green Power Switch program.

WKU also will celebrate its inaugural participation in Campus Conservation Nationals with prizes for the top performing residence halls.

The festival will feature great music by local musicians including Three People, Andrea Guess, Ashley Coulter, Susan Morris, Molly Kerby, Jack Montgomery, Honey Suckle Conspiracy and the Bloody Ridge Rum Runners.

GreenToppers will conduct the Earth Day photo contest. All photographers are encouraged to submit earth-themed photos to the GreenToppers’ table between 9 and 11 a.m. on the April 26, or photos can be delivered to the Office of Sustainability until April 25. First-, second-, and third-place winners will be determined by popular vote.

The Office of Sustainability and Agriculture Department will be celebrating the “Local Food for Everyone” initiative, with copies of the newly released local food directory “Eat.” on hand, and farmers from the Community Farmers Market will set up a mini-market for the festival.

The Earth Day Festival is free and everyone is welcome. The event will happen rain or shine. For information on the WKU Earth Day Festival, including a guest parking map and full list of participants, visit http://www.wku.edu/sustainability/earthday2013.php.

Screening of documentary ‘Switch’ April 24

WKU’s Department of Geography and Geology and the Office of Sustainability will present a screening of Switch, an awarding-winning documentary on what it will take to switch from current sources of energy to a future powered by more sustainable sources of energy.

The screening will begin at 7 p.m. April 24 at Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium. A question-and-answer session with a panel of WKU faculty and staff experts will follow. Panelists include: Dr. Fred Siewers, associate professor of geology; Christian Ryan-Downing, sustainability coordinator; Dr. Michael May, professor of geology; Dr. Kevin Schmaltz, professor of engineering; and Dr. Jennifer Tougas, director of WKU Parking and Transportation.

• Read more about the WKU screening of ‘Switch’

Rain Barrel Workshop April 26 at WKU-Glasgow

WKU GreenToppers will offer a Rain Barrel Workshop at WKU’s Glasgow Campus on April 26. Participants will learn how to make their own rain barrel to collect rainwater directly from their home’s gutter system and store it for later use.

The workshop takes place from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the WKU-Glasgow Campus at 500 Hilltopper Way in Glasgow.

The cost of the workshop is only $55, which includes all materials and instruction to build one rain barrel that participants can take home and install. Registration deadline is April 18. To register, visit www.wku.edu/join/rainbarrel.

Contact: Christian Ryan-Downing, (270) 745-2508.