The Office of Sustainability is gearing up for Earth Month in April, and we invite you to participate in our various events and initiatives taking place. Read about them below, and mark your calendars!
Wellness Festival Resource Fair
Join us on Monday, April 1st from 12pm to 2pm where the Office of Sustainability will join the Wellness Festival Resource Fair at Attallah Piazza. This event is an opportunity for departments across Chapman to come together and highlight the vast array of resources available to students to support their holistic well-being. Visit our booth for an activity that demonstrates the intersection of wellness and sustainable living!
Sustainability Trivia at Contra
Join us on Wednesday, April 17th from 10am to 12pm at Contra Coffee & Tea where the Office of Sustainability will have trivia questions, and if answered correctly, participants will receive a 10% discount on their drink! There will be questions about the environment, sustainable living, and Earth Day, ranging from easy to difficult!
Weigh the Waste
Join us on Monday, April 22nd during the lunch period at the Randall Dining Hall for our Weigh the Waste educational program, geared towards promoting food waste reduction. The Office of Sustainability and a team of volunteers collect the uneaten food off students' plates before they leave the dining hall. After arranging the food onto trays, the weight of the food waste is calculated and displayed for the remainder of the day so that students can have a visual representation of the amount of food wasted in a single meal period!
Interested in volunteering with us to help collect, weigh, and display food waste? Volunteers can sign up to help from 11:30am to 2pm on Monday, April 22nd – come and go as your schedule allows. Volunteers will also receive a free meal from the dining hall. Sign up with the link below!
Apply to be a Move Out Eco-Rep:
Help make move out more sustainable by playing a role in the Office of Sustainability’s Ditch the Dumpster & Donate program from May 15-18! In this paid position as a Move Out Eco-Rep, you will run donation stations by screening items brought to you by students or parents and ensure quality donations stay in their designated areas. Your efforts as a Move Out Eco-Rep help the Office of Sustainability to divert as much waste as possible from landfills.
Eco-Reps living in an on or off-campus Chapman residence hall will also be offered a move-out extension until Monday, May 20th at 12pm. Check back on our Instagram and website for more information on when the application will open! Email sustainability@chapman.edu with any questions.
Plastic Bag Exchange Recap:
A huge thank you to those who joined the Office of Sustainability for the Plastic Bag Exchange Event on February 23rd . Those who brought in plastic bags were able to receive a free student-designed tote bag.
Plastic bags were dropped off at locations that supply NexTrex, an organization dedicated to establishing local, centralized recycling outlets throughout the United States. Through innovative recycling techniques, NexTrex uses its facilities to transform plastics into raw materials for manufacturing new environmentally friendly products such as outdoor furniture.
Couldn't attend the Plastic Bag Exchange event but still want to contribute to recycling efforts?
NexTrex has partnered up with several stores to provide convenient drop-off locations. Bring your plastic grocery bags, produce bags, plastic baggies, or other clean plastic films to any of NexTrex’s drop-off locations.
NexTrex Locations:
Albertsons
Kohl’s
Ralphs
Safeway
Sprouts Farmers Market
Vons
Winco
Sustainable Staff Highlight: biodegradable cutlery business
Chapman staff member Judith Tran started a bamboo cutlery business, YBBV (Yellow Bamboo Bambusa vulgaris), alongside her husband Vu. Read about the origins of their business below, and check out the link to purchase your own YBBV cutlery!
Vu Tran and Judith Tran are the parents of three girls ages 4, 8 and 10, who all love camping, hiking, and beach-combing. About a year ago, the couple started a business promoting the use of wooden disposable, biodegradable wooden cutlery as a simple way to help Mother Earth and YBBV LLC (Yellow Bamboo Bambusa vulgaris) was born. Judith is with Chapman’s Office of Research and Graduate Education as Sr. Research Compliance Administrator, managing the preclinical, and human subject research programs. Vu is a veteran school teacher of 20+ years and has taught most grades from kindergarten through high school while coaching cross-country and track and field. He is currently one of the Master of Arts in Teaching + Credential Program (MAT + Credential) Supervisors at UCI. Outside of work, the couple volunteers for the Girl Scouts, the homeless and various church activities, in-between shuttling their kids between classes on piano, violin, taekwondo and Vietnamese language.
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