Sustainability as a Mindset
On Earth Day 2024, Mike Piehler shares a short message for students, staff and faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill. Piehler has served as the Chief Sustainability Officer since 2020, overseeing creation of the University’s updated Climate Action Plan, along with a new Water Plan and Annual Sustainability Reports.
This summer, new and transfer students will receive a link to this video in a pre-orientation email. Orientation Leaders will also share the video with students, and it will be part of the required modules for students that can’t attend an in-person orientation. The video will also be part of a new staff/faculty sustainability training, accessible through Carolina Talent.
Sustainable Carolina’s Earth Week Celebrations
Sustainable Carolina celebrated Earth Day April 15-17, with a campus cleanup, Sustainability Research Symposium and our Festival on the Green Roof.
Campus Cleanup
On Monday, April 15, staff members from Sustainable Carolina, the UNC Institute for the Environment, UNC Environment, Health and Safety, Academic Advising and RENCI met outside the Stone Center to clean up the wooded area in front of the building. This area is special because it is where the Chapel Branch Stream appears briefly above ground. Streams that are daylighted like this one can reduce flooding and trap more nutrients for plant and wildlife. It’s important to keep these areas free of litter because ultimately, the waters flow to Jordan Lake.
During this cleanup, we made our way toward the Bell Tower, because we noticed some plastic confetti on the ground. We urge our graduating students to consider alternative options, as confetti contains microplastics that are harmful to our waterways.
Sustainability Research Symposium
On Tuesday, April 16, we held our second Sustainability Research Symposium. Piehler served as the moderator and the first speaker. He spoke about Carolina’s blue carbon, which collects and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and serves as a carbon emission offset for the University.
Other researchers also focused their talks on water. Tamlin Pavelsky, professor in the UNC Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, spoke about his work with NASA and how its Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite is measuring the amount of water available around the globe. Anna Patterson, project director at the UNC Environmental Finance Center, discussed the Center’s role in advancing research around stormwater fees as a means to improve community resilience. Chloe Hall, a senior who won last year’s Excellence in Sustainability Research Prize at the Celebration of Undergraduate Research, presented her microplastics work she completed at the Highlands Field Site.
Two of the researchers focused their talks on policy. Lindsey Smith Taillie, associate professor and associate chair of academics in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Nutrition, talked about her work at the population level to promote healthy and sustainable diets. Because some of her research is done in Central America, she highlighted Brazil’s innovative approach to nutrition guidelines, which include sustainability. Abhishek Bhatia, a doctoral candidate in the Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP), explained post-disaster impact assessments in India, amid increasing extreme weather and disasters. He zoomed in on the difference between assessments performed in data rich regions, like the United States, and data-sparse regions, like India.
Antonia Sebastian, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Marine Sciences and E3P, gave an overview of her research and work with students. This semester, she is leading the Sustainable Triangle Field Site, where her students are gathering data on urban heat around campus and looking for ways to mitigate the issue. Kathleen Gray, research associate professor and director of the Center for Public Engagement with Science, also spoke to student engagement, as she gave an overview on the Center’s science communication and community outreach efforts.
Festival on the Green Roof
On Wednesday, April 17, we held our second Festival on the Green Roof. We hosted this event in Rams Head Plaza, which many people don’t realize is a green roof! Partners that Sustainable Carolina works with regularly joined for a fun afternoon of engagement with students. Students could take home this year’s edition of the Earth Day t-shirt after visiting and getting their “passports” stamped by UNC Transportation and Parking, UNC Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling, Carolina Dining Services, UNC Environment, Health and Safety – Stormwater Program, and UNC Library.