Earth Week

Each year, to commemorate Earth Week, ESW/MOSS holds a series of events to promote student awareness of both local and global issues related to sustainability and the environment. A different event is held each day and each is designed to address a different topic related to sustainability. Some past events are discussed below.

Photos from Earth Week 2010 can be found here.

A tentative schedule for Earth Week 2009 was:

ESW/MOSS is always looking for speakers and innovative ideas for this year's Earth Week. Please contact us (Mudd.Sustainability@gmail.com) if you have suggestions for either speakers or events. In addition to planning small on-campus events, the club plans to work with both the 5-C community to plan larger consortium-wide events and events with groups in the city of Claremont.

Organic Lunch

Working with Harvey Mudd College's dining services and dining manager Bill Casey, ESW/MOSS coordinated an organic food lunch as one of its Earth Week 2008 events. The lunch featured all organic and locally grown produce and meat, and was held outside on the quad between Hoch-Shanahan and Platt Campus Center. This activity was meant to increase awareness of where most food comes from and how it is generally produced. Organic food helps reduce the number of pesticides and chemical fertilizers which can infiltrate the soil and contaminate groundwater or run off into nearby lakes and streams. Locally grown foods help reduce the carbon emissions created in the transport of food.

Movies and Presentations

During Earth Week, ESW/MOSS sponsors movie nights and speaker presentations on a wide range of topics. Past events have included a showing episodes of the Discovery Channel series Planet Earth. These activities help to inform students about global challenges, such as biodiversity and the need for alternative fuels to mitigate the effects of climate change, that must be solved in the years to come. For Earth Week 2009, a likely event for a movie night will be the upcoming release of Disney's Earth.In addition to movies, during Earth Week 2008 ESW/MOSS sponsored a web-presentation by Dr. Chuck Kutscher from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Kutscher spoke about global climate change and the potential solutions that lie in alternative fuels and wise-use. Dr. Kutscher gave a web-guided lecture from his home in Colorado and then fielded questions from the audience in HMC's Galileo Hall via webchatting. Water Use

One day during Earth Week is usually devoted to water usage. To increase awareness of water use on campus, in 2008 ESW/MOSS hosted a talk by Tom Shaffer, the Facilities and Maintenance Engineer, to discuss the efficiency of the Rain Bird sprinkler system used on campus. The club also postered the dining hall with facts concerning water use at the 5-C's, hoping that this would initiate conservation among students. In conjunction with this, the club sponsored a trivia contest with questions about water use worldwide. Designed to make students aware of the problems with water availability and quality around the world, this contest was done via e-mail, and two winners were chosen to recieve Nalgene water bottles.

Energy Use

During the 5-C Sustainability Audit performed over the summer of 2007, energy was found to be one of the biggest areas in which the college could save money. Since conservation has been proven to effect savings of up to 30%, ESW/MOSS devotes one day of Earth Week to energy conservation. In 2008, the club distributed "Turn Off Your Lights Stickers," as seen in the picture, to all students to help initiate conservation in the residential end of campus. In addition, a display was set up with live electricity monitoring data from the student machine shop, which was provided by Rhizome Systems.In the past, ESW/MOSS has also tried to increase wise energy use through the distribution of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) to students. CFLs were given to students to replace incandescent lightbulbs, since CFLs use approximately 1/3 the power of a standard incandescent bulb of comparably light intensity. Since this measure, the Dean of Students Office and Facilities and Maintenance have adopted programs of distributing CFLs to all incoming freshmen. In addition, a CHEER lighting audit was performed on the residential end of campus in 2008, and the resulting funding was used to supply students with CFLs to replace existing incandescent bulbs.

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