4 ways to be sustainable during Earth Month

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Follow UAB Sustainability’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram throughout April for daily tips to help you leave a smaller environmental footprint.

UAB has a proven record of sustainability, from its research labs and faculty to its parking lots. And this campus focus on green living begins at the grassroots level — with its employees.

Supporting sustainability at work can be as easy as recycling, drinking from a reusable bottle, turning off unused lights and using eco-friendly products. Take that effort a step further with four UAB Sustainability events  during April to help UAB faculty and staff become their most sustainable selves.

1. Help clean up Village Creek.

1. Help clean up Village Creek.

When: 9 a.m.-noon April 7 Where: Peace Baptist Church, 1300 10th Street

Village Creek, a stream that runs about 40 miles through Birmingham and was home to the first coal-mining operations in Alabama in the 1820s, is part of the watershed that provides drinking water to UAB. Pick up litter and plant new trees along the creek with the Village Creek Society, the Department of Biology and the UAB Regenerate Society.

Register here to reserve tools, gloves and water for the clean-up day.
2. Grow a spring garden.

2. Grow a spring garden.

When: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. April 11 Where: UAB Gardens; if it rains, Heritage Hall Room 426

Bethany O’Rear, regional extension agent for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, will provide an overview of best practices for spring gardening with vegetables and small fruits at the new UAB Gardens — on the sloping hillside at 17th Street South between 11th and 12th Avenues — which houses 44 raised beds for UAB’s urban farmers.

Lunch will be provided to those who register ahead of time.
3. Examine life through the lens of sustainability.

3. Examine life through the lens of sustainability.

When: 7-8:30 p.m. April 11 Where: The Edge of Chaos, 4th floor of Lister Hill Library

Hear perspectives on the importance of looking at all subjects —social, environmental and economic — in a sustainable way from an interdisciplinary panel moderated by Shauntice Allen, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental health sciences.

Panelists include Josh Robinson, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics; Tina Kempin Reuter, Ph.D., director of UAB Institute for Human Rights; Suzanne Judd, Ph.D., associate professor of biostatistics; James McClintock, Ph.D., Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology; and Hessam Taherian, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

No registration is required.
4. Practice yoga on the Campus Green.

4. Practice yoga on the Campus Green.

When: 5-6 p.m. April 16; if it rains, 5-6 p.m. April 23 Where: North Campus Green, brick pavers behind Heritage Hall

Watch the sun set over the Birmingham skyline during this one-hour yoga outdoor yoga session led by Campus Recreation yoga instructors.

Bring a yoga mat. No registration is required.


UAB Sustainability also is hosting several student-centric events during Earth Month, such as a DIY self-care class and a showing of “Happy Feet” on the Campus Green, among others. Learn more at uab.edu/sustainability/earth-month.