Earth Week will look a little different this year for Lane Community College students. Instead of the usual in-person events, LCC is pushing forward with virtual events and initiatives for the whole campus.
Luis Maggiori, LCC’s Sustainability Coordinator, discussed the upcoming events for Earth Week. He spoke about the Diversity Panel that is happening over Zoom on Thursday, April 22, 4-5:30 pm.
The panel is the main event for LCC’s Earth Week. It is a collaboration with several Oregon institutions, including Southern Oregon University, University of Oregon, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland Community College, Pacific University, Oregon State University, Lewis and Clark, and LCC.
Students from these institutions were tasked with planning the event and choosing speakers. Unfortunately, due to time and budget constraints, the student’s first choice of speakers was unavailable. The two speakers they did choose, Summer Dean and Madison Daisy, are both graduate students from Portland State University.
“They have been doing some amazing work in climate advocacy, the students contacted these two speakers and they agreed to do the panel. And between the students and the two speakers, they came up with the topic and title, which I think is very relevant for these times.”
Maggiori also discussed the free plant starts that will be available at the LCC library. Usually for Earth Week the plant starts would be available at the Learning Garden, but because of Covid the events have been scaled back. LCC plans to have extra starts available around Earth Day so that they can give some away to students.
The plant starts that are available include, tomatoes, onions, peas, parsley, lettuce and various flower varieties. LCC will also have some seeds available. The plant starts can be picked up in the library between 4 p.m.- 6 p.m. April 18 & 19 and from 10 a.m. -1 p.m. April 20 & 22.
LCC is also sponsoring a virtual plant-based cooking class hosted by Professor Rick Glover from the science department . He will be streaming from his kitchen and will walk students through the steps and ingredients. Also the cost of said ingredients. to make e pasta with tofu and veggies from LCC’s garden.
The ingredients list hasn’t been made public yet so the event is less participatory but students will be able to learn how to make the meal and go do it for themselves later. The event will be taking place on Zoom from 3-4 p.m. on April 21.
Maggiori spoke about what LCC itself is doing to become a more sustainable institution. The main goal is their Climate Action Plan, which allows them to track their greenhouse gas emissions and come up with actions to reduce them.
“We just started this program called Strategic Energy Management with Energy Trust of Oregon. We started in March and it’s going to go for 15 months,” Maggiori said.“This is a very exciting program. I’m very excited to be able to reduce energy with what we learn from this program, at about five percent per year, focusing on low or cost no-cost measures that we can implement.”
The Energy Trust is advising LCC on how to reduce energy consumption and they are in the initial stages of this program. Maggiori is also heading up transportation initiatives because one of the major sources of greenhouse gasses are commuters. LCC has a Bike Lane Program where students can rent out a bicycle for the entire term from the bike shed next to Building 5.
The bike comes with a helmet, a light, and a lock. It is a free program that allows students to have a bike for whatever they need throughout the whole term. The program will be reopening May 1 which is also the beginning of National Bike Month. They want to launch a bicycle challenge for all LCC students and staff to ride bikes instead of drive cars.
Maggiori offered some advice to Lane students who want to become more environmentally friendly. He said, “students should educate themselves on what sustainability means. They can contact the sustainability department and there is a sustainability committee on campus. Students are encouraged to attend meetings, which take place every other Friday on Zoom at 1 p.m.”
You can contact Luis Maggiori at maggioril@lanecc.edu to be added. He also spoke of “small actions making big change” including talking to friends about sustainability, switching to a more plant based diet, and using bicycles as transportation.
