The Office of Sustainability (OOS) is celebrating Earth Month by partnering with numerous healthy and sustainable living groups and organizations over the course of the next two weeks to present a series of events called "Be Green, Be Healthy!"
According to OOS Communications and Outreach Specialist Fannie Koa, this year's event will be held on three days yesterday, this coming Wednesday and the following Wednesday at the Mayer Campus Center from 12 to 2 p.m.
"We partnered with the Wellness Center this year because sustainability and health have a lot of connections," Koa said. "This is a series of events not just one ... Every single day has a different focus."
Both OOS and the Wellness Center will be present each day, Koa explained, to showcase the nexus between caring for the environment and caring about one's health. The Wellness Center declined to comment for this article, but Koa said they would have a health coach and informational tools about healthy living.
"We wanted the Wellness Center to be here to tie into what we're trying to do," she said. "[Taking public] transit, commuting green, walking and not driving is not only good for the environment, it's good for your health."
MassRides, a group that is state and federally funded and organized by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, was also present at yesterday's event, teaching students and faculty about greener commuting.
"We provide commuter options, so ... we try to find greener ways for students, but also employees that work at work sites, colleges, [and] hospitals to get to school [and] work more efficiently," Gary St. Fleur, the outreach coordinator for MassRides said. "We try to cut back on worldwide congestion [by getting] as many cars off the road as possible."
St. Fleur and Koa explained that one of MassRides' strategies involves a program called NuRide, which seeks to reward people for commuting sustainably.
"NuRide allows you to get rewards for taking greener trips, so every time you take a greener trip, you can track that trip and get points and rewards for doing that," he said. "It's a free incentive for students and faculty to do something green."
In addition to yesterday's "Travel Green" event, OOS will be coordinating with Tufts Dining Services and World PEAS CSA, a nonprofit that provides farmers with marketing assistance, for an "Eat Green" event tomorrow. Koa said that she worked with Tufts Dining's dietician, Julie Lampie, to teach students about sustainable food.
"We're asking [Dining Services] to bring meatless dishes for people to try," she said. "We'll be talking about how if you eat local, if you go meatless, you'll have a much smaller [impact] on the planet ... that's more food-centered sustainability."
Last year, OOS hosted a week of bike-related events and activities, but Koa explained that her office chose to hold a single day this year as part of the larger Earth Month celebration. Next Wednesday, students will be able to learn about biking in the area, with information provided about Hubway, the Metro-Boston bike-share system and Bike Boom used bike shop.
"Tufts Bikes will be here for the free tune-ups again and we'll have our bike maps," Koa said.
She added that OOS will also be promoting its Sustainable Selfies contest through which students can submit photos of themselves doing sustainable activities and then win prizes.
"Take a selfie of you doing something sustainable and you could win a prize if you get the most likes on our Facebook page," Koa said. "If you go to go.tufts.edu/selfie, all of the instructions are there. So we've been putting out a prompt every week saying 'take a picture of yourself doing something along the lines of composting, or recycling, or doing laundry with only a cold water cycle' and post it."
