U.S. News & World Report recently featured Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) creative plans to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day in an article about how colleges are observing the milestone. The April 15 article includes comments from WPI Provost John Orr and links to an earlier U.S. News & World Report story that mentions how WPI encourages its students to “go green” while living in a residence hall, such as the university’s LEED Gold-certified facility, East Hall.
WPI, in keeping with its commitment to sustainability, is in the midst of more than three weeks of environmentally themed activities. Called Earthfest 2010, the celebration kicked off on April 1 with a demonstration of a free-watt energy system by alumnus and entrepreneur Mark Macaulay ’89, director of product engineering at Climate Energy LLC. Other events have included a presentation on sustainable design, a student flea market, a video competition that promotes reducing, reusing, and recycling waste; a presentation by Vincent DeVito, director of the Worcester-based Institute for Energy and Sustainability; an April 21 sustainability poster competition, and an April 24 parks clean-up throughout the city of Worcester.
Earthfest is sponsored by the WPI President’s Task Force on Sustainability.
