UK celebrates Earth Month
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 21, 2023) — Each year the University of Kentucky recognizes April as Earth Month, a month dedicated to promoting sustainability and participating in sustainable initiatives around the community. To help spread awareness about sustainable practices, the university will be hosting and promoting events all month long — making it easy to get involved.
“Sustainability is a strategic priority at UK year-round, and the month of April offers a showcase of environmental initiatives on campus and across the community,” said Shane Tedder, UK’s sustainability officer. “There are nearly 50 events highlighted on the Earth Month calendar this year.”
UK’s Earth Month 2023 remaining events include:
- Earth Day Celebration: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, April 22, at the Kentucky Children’s Garden at the Arboretum.
- Celebrate Earth Day by making reusable bags from used T-shirts, planting something to tak home and enjoying other educational and fun activities.
- Main Street Clean Sweep: Saturday, April 22, various times and counties.
- Sponsored by WUKY and other community partners, Main Street Clean Sweep is the annual community-led litter cleanup in participating cities and towns throughout Central Kentucky. Volunteers gather to pick up and dispose of litter in their communities to help create a more sustainable Commonwealth.
- Earth Weekend Concert: 3 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at the Singletary Center for the Arts.
- UK Bands and the UK Wind Symphony present an “Earth Day” Concert featuring “The Blue Marble” Symphony VI by Julie Giroux. Read more here.
- Sustainability Internship Program Showcase: 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, in Patterson Hall Room 118/119.
- Each year, UK undergraduates are selected as sustainability interns and work with various groups across campus to assist in their sustainability efforts. This event will showcase many of the exciting achievements and operational units relating to sustainability at UK.
A full list of the month’s events can be found here.
There are also activities community members can get involved in, at any time of the year.
- Stich It, Don’t Pitch It: A city of Lexington program that offers easy, downloadable sewing patterns to make items that can help reduce waste.
To learn more about sustainability efforts at UK, click here.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.