Parkland College has chosen April as its Sustainability Awareness Month and invites the public to attend free information sessions, films screenings, and opportunities to improve the environment.
A schedule of the campus’s upcoming Sustainability Awareness Month events is listed here; please visit the college's
sustainability web page for more information on the monthlong observance. The Parkland College Sustainable Campus Committee is hosting the events, unless otherwise noted.
April 3
Sustainability: Bio-fuels
11:30a.m. –1p.m., Room D116
Information session by Curtis Shoaf, physics faculty and Eric Rund, local farmer and miscanthus expert.
April 10
Sustainability at Parkland: What's Our Carbon Footprint?
Noon–1 p.m., Room D116
Learn about some of major initiatives underway at Parkland College to lower our carbon footprint over the next decades.
April 12
Student Honors Project on Sustainability
1 p.m., Room D105
William Sullivan, UIUC professor of landscape architecture, will speak; campus trash pickup follows in this event arranged by Parkland College Honors students.
April 17
Sustainability and Mass Transit in Champaign-Urbana
Noon–1 p.m., Room D116
Information session by Mike Retzer, environmental biology instructor and Parkland Sustainability assistant, with guests Drew Bargmann of C-U MTD and Craig Vedvik of Eaton Corp. (electric car charging stations).
“Gasland” Film Screening
6 p.m., Room C118
Is fracking or hydraulic fracturing a safe natural gas drilling method? A recently drilled Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. Environmental biology instructor Thais Riley facilitates this film by Josh Fox.
April 18
“King Corn” Film Screening
12:30 p.m., Room L141
This feature documentary is about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. Parkland sustainable farm project and Ag Program Director Don Bergfield and Josh Birky, grant writer and Sustainable Campus Committee member, will facilitate.
April 24
“FRESH” Film Screening
4 p.m., Room L111
“FRESH: New Thinking about What We’re Eating” celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Facilitated by WPCD-FM radio director Eleni Kametas-Hicks, Sustainable Campus Committee member.
April 26
Cleanup Day at Parkland Organic Farm
Between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Parkland Organic Farm
Help prepare the farm for planting. Bring hats, sunscreen, and water. Directions from Parkland: West on Bradley Ave. to Rising Rd. (past Staley); north across Cardinal Road; homestead with plowed field is on the right (before the railroad tracks).
“When the Water Tap Runs Dry” Film Screening
10 a.m., Room L111
The greatest impacts from climate change will not be warmer temperatures but water shortages. Learn how America's water infrastructure is incapable of handling these changes. Vikki Crnekovic, microbiology faculty and chair, Sustainable Campus Committee, facilitates.
“The End of the Line” Film Screening
3 p.m., Room L111
Discover the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation. Facilitator is Mike Retzer, environmental biology instructor and Parkland Sustainability assistant
May 1
“Carbon Nation” film screening
3 p.m., Room L141
This optimistic, solutions-based film that shows how tackling climate change boosts the economy, increases national and energy security, and promotes health and a clean environment.
Facilitator is Greg Walburg, sustainable construction faculty and member, Sustainable Campus Committee.