Sustainability Institute

CALENDAR OF EVENTS – 2023

Wednesday, Sept 13,

Oshkosh campus: Sustainability Fair at UW Oshkosh campus: Sustainability Fair at UWO

Evenings in the Prairie

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

UWO FDL campus, Gottfried Prairie and Arboretum.

Please join us for the final event of the Evenings in the Prairie series on the Fond du Lac Campus with a guided tour by Lisa Mick.  

Monday, Sept 18

“Solving the Great Food Puzzle: The role of what we eat for people and planet, global food sustainability”  

5:30 pm

Sage 1214

Dr. Brent Loken, Global Lead Food Scientist for the World Wildlife Fund, will speak to how we can use  food as a lever for improving human health and environmental sustainability. His work focuses on connecting top down and bottom up processes by ensuring a food system approach is adopted in UN Conventions while simultaneously stimulating action at national and individual levels.  

September, 5th – 30th

“Climate of the Mountain: Memories of the Past, Crises in the Present and Portal to a Future” 

Aylward Gallery, Fox Cities Campus

This SIRT-supported, interdisciplinary exhibition explores topics of mountain ecosystems and climate change through the lens of art and science. A series of complementary events during the Aylward exhibition includes a gallery walk-and-talk with the creators—artists and scientists—, a piano concert performed by pre-college music students, a poetry reading and a discussion panel. Aylward Gallery will host an exhibit reception on Sept 30 from 5 to 7 p.m. https://www.uwosh.edu/fox/community/cac/aylward-gallery/

Tuesday, Oct 3

SIRT seminar “Biodiversity in Wisconsin: Why It Matters and Why We Should Protect It” 

4:45 pm

Sage 4232

Engage with a panel of UWO experts on questions about the biodiversity crisis and how it is impacting Wisconsin: 

• Dr. Laura Ladwig, Biology, is a plant ecologist studying how and why biodiversity changes in prairies and savannas. 
• Dr. Misty McPhee, Environmental Studies, is a behavioral ecologist focused on the reintroduction of endangered species. 
• Dr. Rob Mitchell, Biology, is an entomologist studying chemical communication in insects.

Tuesday, Oct 10

Earth Charter Keynote: Dr. Randy Jackson – “Grassland 2.0–Restoring Prairie and People to Agriculture”

5:30 pm

Sage 1214

LINK ADDED:

Grassland 2.0 is a movement to transform our agriculture from an extractive, wealth-generating system to a regenerative system that puts caring for people first. Our current agricultural system mainly rewards multinational corporations who maintain it with narratives about “self-sufficiency”, “feeding the world,” and “maintaining cheap food.” An agricultural system based on well-managed perennial grassland can be profitable to farmers and support vital, thriving rural communities while helping to stabilize the climate, clean our waters, reduce flooding, and supporting biodiversity. But for this new system to be truly regenerative, it must afford access to land by all people who want to farm and reward those who care for the land. When we care for the land, we are caring for ourselves and each other.

Dr. Randy Jackson is a Professor of Grassland Ecology in the Department of Agronomy at UW Madison. He earned a BS in Environmental Science at UC Riverside, an MS in Natural Resource Sciences at Humboldt State University, and a PhD in Ecosystem Science at UC Berkeley. He studies how we can improve agricultural practices to protect our drinking water, climate, and biodiversity. He is the director of the Grassland 2.0 Project and co-leads the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST), a 33-year-old experiment in Arlington, WI.

Recorded livestream video – watch now, click here!

Wednesday, Oct 11

“This is Earth Charter”

10:20-11:20 am

Sage 1216

This event will offer an interactive explanation of the Earth Charter, and why we celebrate it at UWO, led by Environmental Studies Director Jim Feldman. The intended audience for this event is students, especially USP students, but anyone is welcome to attend.

Zoom link: https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/j/99934346069?pwd=L1VzQ1ZraFZxZEVOcVg4L0EyYityZz09 

Meeting ID: 999 3434 6069 

Passcode: 072737

Wednesday Oct 11

Sustainability Fair at UWO

10 am- 1 pm

Sage Hall lobby

Come learn about sustainability efforts on and off campus. Meet reps from student orgs, academic programs, campus projects, and community groups that are working to improve human and environmental well-being in our area. Organizations will be tabling the entire time; come when you can! All students are welcome!

Rescheduled for Spring 2024!

Screening of “Rhythms of the Land,” followed by talkback with Director, Dr. Gail Myers

Co-sponsored with African American Studies, the International Film Series, and the Anthropology Club

“Rhythms of the Land” is a valentine to generations of Black farmers in the United States from the enslavement period to the present, whose intense love of the land and dedication to community enabled them to survive against overwhelming odds. These farmers have largely been written out of the dominant narratives of US agriculture. The goal of this documentary is to preserve their stories and honor their lives and agrarian legacies. This film was created by Dr. Gail Myers, cultural anthropologist and co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc.

https://www.rhythmsoftheland.com/

CALENDAR OF EVENTS – 2019

Earth Charter Community Summit

October 7 – 11, 2019

The Earth Charter Community Summit celebrates the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s commitment to the Earth Charter, which counted the University among the earliest signers in the USA.

We are proud to announce that the 2019 Earth Charter Community Summit Keynote Speaker will be Marcia Bjornerud, author of “Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.” Mark your calendars for her keynote address at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 8th, in the Culver Family Welcome Center Ballroom on the UW-Oshkosh campus. The talk is free. Please bring an ID for admission. There will be free parking in Lot 6 outside of the CFWC.

Below is the list of events for the 2019 Earth Charter Community Summit. Most are free and open to the public, but please note that some are closed events. We hope to see you at many of the events!

GO GREEN FOR MENSTRUAL HYGIENE

Multiple Times:

Monday, October 7, 2019 | Women’s Center | 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Tuesday, October 8, 2019 | Women’s Center | 4:45 PM to 5:45 PM

Friday, October 11, 2019 | Women’s Center | 3:15 PM to 4:15 PM

Do you menstruate? Would you like to learn more about the environmental and financially sustainable solutions to menstrual hygiene management? Participants learn about different sustainable menstrual hygiene products and their environmental impacts.

Thanks to initial funding from the Green Fund, and ongoing funding from the Women’s Advocacy Council, student participants who menstruate will leave with a sustainable menstrual hygiene kit to promote the adoption of sustainable menstrual management.

Choose from one of the three workshop sessions available this week.

Registration requested. Email: wac@uwosh.edu if you plan to attend.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: MARCIA BJORNERUD

Tuesday, October 8, 2019 | Culver Family Welcome Center | 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Hear from Earth Charter Keynote Speaker, Marcia Bjornerud, professor of Geology at Lawrence University and author of “Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.”

Marcia Bjornerud shows how geologists chart the planet’s past, explaining how we can determine the pace of solid Earth processes such as mountain building and erosion and comparing them with the more unstable rhythms of the oceans and atmosphere. These overlapping rates of change in the Earth system―some fast, some slow―demand a poly-temporal worldview, one that Bjornerud calls “timefulness.” She explains why timefulness is vital in the Anthropocene, this human epoch of accelerating planetary change, and proposes sensible solutions for building a more time-literate society.

Free parking in Lot 6 outside of the CFWC

BROWN BAG DISCUSSION:
BIRD-WINDOW COLLISION RESEARCH

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 | Sage Hall 3208 | 12:40 PM to 1:40 PM

Approximately one billion birds die annually in North America as a result of collisions with windows. The goal of this project was to record species that die from window strikes, and determine which windows on campus are most likely to be associated with bird deaths.

Bring your lunch and join Misty McPhee and Brad Spanbauer for an informal brown-bag session to hear about preliminary results of this study, ask questions, and find out more about bird-window strikes at UW Oshkosh.

DR. ALAN HANEY:
“WHAT THE BIRDS ARE TELLING US ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE”

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 | Sage Hall 1235 | 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Long before canaries were first used in mines to detect unsafe conditions, people observed birds as a forewarning of changes in weather. With their high metabolism, birds must quickly respond to their environment, and therefore, are excellent indicators of change. Alan will use numerous examples to illustrate some of the ways in which rapidly changing climate is affecting our birds.

Co-sponsored by Citizens Climate Lobby and Winnebago Audubon Society.

Free parking in Lot 7 and Lot 13 adjacent to Sage Hall and Kolf Fieldhouse.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION DOCUSERIES:
BIRTH ON THE BORDER

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 | Reeve Theater 207 | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Birth on the Border (a Women Make Movies 5, 2018) is a documentary short that explores legal border crossing from Mexico into the U.S. for the purpose of childbirth. The film delves into the narratives of two women from Ciudad Juárez who cross the border legally to give birth in El Paso, Texas, and the Chicana midwives who support them. Against the backdrop of oppressive U.S. border policy, these women’s stories of risk, strength, and resiliency reveal the complexities of life on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Sponsored by: Reeve D&I Programs, Student Organization of Latinos, Women’s Center

LOS LECHEROS

Thursday, October 10, 2019 | Reeve Theater 207 | 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
A collaboration between Twelve Letter Films and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Los Lecheros gets to the heart of the relationship between farmers, undocumented immigrant workers, families, activists, and a state economy as they all respond to the pressures of anti-immigrant threats and legislation. Los Lecheros is a timely document of a community working both for and against its own best interests.

Stick around for the panel discussion after the film.

Co-sponsored by Equal Opportunity, Equity & Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion Programs, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Student Organization of Latinos, Social Justice Club.

MELISSA WEYLAND:
THE TRUE COST OF OUR FOOD

Friday, October 11, 2019 | Halsey 107 | 9:10 – 10:10 AM
Food plays so many roles: health, community, tradition, and pleasure, to name a few. We’ll dive into food labeling, marketing, regulations and the varying methods used to produce the foods we’ve grown to enjoy today. We’ll leave with a deeper understanding of why our food costs what it does and how our dinner decisions today shape the world we will live in tomorrow.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS – 2018

The Earth Charter Community Summit celebrates the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s commitment to the Earth Charter, which counted the University among the earliest signers in the USA.  Read the Earth Charter itself and read the history of Earth Charter: https://earthcharter.org/about-the-earth-charter/history/

We are proud to announce that the 2018 Earth Charter Community Summit Keynote Speaker will be Kimberly Wasserman, the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America and director of LVEJO, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. Mark your calendars for her keynote address, “The Fight for Environmental Justice,” at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 9th, in the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Alumni Welcome and Conference Center ballroom.  Doors open at 5:00 p.m. and the talk is free; please bring an ID for admission.

Below is the complete list of events for the 2018 Earth Charter Community Summit. Most are free and open to the public, but please note that some are closed events. We hope to see you at as many events as you can join!

WISCONSIN SOLAR TOUR

Saturday, October 6, 2018 | 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY TOUR

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

WHAT IS EARTH CHARTER?