University students looking to stop global climate change and save the environment for future generations discovered the latest trends in going green at Sunday's Earth Day Celebration.
The event, held in the Cook Campus Center, showcased workshops focused on "Environmental Innovations" in honor of Earth Day, highlighting creative solutions for environmental problems.
"There are a lot of problems in our world today," said Cindy Wasser, the co-chair of the Rutgers University Environmental Council. "We just have to think creatively if we want to come with up any solution because there is a status quo which isn't working. Things that are so innovative and creative, they are going to be our future."
One workshop, run by Maren Haus, the research project manager for the Rutgers Center for Green Building, focused on the practice and guidelines for green building and its effect on the environment.
Haus said green building sets the standard for increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources.
It also reduces building impacts on human health and the environment, she said. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System provides specific guidelines for sustainable green building.
Haus said such practices and guidelines are important for human health and the environment.
"Buildings are a huge contributor to green house gas emissions and climate change," she said. "That's a big concern. The movement is showing how to reduce those impacts and reverse the effects of climate change."
Another workshop included a presentation on green purchasing, which gave insight into how the University purchases products based on what materials go into the products and where companies mine.
"Rutgers has set the standard for green purchasing across the nation," Wasser said.
Richard Hills, the division head of Middlesex County Division of Solid Waste Management, spoke about vermicomposting, a means of breaking down organic matter through the use of earthworms, in another workshop.
He said the workshop gave tips on how food waste can be used for composting.
People produce around four and a half pounds of waste each day, one pound of which is food waste, he said. If people can reduce the amount of waste by vermicomposting, there would be much less going into landfills.
A final seminar featured Sol Cycles, a group of Princeton University students who work with bicycles made out of bamboo.
Speakers said the bicycles are innovative in their design because bamboo is extremely light and stiff, giving high performance similar to a carbon fiber frame. Furthermore, its vibration dampening makes for enhanced comfort on long rides.
William Watts, a representative who came to speak on behalf of the group, said the bicycles are a step forward for the environment.
"By using a natural material, each bamboo bicycle that replaces a metal or carbon frame works toward reducing the worldwide carbon footprint," he said. "Besides the aesthetic appeal and uniqueness of each frame, bamboo combines the three essential properties valued in a bicycle frame - lightness, stiffness and vibration dampening - in a way rivaled by no other material used for frames in the past."
Wasser said she thought the workshops highlighted a lot of the good things going on in terms of environmental development, but it also provided insight into the direction people should be headed in terms of the environment.
"They showed how a lot of great minds thought creatively to solve problems," she said. "It takes a lot of courage to step outside [the box] and think creatively and use creative problem solving."
