CREDIT: DESIGN BY DAN HANA
FSU's Environmental Week will provide students with many sustainable initiatives including a clothing swap and Bike to School Day.

Fanshawe's student council has made some big waves this year and among them is a renewed focus on sustainability. As a result Fanshawe will be having its first-ever Envi­ronmental Week spearheaded by the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) VP Internal Affairs, Kevin Kaisar.

Kaisar said the Environmental Week is important in aligning the student union with the goals of Fan­shawe and of Ontario in their push towards sustainability. He went onto mention that there are a number of programs running throughout the year that students may not be aware of. Environmental Week will focus on raising awareness for these ini­tiatives as well as hosting new cam­paigns that will be going on through­out the week.

One of the events Kaisar hopes to bring back is tree planting.

“The Rotaract club has been doing one in the past and hopefully I will be able to partner with them to do this on a larger scale, possibly even with other external organizations like ReForest London,” Kaisar said. London is known as the Forest City so naturally there is a large drive to maintain our forests as the city ex­pands.

Within the college, Kaisar hopes to promote recycling throughout the week with an initiative called Get Caught Recycling. He plans to have student volunteers as well as FSU executives reward people recycling correctly with small prizes like free coffees and some travel mugs. This is an important area to focus on be­cause Fanshawe has a high average of people not using the recycling and composting bins.

Composting bins? Yes, that's right. Fanshawe has a number of composters sitting right beside gar­bage and recycling bins. They're short and green and if you read our composting article on page 11 by Jessica Eden they will become your best friend.

As mentioned above, FSU execu­tives will be handing out free travel mugs, according to FSU president Carlie Forsythe, during Environ­mental Week. The student union is planning to allow students to bring these mugs home to use both in their house and on campus. The reusable mug program is important because much of the garbage generated in Fanshawe is derived from paper drinking cups.

As an incentive to use these mugs, all of the coffee shops on campus offer year-round discounts for these students, ranging from 10 to 20 cents off per drink. This may not seem like much, but considering how much coffee students typically drink, it can add up rather quick. Plus, how often do you actually get to save money just for being environmental­ly-friendly?

Speaking of coffee and reusable mugs, the Oasis takeout containers are something that students should be more conscious of. While the con­tainers are convenient for bringing food around campus, lots of people don't realize that they are recyclable. The student union would like noth­ing more than to see students putting these in the recycling bins. Even if there is food in them still, they are 100 per cent recyclable and will go a long way to reducing Fanshawe's garbage production.

If you can avoid using the con­tainers and opt for the reusable plates offered in Oasis, not only will you reduce waste, but you'll actually save a bit of money too.

The FSU is also putting on a Clothing Swap on Wednesday, March 29 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in Forwell Hall. Students can drop off their gently used clothing items and swap them for items others have dropped off.

Clothing must be dropped off Monday, March 27 and Tuesday, March 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on both days in Forwell Hall.

The final initiative that will be running during Environmental Week (and year-round) is the bike share program. Headed by FSU president Carlie Forsythe, the bike share pro­gram seeks to promote sustainable transportation and reduce the num­ber of single-rider cars around cam­pus. You can borrow a bike for up to three days, by visiting the Biz Booth.

DESIGN BY DEENA GRIFFIN

Speaking of bikes, the FSU is also planning a Bike to School Day on Thursday, March 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If students bike to school, they get a free bike tune-up by Outspokin Cycles in Forwell Hall. Students can also enter to win a free bike.

It may not be considered ‘cool' to be environmentally-friendly, but you know what is cool? Robots, flying cars and teleportation, and the only way to make these things a reality is to ensure that Earth survives for the next few hundred years. So if you want your great grandkids to have legitimate hover boards, do them a favour and participate in Fanshawe's Environmental Week.