Opportunities to Get Involved
No matter what role you play at DU — from undergraduate students to tenured professors, graduate assistants to senior administrators — there are ways for you to engage with sustainability at DU. Your ability and desire to create change on campus is how we will all succeed, together.
Earth Month 2022 is here!
Departments all over the DU Campus have come together to put together a fantastic suite of opportunities during the entire month of April in celebration of Earth Month. Scroll below to see the full calendar of events, get more details, and register to participate.
Download, share, and distribute the poster wherever sustainability- and justice-minded faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends may!
Earth Month 2022 Schedule of Events
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Thursday, April 7: Your Brain on Climate Chaos
Brought to you by DU Hillel and Ekar Farm
A panel on mental health in amidst a changing climate
Thursday, April 7th, 2022
6:30-8:30pm
Your Brain on Climate Chaos: A Mental Health Workshop
Join Ekar Farm's Green Kehillah for conversation and workshops around mental health during climate change, and the collective trauma we're experiencing amidst ongoing intense events (Coronavirus, etc.). Facilitators include Sherry Ellms of the Joanna Macy Center at Naropa University, Dr. Justin Ross, PsyD, and Pamela Sica (MA, LPC, ATR-BC).
Please reach out to eliana@ekarfarm.org with any questions!
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Tuesday April 12: A Call for Climate Justice
Brought to you by IRISE
Teach-ins and a climate justice roundtable discussion
IRISE has assembled a team of DU faculty from across campus to strategically plan events and opportunities for students, faculty and community organization leaders to engage in climate justice research and policy advocacy. On April 12, IRISE will host a series of speakers and university-wide classes related to climate justice. We will welcome Dr. Nadia Kim of Loyola Marymount University and author of Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA for a lunchtime roundtable at 12:30pm with community and government stakeholders. Also on April 12th, we are presenting a Teach In at 11am and 3pm with Ean Tafoya of Green Latinos. All events will take place in Community Commons Grand Forum room 1700. Contributors include the Center for Sustainability, Center for Immigration Policy and Research (CIPR), Center for Community Engaged Scholarship and Learning (CCESL), DU Grand Challenges, and the Eco Justice Center.
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Tuesday April 19: A Chat with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Brought to you by the Graduate School of Social Work and the College of Natural Science and Mathematics
Indigenous botanist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass
Braiding Sweetgrass is an inspiring collection of essays about the natural world that weaves together Indigenous wisdom, plant science and personal narrative, inviting readers to revitalize their connection with the natural world. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to teach and to celebrate the gifts of the earth.
This webinar will be moderated by GSSW associate professor Ramona Beltran, University of Denver.
This talk is a part of the month-long series of events for Earth Month co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Social Work, the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Center for Sustainability, and the College of Natural Science & Mathematics at the University of Denver.
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Thursday April 21: Fireside at Five - Green Justice in Denver
Brought to you by DU Grand Challenges and Fireside Chats
A panel discussion about the intersection of justice and environment
What would it look like if every city dweller got to enjoy the benefits of a thriving environment - healthy air, water, food, soil? What if each of us knew how to be part of this change? Join us for a Fireside Chat with the University of Denver’s Grand Challenges initiative to learn from a diverse panel about how these efforts are already underway and how you can get involved.
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Friday April 22: Earth Day of DUing
Brought to you by DU Center for Sustainability
Join DU's largest volunteer initiative and do community service throughout the metro area
Earth Day is a time for making our environment, our community, our neighborhoods, and our homes more just and sustainable places to live, work, and play! Join us for DU's largest volunteer opportunity to do some good throughout the Denver Metro Area. Choose from one of 33 projects hosted by one of our incredible community partners, get to know a different part of the city, and have a lot of fun doing some good!
Collaborators include: C+V Initiative, Provost's Office, Chancellor's Office, 4D Student Experience, Alumni Engagement, Staff Advisory Council, USG Sustainability Committee, CCESL, and DU Grand Challenges.
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Friday April 29: City Nature Challenge at DU
Brought to you by the College of Natural Science and Mathematics
Log biodiversity at DU and see how many species we are home to
Have you ever wondered just how many trees, plants, birds, insects, and mammals make the DU campus their home? You'd be surprised at how much diversity an urban college campus contains. Come join ecology and environmental science experts as we seek to find and record the various species on our campus, while discussing ways for us to create spaces that will increase and celebrate that biodiversity.
Registration and more details coming soon!
Sustainability Council

The Sustainability Council is open to everyone in the DU community and is where the larger goals and strategy for sustainability at DU are discussed. The full council meets one time per quarter, with smaller committees meeting monthly — this is “where the work gets done.” The Council is your opportunity to have your voice heard as we move toward a more just and sustainable campus. Leave a lasting mark on campus by helping to craft policies that will drive decision-making at DU, put together action plans that will form the map we follow toward our goals or write goals for the short or long term.
Sustainability Conference

Every Winter Quarter, the Center for Sustainability hosts the annual Sustainability Conference, which seeks to bring together all students, staff and faculty who are passionate about working on sustainability at DU in order to connect, coordinate and collaborate. The Conference is always shifting based on feedback and needs from previous attendees, always seeking to offer a fun, engaging and educational space for people to learn together and plan The Next Big Thing. Additionally, the conference offers concurrent sessions that seek to teach content and skills to attendees in order to set them up for success in their work to make tangible changes at DU.
Are you interested in teaching a workshop at the Sustainability Conference? Email Emily at emily.schosid@du.edu.
Are you interested in attending the next conference? Registration typically opens at the end of Fall Quarter, and the Conference takes place during the first few weeks of Winter Quarter. Email sustainability@du.edu for more information and for the registration form.
Did you miss the 2021 Conference? All of the sessions from the 2021 Conference are now up!
Diversity Summit

The Diversity Summit has acted as an important space for students, faculty, staff, alumni and prospective students to hold meaningful conversations, think critically about the word “diversity” and what it means at DU, and determine how to move forward to create an inclusive and equitable campus for nearly 20 years. The Diversity Summit harnesses the connective potential of our experiences, personal realities and learnings, forging a path forward through concerted, meaningful and combined efforts. Through skill-building workshops, informative panel discussions, impactful lectures and inspiring events, attendees will consider the question of “How do we get to ‘WE’?”
Learn more about the Diversity Summit here.
Earth Day of DU-ing

The Earth Day of DU-ing seeks to immerse the DU community in the school’s vision of a private University for the public good. Organizing with more than a dozen community partners focused on justice and sustainability in Denver, this event sends students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends out into the wider Denver community to make a tangible and meaningful difference in our city’s vibrant neighborhoods.
Inspired by excellent partnerships with organizations in the wider Denver community, this event focuses on making Earth Day into a single day of widespread action. Through a planning partnership between the Center for Sustainability, the Center for Community Engagement to promote Scholarship and Learning (CCESL), Advancement, Alumni Engagement, Parent and Family Engagement and the Community + Values Initiative, we work to create a truly One DU event.
Spend your Earth Day DU-ing some good in one of Denver’s beautiful neighborhoods, getting to know your fellow DU community members and working with one of our amazing community partners. Check back for more information on the next Earth Day of DU-ing!
Interested in hosting a volunteer project for Earth Day of DU-ing? Interested in bringing your whole staff to volunteer together? Email Emily and emily.schosid@du.edu.
Pioneer@Work
Following Transformative Direction Four of DU Impact 2025, DU is advancing our institutional structures and becoming more agile and
networked with Pioneer@Work, DU’s talent management platform. Pioneer@Work launched its newest module, the learning management system (LMS), in August 2020. The system empowers employees to seek out learning opportunities, such as instructor-led classes, eLearnings, and 16,000 LinkedIn Learning courses. You may have experienced this powerful platform as you completed the DEI training or Faculty Institute for Inclusive Teaching (FIIT). This platform now hosts a curricula for Sustainability at DU. Targeting Sustainability Council members, these core sessions and associated playlist of mini workshops is open to anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of sustainability and how this work looks at DU. This learning module can be incorporated into your annual performance management plan, and is great both for people brand new to their sustainability journey and for people seeking a deeper dive into content areas.
Bridge Community Garden
Located at the corner of Race Street and Iliff Ave, the Bridge Community Garden offers a growing green oasis at the south side of campus. DU community members are able to rent a garden plot for a growing season, which makes it possible for people without space at their own homes to garden and produce their own food. Additionally, the Bridge Garden hosts several public workdays to help maintain the garden beds, shared spaces and compost piles during the fall and spring quarters, which serve as a great opportunity to meet others at DU, get your hands dirty and learn more about what the garden is doing.
Interested in renting a garden plot or volunteering at a future garden workday? Email Julie at julie.morris@du.edu.
Interested in staying up to date with the awesome plants all over campus? Follow the Bridge Garden on Facebook and Instagram.
Center for Sustainability Events

Every quarter, the Center for Sustainability hosts a huge sustainability fair intended to offer an array of opportunities to learn, engage, have fun, eat and take home some great sustainability swag. Fall quarter’s event features a Shop and Swap clothing thrift store and the winter quarter features the annual Local Market, which highlights locally and sustainably produced foods by small companies all over Colorado. Spring quarter focuses on the Earth Day of DU-ing and collecting donations during Move-Out. Beyond these larger events, the Center for Sustainability also hosts a variety of smaller events from Mobility Munchies, garden workdays and many more. Follow the Center for Sustainability on Facebook to get the scoop on all the ways to be involved!
Full Event Calendar