Celebrate Sustainability 2013, a partnership between Virginia Tech, the Town of Blacksburg, and others in the community, will be held Sept. 18-20.

An outgrowth of Sustainability Week, Celebrate Sustainability will highlight the work the university and the town have done together to advance sustainability in our community. More than a dozen events are scheduled on campus and in Blacksburg during the three-day celebration.

“First introduced in 2007, Sustainability Week and now Celebrate Sustainability continues to be a tremendous success” said Denny Cochrane, sustainability program manager at Virginia Tech. “We are excited to engage further with others in our community to highlight all that we are doing together.”

A complete list of Celebrate Sustainability 2013 events can be found on the Virginia Tech Facilities Services website.

The celebration begins Wednesday, Sept. 18, with the Active Commute Celebration on the Drillfield. The event will feature information on alternative transportation in Blacksburg and a breakfast for bike and foot commuters.

At noon, a lunchtime Garden Walk and Talk at the Hahn Horticulture Garden, located at 200 Garden Lane, will be held. Garden director Holly Scoggins will discuss sustainable garden practices.

Later that afternoon, the Sustainability Celebration at the Farmers Market will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Faculty, staff, and students engaged in sustainability projects on campus will join others from the community at the farmers market located at the corner of Draper Road and Roanoke Street to showcase a variety of sustainability projects and programs.

On Friday, Sept. 20, Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger and other university officials will unveil the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver Certification plaque for Lavery Hall, located at 430 Old Turner Street. The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. on the plaza in front of building. A tour of the building will follow.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a nationally recognized system for determining how sustainable a building is in terms of material and energy used and reduction of waste and water usage.

For additional information, email Cochrane or call 540-231-5184.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

Written by Emily Schosid, campus sustainability planner in the Office of Energy and Sustainability.
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