With Sustainability Week activities in full swing, students, faculty and staff are being reminded daily that there are easy ways to make environmentally-friendly choices at the University of Louisville.
Among other activities (see below), a Campus Sustainability Day Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 19 in the Humanities Quad on Belknap Campus. Students, staff and faculty will be able to get helpful information on transportation options and bicycle maintenance (bring your bike for a tune-up), and free shredding/recycling of documents, tapes and computer discs will be available.
One item sure to be of interest is the new, free Cardinal Directions trip-finding platform, which shows all of the university’s transportation options on one map. It is a one-stop-shop for UofL staff, faculty and students who want to find ways to save money, time, pollution and hassle by cutting back on driving to campus. It is also open to the public.
School of Dentistry Senior John Troehler signed up to use Cardinal Directions to see how well it catered to bicycle commuters.
“Reducing the use of combustion-based transport has been a defining facet of my life,” Troehler said. “I purposely live in a location where I can travel to all aspects of my normal life either by foot or by bicycle and was part of the first generation of students to receive a bicycle voucher. I have been commuting with that bicycle ever since.”
UofL’s nationally recognized, award-winning bicycle voucher program, “Earn-A-Bike,” allows students, faculty and staff willing to give up the right to a parking permit for two years a chance to earn a $400 voucher to an area bike shop. Since 2012, UofL has given out 1,550 vouchers.
To get started with Cardinal Directions, visit directions.louisville.edu, and type in your starting point and destination. All options will be displayed and users can easily compare the relative travel time, mileage, carbon emissions and calories burned by each option.
The map also shows locations of vehicles available to the public through the UofL Enterprise CarShare Program and provides links for transportation options between cities, such as Amtrak or Megabus.
Through the program, which has been operating on the Belknap Campus since 2012, those who have purchased an annual membership can use a new, fuel-efficient vehicle for hourly, overnight and daily rentals. Earlier this year, the program expanded to the Health Sciences Center to serve the downtown area. The car-sharing program is offering a promotion through Dec. 31 in which new UofL members can join for $1 and drive for just $5 per hour.
Sustainability Week runs through Oct. 23. On the evening of Oct. 19, UofL will host the Louisville Sustainability Council’s monthly “Green Drinks” networking event for professionals interested in sustainability. The event will start at 6 p.m. with a campus sustainability tour leaving from in front of the University Club and end at Old Louisville Tavern, 1532 S. 4th St.
The week’s activities include (For a full schedule, click here.):
- Oct. 20 (Belknap Campus, Humanities Quad) – Bike maintenance workshop
- Oct. 21, noon – EcoReps Lunch&Learn, “Sustainability at UofL,” Ekstrom Library, W210.
- Oct. 21, 2-3 p.m. – Garlic Planting Day! Garden Commons Workshop and Workday (Cultural Center)
- Oct. 23 –UofL Community Composting Volunteer Day, 200 block of E. Bloom St. (one block north of Cardinal Boulevard between Brook and Floyd streets)
UofL has a goal of reducing our net greenhouse gas emissions and achieving climate neutrality by 2050. For more information, contact Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives, at 852-8575.
