Around 50 student groups and university organizations tabled in front of the Student Union Wednesday at a resource fair to showcase their sustainability efforts in anticipation of the grand opening of USC’s Sustainability Hub, the crowning moment of USC’s third annual Green Week celebration. The turnout is a reflection of USC’s efforts to promote sustainability and forecasts how Assignment: Earth, USC’s comprehensive sustainability agenda, will continue to shape the University in the coming years.
“From the beginning, Assignment: Earth was meant to be not about creating a silo of sustainability but about integrating sustainability into everything we do,” Chief Sustainability Officer Mick Dalrymple said about the fair. “The fact that groups want to come present … is phenomenal.”
President Carol Folt spoke on the importance of rapid climate change action, noting the effects of climate change in the recent tropical storm that passed through Southern California two weeks ago.
“Our precious oceans have to absorb more than 90% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions,” Folt said. “Those oceans are becoming more acidic and that hurts marine life, including my much beloved plankton and shellfish that are the base of the entire food web including humans.”