Phoenix Sustainability Initiative’s Earth Week has eight engaging events to get you thinking, learning, and doing sustainability in your life. Our remote programming offers hands-on workshops, games, and competitions with free materials and sustainable prizes offered to participants. These fun activities include planting and painting, clothes mending and embroidering, beeswax workshop, Earth-inspired Minecraft, sustainable cooking competition, sustainability Codenames and Kahoot games, all-natural cleaner workshop, and seed paper making. By attending our events, you can learn about the environmental challenges we face, create sustainable items you can continue using, and gain knowledge about repurposing materials. To register for events you’re interested in, check out the event descriptions at bit.ly/PSI-Earth-Week or by navigating to the Events tab on the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative Facebook Page.
Some events begin before the University-wide Earth Week – check the details for more information!
Looking for a different audience or the full calendar of Earth Week events (which are all open to students)? Choose from the links below:
- All Earth Week Events
- Earth Week Events Open to Faculty, OAAs, and Staff
- Earth Week Events Open to the Public
4/18-4/22 PSI Earth Week: Sustainable Cooking Contest
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – view details and submit a dish here
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative’s Campus Composting Group is hosting a sustainable cooking competition for Earth Week! We will award prizes for several categories such as best use of leftovers, best zero-waste dish, most creative dish, and most aesthetic dish. Prizes are a zero waste item of your choice from https://zefirowaste.com/ up to $20. To enter, create a dish repurposing food, using as little waste as possible (e.g. using ingredients you already have in your fridge), take pictures of your process, and submit them—along with a short description of sustainable choices you made while cooking. Funded in part by Student Government.
4/19-23 PSI Earth Week: Seed Starters
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – sign up before April 18 for free seeds and an asynchronous workshop here
Hello plant lovers! As part of PSI’s series of Earth Week activities, the Science, Art, and Sustainability project group are hosting an asynchronous seed paper creation workshop! Seed paper is a way to recycle your own scrap paper and use it to grow plants. It’s so easy to customize your seed paper with different types of seeds, colors, shapes, and designs so get creative with it! Afterwards, you can plant your seed paper and watch a beautiful plant grow! Funded in part by Student Government.
4/19, 9:00pm CDT PSI Earth Week: Codenames
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – view details here
How many environmental sustainability terms do you know? Join us for the sustainability-edition of Codenames where we throw in words related to the environment and sustainability for PSI’s Earth Week, hosted by HPBP. All participants will be sorted into random teams and will compete for glory (and possibly a gift card)! Funded in part by Student Government.
4/20, 5:00pm CDT PSI Earth Week: Kahoot Recycling Rush
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – view details and attend here
Clueless on what you can and can’t recycle in Chicago? Think you’re already a pro? Want to win a free succulent? All are welcome to play Kahoot with us at Recycling Rush, one of Phoenix Sustainability Initiative’s many Earth Week events hosted by our Campus Waste Reduction Group! Join us to learn more about Chicago’s recycling guidelines, items frequently recycled wrong, and all other things recycling. 6 attendees will win free succulents: our top 3 winners and 3 more random attendants! Funded in part by Student Government.
4/20, 6:00pm CDT PSI Earth Week: Peaceful Planting and Painting
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – view details and attend here
Come celebrate Earth Week by finger-painting and planting! Early registrants received a clay plant pot and basil seeds – feel free to join with your own materials! Funded in part by Student Government.
4/22-4/23 PSI Earth Week: Minecraft Building
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – view details here
Earth Day Minecraft Building! In association with UChicago Minecraft, Phoenix Sustainability Initiative will be hosting a crafting event on a UChicago server. From Thursday, April 22 to April 23, anyone who owns Minecraft can log on and build anything related to Earth Day or sustainability. Participants can send screenshots of their creations to PSI via Facebook with the chance to be featured on the PSI Instagram. The top builds will be moved to the main UChicago server and winners will receive exclusive metal straws! To participate, join the UChicago Minecraft Facebook group and their discord channel if possible. Directions to install Minecraft and log onto the server will be provided. Whether it’s your first time crafting or you’re a seasoned veteran, come build with us and celebrate sustainability virtually! Funded in part by Student Government.
4/23, 6:00pm CDT PSI Earth Week: Intro to Embroidering Small Designs
Phoenix Sustainability Initiative
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual – view details here
Have a pair of socks with a hole or a shirt that could use some spice?
Green Data will be hosting a clothes-mending and patch-sewing workshop at 6 pm CDT on Friday, April 23rd, where you can learn some minor clothing repair skills or, if you want to add some decorations instead, you can also learn how to sew some small embroidery designs! We will be providing you with small, basic sewing kits! Our event will have asynchronous and synchronous parts. The former will be for clothes-mending, and we’ll create a Clothes-Mending 101 guide for you if you ever find a small tear or hole in your clothes. Our synchronous event will focus on embroidery, so please stop by if you want to hang out and learn how to sew small but cute designs on (almost) any item of your choice! Funded in part by Student Government.