Events
Sustainability events are happening year-round at UofL! Don't miss out!
All UofL Sustainability events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. What did I miss?! Check out our Past Events log.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Oct. 15-21, 2025 |
UofL Sustainability Week - Oct. 15-21, 2025
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| Every Sunday |
UofL Community Composting Volunteer Days Every Sunday, Noon-2pm (  Add to your Calendar)250 E. Bloom St. (block north of Cardinal Blvd. between Brook & Floyd Streets, map) Come help us turn “trash” into treasure as we manage UofL’s volunteer-powered community composting operation. Dress to get dirty. Tools provided. Learn about worm composting and becoming a UofL EcoRep! All participants are welcome to haul home some rich UofL compost for gardening projects in your own containers/vehicle. This is a weekly service opportunity throughout the year. Contact: Brian Barnes, 502-338-1338. |
| Aug. 18 - Nov. 24, 2025 |
Fall Garden Gatherings 2025 Mondays, 3pm at the Urban & Public Affairs Garden (426 W. Bloom St., behind Bettie Johnson Hall)Thursdays, noon at the Garden Commons (northeast of the Baptist Center) UofL’s organic campus gardens are great places to relax, reconnect, learn, and savor the sweet taste of sustainability! Students, faculty, staff, and the public are all welcome to come experience the thrill of turning tiny seeds into an abundance of hyper-local veggies, herbs, fruit & flowers. Stop by anytime to sample the goodness and help us keep things watered and weeded. We will gather weekly at both of our campus food gardens throughout the fall (Aug. 18 - Nov. 24) to harvest, weed, water & plant. Tools and gloves provided, but bring bags to harvest into! Everyone who comes is welcome to share in the harvest! Connect with us and get all the details on Facebook or Instagram. Facebook Event. |
| Oct. 20, 2025 |
Scary Sustainability Movie Night & Trick-or-Treat Bag Making Monday, Oct. 20th, 7pm, Humanities 300 The UofL Sustainability Council invites you to relax and explore the scary side of sustainability as we watch a thought-provoking film together, enjoy snacks, and do some crafting! We'll be transforming old t-shirts from the UofL Free Store into Trick-or-Treat bags! Facebook Event. This is a UofL Sustainability Week event! |
| Oct. 21, 2025 | UofL Free Store Grand Opening! Tuesday, Oct. 21st, 12:30pm, Honors House 108 Join us for a homemade ribbon-cutting and refreshments as we celebrate the Grand Opening of the UofL Free Store in its newly renovated, larger (272 square feet), more accessible space at the rear of the Honors House room 108 (just steps away from Belknap Village South and the base of the SAC Ramp). We'll be thanking everyone who made this move possible and reflecting on the incredible legacy of this student-run space for the free exchange of useful stuff! The UofL Free Store was launched in August 2013 by students from a former RSO called Group Recycling And Sustainable Solutions (GRASS), with the support of the UofL Sustainability Council. Thanks to countless volunteers and supporters, the Free Store's scale, impact, and visibility has grown considerably over the years, from it's humble beginnings in a small, hard-to-find interior storage room in basement of Unitas Hall. Facebook Event. This is a UofL Sustainability Week event! |
| Oct. 22, 2025 |
Green Drinks featuring UofL’s Center for Transportation Innovation RESCHEDULED FOR: Wednesday, Oct. 22nd, 6pm, Locals Food Hub & Pizza Pub (822 E Broadway) The Louisville Sustainability Council’s Green Drinks is a casual monthly meet-up of community members and organizations, featuring different speakers from across the city to educate and inform the community on local happenings, projects, and initiatives. Each presentation is followed by Q&A, discussion, and networking. The October 15th Green Drinks will feature guests from UofL’s Center for Transportation Innovation at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Come learn more about the Center's work as a focal point for innovative research on transportation-related issues that are of common interest to Louisville, Kentucky, and federal transportation agencies and authorities. The CTI performs innovative and applied research in the following areas: traffic operations and safety, transportation policy and decision making, transportation planning, intelligent transportation systems, smart city, connected and automated vehicles, and transportation-induced air pollution. Green Drinks takes place on the third Wednesday of every other month at 6pm at rotating venues around town. Learn more here. This is a UofL Sustainability Week event! |
| Oct. 22, 2025 |
Zero Waste Pumpkin Carving! Wednesday, Oct. 22nd, 6-8pm, Garden Commons at the Baptist Center Join UofL EcoReps in UofL's organic Garden Commons for a fun pumpkin carving event focused on using the whole pumpkin! As you carve, you'll learn about how to use all parts of the pumpkin and how to compost everything when you're done in order to grow new pumpkins for next year! We’ll have candy, costumes, and lots of spooky vibes! Pumpkins are first come, first serve! Facebook Event. |
| Oct. 23, 2025 |
Churchill Park School Microforest Planting Thursday October 23rd, 10am-3pm, 435 Boxley Ave (near UofL football stadium) UofL's Sustainability Council invites the campus community to stop by when you are available 10am-3pm to help TreesLouisville plant 160 1-3 gallon trees on steep hill to prevent future lawn maintenance. No experience necessary. Please make sure to come with clothes that can get dirty, closed toed shoes, a full water bottle and protection from the elements. All else will be provided by TreesLouisville. Register here. |
| Oct. 23, 2025 |
The CLIMBS Extreme Precipitation Instrumentation and Field Project Thursday, Oct. 23rd, 2:30-3:45pm, BAB 218 Join us for the Fall 2025 Geographic and Environmental Sciences Seminar Series! Our speaker on October 23rd will be UofL professor Scott Gunter. The CLIMBS (Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction and Building Response Systems) Kentucky Climate Resilience program is an eight-institution collaboration including the University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Murray State University and Thomas More University, that addresses fundamental knowledge gaps in climate-related understanding. Scott Gunter is a collaborator on CLIMBS Project 1 to enhance our weather understanding by expanding infrastructure and detecting high-impact events while also facilitating novel research advancing our understanding of their variability, trends and the larger-scale atmospheric and climatic conditions that influence them. The project also systematizes the state’s climatic records, predict climate sensitivity and future trends, contribute to 21st-century warning networks for at-risk communities, and educate the next generation of atmospheric science students. |
| Oct. 26, 2025 |
Green Initiatives Bernheim Hike Sunday, Oct. 26th, 11:30am - 3:00pm, Meetup at east entrance to the SAC by the roundabout ELSB's Green Initiatives Committee will be hosting a fall hike at Bernheim for students on October 26th! We will be meeting in the East Side of the SAC by the roundabout and taking a bus to Bernheim. This will not be strenuous, just a fun hike on a well marked trail. We will also be providing boxed lunches. RSVP on Engage. |
| Oct. 31, 2025 |
EcoReps Lunch & Learn: Industrial Composting with Smith Creek Friday, Oct. 31st, noon, Center for Belonging, Access & Engagement (Belknap Village North room 176) OR Join Microsoft Teams Meeting Join us for our monthly EcoReps workshop featuring locals making a difference in sustainability and a free vegetarian lunch! Our guest on October 31st will be Laura Veldman, the Senior Sourcing Manager at Smith Creek in Borden, Indiana. Smith Creek manages the industrial-scale composting operation where all of the food scraps from UofL Dining end up. Come learn what they are doing to keep organics out of the landfill and turn a problem into "black gold!" The Sustainability Council’s EcoReps program is designed to move students, faculty & staff beyond talk to action for a more sustainable UofL! We provide basic training & resources, service opportunities, and leadership positions as a point-person & peer-to-peer advocate for sustainability. More info on EcoReps website. Facebook Event. |
| Nov. 13, 2025 |
Abolition Feminism and Anti-Racist Praxis Thursday, Nov. 13th, 6-7:30pm, Strickler Hall, Middleton Auditorium Join us for the 19th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture, entitled “Abolition Feminism and Anti-Racist Praxis” featuring Dr. Beth Richie of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Richie’s extensive research examines how race and gender impact experiences of criminalization and justice, and she has long collaborated closely with communities, impacted individuals, and movements, including as a founding member of INCITE!: Women of Color Against Violence. She is Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and of Black Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, author of “Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation”; co-editor with teachers from Stateville Prison of “The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom”; and co-author with Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, and Erica Meiners of “Abolition. Feminism. Now.” Learn more and register here. |
| Nov. 14, 2025 |
Sustainability Roundtable: Campus Commuter Survey Friday, Nov. 14th, noon-1:30pm, Urban & Public Affairs room 123 (426 W Bloom St) Join UofL's Sustainability Roundtable for this vital conversation about research efforts into better understanding how the UofL community commutes to campus, why they make the choices they do, and what could be done to positively influence those choices. With the help of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, the UofL Sustainability Council has been actively surveying the entire campus community about transportation choices since 2010. We'll share the methods and results of this survey work and discuss new directions for data analysis, data collection, and policy and program development based on these findings. Panelists will include: 1. Dr. Justin Mog, Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives; 2. Gary Becker, Director of Parking Administration; 3. Dr. Henry Cunningham, Assistant Vice-President for Engaged Scholarship; 4. Dr, Emily Spoden, Coordinator in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness; 5. Dr. Yueshuai He, Assistant Professor, Transportation Researcher, J.B. Speed School of Engineering; 6. Dr. Matt Ruther, Director, Kentucky State Data Center; and 7. GSC Student Representative |
| Nov. 15, 2025 |
Pop-Up Drop-Off Community Recycling Event Saturday, Nov. 15th, 10am-2pm, UofL Shelby Campus Pop-Up Drop-Offs are free recycling and large item disposal events for residents of Jefferson County.
Items must already be separated into categories for easy off-loading so as much can be recycled as possible.This event sponsored by: Department of Public Works and Assets and the Louisville/Jefferson County Waste Management District.More info. |
| Nov 15, 2025 |
St. Joseph Neighborhood Tree Planting Saturday, Nov. 15th, 10:45am-2pm, Meetup: 760 Eastern Pkwy (Our Mother of Sorrows church) UofL's Sustainability Council invites the campus community to volunteer to help restore the urban tree canopy on the eastern edge of Belknap Campus during a Community-wide Planting Day with Louisville Metro Forestry, TreesLouisville & Louisville Grows. Play an active role in restoring the Louisville tree canopy by helping us plant over 100 trees in the St. Joseph Neighborhood! We are teaming up to plant trees in the rights-of-way, on residential properties, and at businesses in the area. Tools and training on how to plant a tree will be provided, along with gloves, safety glasses, safety vests, and a water refill station will also be provided. Please bring a water bottle and wear closed-toe shoes and weather appropriate clothing. Lunch is provided to all volunteers! Learn more and sign-up here. |
| ov. 20, 2025 |
Holiday Wreath Making Workshop Thursday, Nov. 20th, noon, Garden Commons (next to Baptist Center) Join us in UofL's organic, student-managed garden to get in the holiday spirit! Come learn how to make your own beautiful wreath using a variety of plant materials from campus and herbs from our garden. It's easier than you might think, and you'll take home something beautiful, great smelling, and unique! This is the last in our fall series of Garden Workshops. The Garden Commons is a shared, collectively-managed space, open to participation any time from students, staff, faculty, and community members. Everyone who comes is welcome to share in the harvest! Connect with us and get all the details on Facebook or Instagram. Facebook Event. |
| Nov. 20, 2025 |
Population and Demographic Shifts in a Changing World Thursday, Nov. 20th, 2:30-3:45pm, BAB 218 Join us for the Fall 2025 Geographic and Environmental Sciences Seminar Series! Our speaker on November 20th will be Andrew Zimmer, a Geospatial Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Andrew is in the Human Geography group at Oak Ridge, where he contributes to the LandScan program, advancing high-resolution global population datasets. His research focuses on the intersections of human-environment geography, population dynamics, and urbanization. Before joining ORNL, he served as a Research Scientist at Montana State University, where he led assessments of urban demographic trends and population exposure to climate hazards. Andrew earned his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Arizona, with a dissertation examining the interplay between climate variability, urban population change, and food security in African cities. He also holds an M.S. and a B.A. in Geography from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. At this seminar, he'll be discussing "Population and Demographic Shifts in a Changing World." |
| Nov. 20, 2025 |
Talon Talk
Thursday, Nov. 20th, 4pm, Humanities 101 The Engage Lead Serve Board (ELSB) Animal Welfare committee invites you to come engage with birds of prey, such as owls and falcons. We are partnering with Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky, who will be doing an hour-long presentation on different birds they have rescued. There will be ample time to ask questions and dive into conservation efforts in Kentucky! Note: Due to the nature of having live birds present, we ask that you please arrive by 3:55pm. RSVP on Engage.
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| Nov. 21, 2025 |
EcoReps Lunch & Learn: Louisville Climate Action Network Friday, Nov. 21st, noon, Center for Belonging, Access & Engagement (Belknap Village North room 176) OR Join Microsoft Teams Meeting Join us for our monthly EcoReps workshop featuring locals making a difference in sustainability and a free vegetarian lunch! Our guest on November 21st will be Sarah Lynn Cunningham, Executive Director of the Louisville Climate Action Network. LCAN is the go-to source for reliable, action-inspiring information on climate change, its impacts and its many solutions. They work collaboratively for a healthy climate, operating efficiently, on sustainable energy -- equitably distributed and used, utilizing strategies and tactics that are inclusive, democratic, equitable and resilient. The Sustainability Council’s EcoReps program is designed to move students, faculty & staff beyond talk to action for a more sustainable UofL! We provide basic training & resources, service opportunities, and leadership positions as a point-person & peer-to-peer advocate for sustainability. More info on EcoReps website. Facebook Event. |
| March 9-25, 2026 |
Great American Road Trip - Mount Rushmore and the Black Elk Wilderness March 9th-15th, 2026, Keystone, South Dakota, $120 per person. Join Campus Recreation for a multi-day road trip to Mount Rushmore National Monument and spend time hiking and camping in the Black Elk Wilderness. This trip involves primitive camping, hiking, and spectacular views of National Monuments. Registration required. |
| March 28, 2026 |
Mountain Biking Saturday, March 28th, 9am-3pm, Cherokee Park Join Campus Recreation and the UofL Sustainability Council on a morning bike ride to Cherokee Park and explore the mountain biking trails within the Park. Free and all equipment provided, but spots are limited. Registration required. |
| April 4, 2025 |
Three Bridges Trail Hike Saturday, April 4th, 9am-5pm, Olive Hill, KY, $20 per person. Join Campus Recreation for this Appalachian hike! At just over three miles in length, Three Bridges Trail in Carter Caves State Resort Park is a fantastic trail with beautiful, interesting rock formations. The route stops by three of the park's natural rock bridges: Smoky Bridge (the largest), the Raven Bridge, and the Fern Bridge. Registration required. |
Accepted Items:What did I miss?! Check out our Past Events log.
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