Events — UofL Sustainability

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
Dec. 6, 2025	Volunteer Opportunity: Plant Trees at Alberta O. Jones Park Saturday, Dec. 6th, 10am-2pm, Alberta O. Jones Park (717 S 24th St) UofL's Wildlife Conservation Club invites you to join them in helping the Louisville Parks Alliance and Louisville Grows to increase the greenery in Alberta Jones Park! Trained Citizen Foresters will lead groups of volunteers to properly plant 33 trees and 30 shrubs. No experience is necessary, everyone is welcome to come plant with us! Snacks, coffee and water will be provided during the event. Dress appropriately for the weather. You'll be digging in the dirt, so wear clothes that you don't mind getting dirty. Closed-toed shoes are required. Waterproof outerwear is recommended if rain is forecast. We will plant trees come rain or shine. Learn more and sign up. Connect on Engage.
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.
Dec. 11, 2025	Faith & Science Forum Thursday, December 11th, 5:15pm Reception, 6pm Panel, St. Stephen Baptist Church (1018 S 15th St), RSVP here.: During this, the second installment of the "& Science" Forums, we will celebrate community heroes & learn from an expert panel discussing the key intersections of faith & science. The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute is hosting this new quarterly series called “& Science" which provides a community forum for conversations at the intersection of health, the environment & science. This installment of the series features leaders from different faith traditions with the following objectives: Explore key intersections of faith & science; Discuss challenges & opportunities for voices of faith in a time of climate crisis; Share examples of faith community responses to matters of health & environmental concerns; Envision a brighter future for faith & science. We'll start with recognizing our "& Science" Trailblazer Awardee, Ms. Elmer Lucille Allen (Artist and first African-American chemist at Brown-Forman). Panel Speakers include: • Dr. Kevin W. Cosby (Senior Pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church and President of Simmons College of Kentucky) • Dr. Angelique Johnson (CEO/Founder, MEMStim LLC) • Dr. Justin Mog (Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives, University of Louisville) • Waylon Riley (Youth Program Manager & Assistant Camp Director, Trager Family JCC) • Rev. Dr. Leah Schade (Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, Lexington Theological Seminary) The evening also Features: • Dr. Natasha DeJarnett (Assistant Professor, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, University of Louisville) • Rev. Dr. Lauren Jones Mayfield (Executive Director, Center for Interfaith Relations) • Dr. Michael Brandon McCormack (Professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies, Professor of Interdisciplinary and Public Humanities (Religious Studies), University of Louisville) Please email envirome@louisville.edu with questions that you'd like the panelists to consider prior to the forum. You will also have an opportunity to raise questions during the forum.
Jan. 22 - May 28, 2026	Spring Garden Gatherings 2026 Mondays, 4pm at the Urban & Public Affairs Garden (426 W. Bloom St., behind Bettie Johnson Hall) Thursdays, 12:30pm 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 spring (Jan. 22 - May 28) to plant, weed, water & harvest. Tools and gloves provided. Monthly hands-on Garden Workshops will also be offered at these times. Everyone who comes is welcome to share in the harvest! Connect with us and get all the details on Facebook or Instagram. Facebook Event.
Feb. 1 - March 28, 2026	Ecolympics 2026 February 1st - March 28th Two fun sustainability competitions to get you engaged in saving our one green planet! Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of the fabulous weekly prize baskets! Campus Race To Zero Waste! - February 1 - March 28, 2026 A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website. REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by *avoiding disposables* (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.), donating useful stuff to the UofL Free Store instead of throwing it away, and fully utilizing UofL’s amazingly easy, single-stream recycling system that lets you recycle everything in the same bin, everywhere on campus: all types of *plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass! Details on what you can recycle at UofL here. COMPOST!* Turn trash into treasure just by composting your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons next to the Baptist Center and the Urban & Public Affairs Garden behind Bettie Johnson Hall. Request a compost caddy for your room through our online request form! If it came from a plant, we want to compost it: *fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, baked goods, grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.). We are always collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and will be adding those numbers to UofL's organics recycling totals in the Campus Race to Zero Waste. RECYCLE E-WASTE!* Don't send your old electronics to the landfill! We will have special collection points set up in the following locations Feb. 11 - March 11: BAB (1st floor lobby) SAC W310 Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st floor Study Area, SE corner) HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators) >> There will also be a special Drive-up Drop-off Collection on a date TBA on the south side of the Clinical & Translational Research Building at HSC (505 S Hancock St.), by the elevators for the 620 Garage. The contact for the Drive-up Drop-off is Skip Hurley (502) 599-6228. Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. Separate bins will also be available for recycling of any type of batteries, lamps/bulbs, or ink/toner cartridges. Resident Race! - February 9 - March 1, 2026 *Live on campus? Win with conservation!* UofL residence halls will compete among each other to see who can reduce electricity use the most over three weeks. The winning hall will earn a pizza party, sponsored by RHA! All you have to do is stop wasting energy! Turn off lights, fans, space heaters, TVs, game consoles, etc.; unplug anything you're not actively using (especially empty refrigerators); skip the elevator for the stairs; close windows tightly; wait until you have a full load to do laundry & wash with cold water; dry clothes on a rack/line; take shorter showers or shower with solar power at the SRC; etc. Keep up with the Race on UofL's Building Dashboard, where you can see how much electricity your hall is using and learn how you can conserve! Halls in the competition include: Bettie Johnson Hall Community Park (real-time data!) Kurz Hall (real-time data!) Louisville Hall (real-time data!) Unitas Hall (real-time data!) University Tower Apartments (UTA) Belknap Village North Belknap Village South Prizes: Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2025, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket! Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2025 will take home our grand prize: a bicycle and helmet. Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!
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, 2026	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.

What did I miss?! Check out our Past Events log.

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