The Charles River Campus of Boston University had a treat in store for students Thursday, as BU Sustainability held its annual Sustainability Festival in front of Marsh Chapel — even despite the drizzle.
The festival has been a perennial event at BU for 10 years now, BU Sustainability Director Lisa Tornatore said. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic BU Sustainability hosted a series of online events last year focused on environmental justice.
Tornatore said bringing back in-person events is a welcomed advantage for spreading awareness and information about sustainability.
“Sustainability is a concept that a lot of people don’t really understand,” Tornatore said. “So for folks to see that it can be fun … is really effective for us to be able to get to know different people around campus who may not be totally interested in sustainability.”
This year’s festival featured several activities and engagement opportunities — many, but not all, of them connected to University programs.
A BU Dining Services table taught students about on-campus food waste mitigation and provided free produce from locally sourced farms. There was also a farmers market, information on bike safety and even a bike giveaway.
Megan Elias, director of gastronomy at the Metropolitan College, hosted a table with information on the college’s master’s program and featured some interactive exhibits.
Elias said the gastronomy program offers courses on food politics, culture and communications — essentially, gastronomy students study “everything about food except whether it’s good for you.”
One of the table’s exhibits was a map detailing Boston’s community gardens for students to see where food is being grown in Boston.
“They can also see where people are not growing food in Boston,” Elias said, “which is a bigger story about access, gentrification [and] government policies.”
Elias said the booth also gave away herbs students can use to help season their food, as well as a place for students to share why they enjoy cooking.
Bluebikes, Boston’s bike sharing system, was also present at the event promoting their program. Bike advocacy group MassBike provided information on public safety for biking and ways to get involved with campaigning for more bicycle-friendly state policies.
Also at the festival were two farm stands selling fruit, vegetables and organic honey; a sustainably produced arts and crafts vendor; and a kettle corn station. Students drifted in and out of the event on their way to class or clustered under the arches behind Marsh Plaza when the rain came in spurts.
Jaedin Guldenstern, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, found out about the festival from a friend the day of the event.
“I really liked all of the farm food because you don’t see that that much in the city, especially on campus,” Guldenstern said. “If we want fresh food from farmers’ markets, to talk to the farmers, we have to go to downtown, but this is really nice for it to be on campus.”
Despite the lighthearted, social atmosphere of the event, Elias said there was an underlying key theme to the day’s festivities.
“The most important thing is for everyone to think seriously about the mundane,” Elias said. “In our field that’s what we do. We take the thing that’s just like every day, and we say ‘no it’s really important.’ And I think that’s certainly the message all around here too.”
