On 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, UC Launches Bearcats Bike Share Program

Earth Day was first celebrated 40 years ago, in 1970. On the University of Cincinnati campus, that event was celebrated with speakers, forums, discussions and a rally on the bridge that was once a campus landmark in front of Tangeman University Center.

UC will mark Earth Day 2010 with a variety of activities outlined below. One of those activities is the Earth Day launch of a new UC Bearcats Bike Share Program, the first university bike share program in the region. It's appropriate since UC was just named to The Princeton Review's national list of

"green" leadership schools

. UC is

the only public university in Ohio and the only school in the region

named to The Princeton Review’s "Guide to 286 Green Colleges." See more on those

rankings

.

To mark the upcoming Earth Day on April 22, 2010, UC will

Launch the Bearcats Bike Share Program

with a

bike parade

and brief program from

12 p.m. (noon) to 12:20 p.m.

The parade will begin promptly at noon

in front of UC’s University Pavilion.

It will travel to Tangeman University Center where the new bike share program will launch. The parade will then continue down UC’s MainStreet (the pedestrian route between TUC and Steger Student Life Center) before ending at the traffic circle turn around in front of the Engineering Research Center. The parade will end at 12:20 p.m.

Other Earth Day events at UC on April 22 include

• A BYOL Earth Day picnic and games from 12:30-2 p.m. on UC’s McMicken Commons (green lawn located between McMicken Hall and Tangeman University Center). Games will include “recycling races,” races to place recyclables into containers as well as traditional games like cornhole.

• Planting of 10 new native trees (red oak and dogwood) from 3-5 p.m., on McMicken Commons (near Braunstein Hall).

Other sustainability efforts on campus include

• Ongoing energy savings related to buildings, resulting in about $13 million in energy-related expenses over the past five years.

• Ongoing recycling efforts that will result in about 3,700 tons of materials being recycled on campus this year.
  

More UC Earth Day-related news

• A UC student-designed eco-bag will be carried by about 850 JCPenney stores this summer.

• UC Professor of Biology George Uetz was involved in helping to organize the very first Earth Day 40 years ago in 1970.

• "Earth Day Milestone: In Walking to Work, UC Engineer to Soon Total Nearly 25,000 Miles."

• UC’s Adrian Parr, associate professor of women’s studies, discusses Earth Day.

• Earth Day 1970: A Time of Crisis Remembered.

• In the Green Report Card 2009, UC was named a national campus sustainability leader.

• Go to UC's Sustainability Web site for a listing of all UC Earth Day events.