CALENDAR
Sustainability events around campus this academic year
- 11/12: Film - Dirt!
- 11/17: UNCG Sustainability Expo!
- 12/3: Film - Buyer Be Fair
- 1/27: A new Matthew Barr film on George McGovern
- 2/18: Film - A Sea Change
- 3/25-26: Sustainability Shorts (two nights with a celebration the second night!)
- 4/22: Film - Another Corleone: Another Sicily
UNCG Grounds Maintenance Sustainability Accomplishments, 2008
- Greatly reduced number of pickup trucks owned in favor of golf carts
- Plant selection for turf, shrubs, trees, etc. is done for drought tolerance
- Example: the strip median plantings on Spring Garden St. have required no irrigation since being established
- Correct pruning for healthiest plants is done as part of IPM
- Large trees are pruned to reduce damage from wind and ice
- Trees that are taken down are given away as firewood
- Tree tops are chipped into mulch, some of which is kept for use at UNCG
- Irrigation systems use “rain-stop” devices to prevent watering in the rain
- Newer installations provide more efficient underground and drip irrigation
- Fertilizers used are organic or slow-release types
- Less frequent application decreases labor and fuel costs
- Example: Milorganite, made in Milwaukee from treated sewer sludge
- Fuel-efficient, biodiesel mulching mowers are chosen for purchase
- Mulched grass clippings remain on turf, reducing need for fertilizers and irrigation
- All other equipment purchased is the most fuel-efficient
- Biodiesel tractors
- Newest leaf blowers are up to 80% more efficient than old models; some use gasohol
- Some of annual leaf fall is composted
- Peabody Park has been in the process of “going natural” for years
- Volunteers periodically remove English ivy and other invasive plants
- UNCG stopped the harmful mowing of stream banks long ago, before the city did so
- Experiments in wildflower seeding are under way