Thank you to everyone for participating in Earth Month! Over 40 events were hosted virtually by our campus and community partners. A recap of select contests and events are below.

Earth Month Trivia Winners

Thank you to everyone who played weekly Earth Month trivia with us!

Congratulations to our three Trivia Champions: 

Undergraduate Students

Claire Wayner ‘22 

Graduate/Doctoral Students

Jonas Jin

Faculty/Staff

Sara Hagenbuch

Photo Scavenger Contest Winners

Throughout the month of April, Princeton University students were challenged to a Photo Scavenger Hunt by the Office of Sustainability and several sustainability student groups. The goal of the photo scavenger hunt was to highlight the beauty of nature and sustainable practices wherever participants are living (on or off campus). Categories included: Native plants and insects, Birds, Plant-based meals and Thrift flips (outfits sourced from secondhand shops). Sustainability student groups The Princeton BEE Team, Princeton Birding Society, Greening Dining and Mend judged the submissions to select Editor’s Choice while People’s Choice was determined by vote over instagram.

Congratulations to the Winners: Maggie Chamberlain ‘23, Kojo Baidoo ‘24 and Linda Cook, Graduate Student! To view their winning photos, visit the contest announcement page.

Environmental Justice Symposium

On April 10th, the Office of Sustainability and USG Sustainability Committee hosted an “Environmental Justice Symposium” featuring Kim Gaddy, the Environmental Justice Organizer for Clean Water Action; Maria Lopez-Nuñez, the Director of Environmental Justice and Community Development at Ironbound Community Corporation; Chief Vincent Mann, the Turtle Clan Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation; and Running-Grass, the Executive Director of the Three Circles Center. The symposium sought to provide a platform for the Princeton community to hear lived experiences and stories from environmental justice (EJ) residents from local urban and indigenous communities. The Symposium began with a panel discussion with Q&A on the speakers’ EJ work and perspectives regarding relationships between EJ communities, students and student groups, and institutions of higher education. The discussion was followed by small group engagement, setting up participants with panelists to continue dialogues about how they can meaningfully engage with communities towards environmental justice.

The panel and subsequent Q&A discussion aimed to break down why institutions of higher education have not always had the best relationships with surrounding EJ communities, what intentional and unintentional biases and assumptions can complicate these relationships, and how the Princeton campus and others can work towards centering intergenerational, place-based, and community-powered change for the better.

Watch the Panel Discussion and Q&A

This event was co-sponsored by the Princeton University Office of Sustainability, Undergraduate Student Government (USG), and the USG Sustainability Committee.

Observatory Film Premiere 

The film "Observatory" premiered at Princeton Environmental Film Festival on April 16 at 7pm.

Watch the Film

Watch the Q&A

The film is the story of Princeton University astrophysicist Gaspar Bakos and his three school-age sons looking for something interesting to do in early 2020 after the pandemic shuts down much of society. For them, that “something to do,” is a $40 motion-activated wildlife camera, on which they initially record chipmunks eating nuts outside their Princeton home. Soon they move the camera to a small patch of woods and meet a cautious fox, and by the end of the film they are paddling to remote locations on Lake Carnegie while discovering beavers, mink and much more. Read more about the film.