BLACKSBURG — Sustainability Week 2020 is set for September 20-26.
Started in 2006, Sustainability Week is a weeklong series of events hosted by a longstanding partnership between the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech and Sustainable Blacksburg. The partnership was formed to bring campus and community together to build a more sustainable and resilient community. Sustainability Week received the 2016 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award.
Because of the COVID19 pandemic, most of the Sustainability Week events will be virtual, and the handful of in-person events will be outdoors with physical distancing.
This will be the first in a series of programs and projects offered throughout the year, a new approach called “Sustainability through the Seasons.” This new approach will enable the partners to engage campus and the community with events and programming better suited for the seasons, such as tree plantings in the fall and the City Nature Challenge in the spring.
The kickoff is Sunday, Sept. 20, with a trail work service project organized by the Poverty Creek Trails Coalition. The week concludes Saturday, Sept. 26, with a family-friend bike parade led by Blacksburg Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith.
The schedule of events is as follows:
Sunday, Sept. 20, 9:00 a.m.: Trail Work Service Day with the Poverty Creek Trails Coalition (Shift 1); noon: Trail Work Service Day with the Poverty Creek Trails Coalition (Shift 2).
Monday, Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m.: Virtual Cycling Commuter Clinic.
Tuesday, Sept. 22, noon: Virginia Tech Dining Bike Tour (for dining hall plan holders).
Wednesday, Sept. 23, noon: A Sustainable (Virtual) Bike Tour featuring: The Town of Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech Campus; 2:00 p.m.: Blacksburg Farmers’ Market.
Thursday, Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m.: Science on Tap: “Cycling towards Healthier Communities.”
Friday, Sept. 25, 11:30 a.m.: Panel Discussion on Changes to Local Recycling.
Saturday, Sept. 26, 8:00 a.m.: Blacksburg Farmers’ Market; 9:00 a.m. Blacksburg Bike Parade; 10:00 a.m.: Fall is for Planting Native Plants sale with the New River Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society
