The University of Southern Mississippi is composed of various departments and organizations that aim to better students through educational or recreational endeavors.
The Office of Sustainability, however, plans to take this mission a step further by once again challenging students to experience the second No Impact Week.
No Impact Week is a seven-day carbon cleanse, encouraging students and the Southern Miss community to experience the gratification that occurs with reducing their impact.
“No Impact Week offers us the tools to make our world a better place,” said Christiania Foreman, sustainability coordinator for The Office of Sustainability. “All of us have the ability to make small changes in our lives which can have a significant and positive impact on the world around us.”
The weeklong cleanse is set to start Oct. 4 and concludes Oct. 11. Each day of the week will consist of a different sustainability challenge along with various events.
The No Impact Week concept comes from the No Impact Project, a nonprofit and international project catered to providing innovative ways for people to connect with the community and habitat.
This organization offers informational material to universities in order to enrich campus life with sustainability programming.
In order to bring exciting events that correlate with the theme of the week, The Office of Sustainability will be partnering with Health is Golden, Recreation Sports, iTech, Hub City Transit, Parking Management and the City of Hattiesburg.
Eagle Dining, an advocate for sustainability practices, is also serving as a sponsor for the event.
“Sustainability is very important to our university and community. Therefore, we were glad to support the No Impact Week in anyway possible,” said Lauren Brescher, marketing manager of Eagle Dining.
Throughout the week, campus-events such as a cooking demonstration and farmers’ market will take place, as well as a downtown bike tour at Town Square Park.
Towards the end of the week, participants will be treated to bike “power” smoothies, before finishing the week off with the first Southern Miss Community E-Waste Event on Oct. 10.
The Southern Miss community is asked to bring unwanted electronic devices to the E-Waste event and drop them off for proper disposal.
It will be held at the Payne Center parking lot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For a tentative schedule and to register for No Impact Week, visit: https://www.usm.edu/green/no-impact-week.
