UVA's Office for Sustainability supported numerous events across Grounds in May to reduce waste and increase environmentally-friendly transportation- let's recap.
Hoos ReUse Move Out Donation Drive
UVA's annual move-out donation drive, coined 'Hoos ReUse', works to provide on-Grounds residents the option to donate their gently-used items to help divert them from going to the landfill. For 2023, the donation drive expanded to include 24 indoor drop-off areas within dorm lobbies to capture even more donations, including larger items that don’t fit in the outdoor collection bins. In addition, Goodwill provided 16 outdoor donation bins for students to drop-off their items. Over 7,000 pounds of material was donated to be redistributed through Goodwill.
UVA also hosted 7 non-perishable food collection bins across Grounds to capture leftover pantry items. During the collection, 1,332 pounds of non-perishable food was donated and distributed to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and UVA Community Pantry. This food will go to support over 1,000 meals to people in our community.
Bike to Work Week
Bike to Work Week is an annual event that promotes bicycles an an option for community to work. This year, 44 UVA employees pledged to Bike to Work at least one day from May 15-19, and 6 won prize bags from our random drawing. At our 3 "Appreciation Stations" throughout the week, we caught 25 people who biked to Facility Management, 50 people (and one cute dog) who biked to the Hospital, and 35 people who biked past the AFC. Though we saw many more bikes and racks as evidence of even more bike commuters!
We met 5 people who specifically mentioned that "Bike to Work Week" provided the encouragement they needed to try biking to work for the first time! HUGE thanks to everyone who gave bike commuting a try and also to those who make it a regular part of their routine.
Balloon Brigade
During UVA graduation, our annual Balloon Brigade teamed up with the Fourth Year Trustees to support efforts to collect balloons from UVA graduates to be redistributed throughout the community. 14 volunteers collected over 500 balloons, from sparkly animals and smiling avocados, to superheroes and NFL teams. These balloons were then taken to community members at our local hospitals, nursing homes, and schools to bring continued joy after commencement. And yes, volunteers did report that they felt like they were in scenes from the Disney movie, UP.