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One day isn’t enough to save the world, so DePaul celebrated seven days of environmental awareness last week for the 43rd annual Earth Day.

Since 1970, people around the world have devoted April 22 to environmental awareness. DePaul celebrated with events like a container planting workshop, fair trade cafes, a household hazardous waste collection and a Fair Share & Green Food Festival in the quad, featuring local sustainability-focused restaurants Uncommon Ground and Indie Burger.

 Earth Day originated 1970 after Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson, witnessed the damages of the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969. Environmental awareness had been on the rise when in 1962, Rachel Carson debuted her bestselling book “Silent Spring,” which is considered by the Earth Day Network to be one of the first major initiatives to raise public awareness for the environment and public health.

According to the Earth Day Network, an organization established by organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970, Nelson was inspired by the student-led anti-war movement.

“[Nelson] realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda,” the Earth Day Network said on their webpage.

Since 1970 however, public support for Earth Day has declined, says Associate Professor Barb Willard, who works with the DePaul Urban Garden and Urban Farming Organization.

“However, for over the past decade universities have been embracing the call for sustainability and becoming models of how it can positively impact organizations,” said Willard. “So, a week of activities [at DePaul] is an opportunity for those that have been working on sustainability throughout the year to showcase their accomplishments and spread the good word about pro-environmental behavior.”

Kevin McGuire, DePaul Sustainability Coordinator, said the events last week addressed the goals of the Vision 2018 strategic plan. The plan focuses on developing opportunities to learn about sustainability and showcasing the best practices of sustainable operations.

For McGuire, sustainability also directly relates to the Vincentian mission. “When we’re not being sustainable, the impacts of that fall disproportionally on the poor, the disenfranchised, and marginalized,” said McGuire. “There’s a real alignment between sustainability and the faith-based call to protect the people who need our help.”

Devin Ruzbasan, an Ecological Representative for the Housing Services Green Team, said, “I love that we have a week. To me that’s a great thing.”

Ruzbasan said the downside to Earth Day is that students often participate, but forget about it the next day. According to Ruzbasan, some students think, “Oh, like, I picked up some trash on Earth Day, so now I don’t have to think about the world for another year.”

“I’ve definitely seen like a lot of sustainable initiatives like the composting bins and recycling and stuff like that,” said Ruzbasan. “I don’t think that there’s a lot of people who seem that interested in it.”

Ruzbasan hopes that in the future, environmental science and sustainability will be incorporated into elementary school curriculums. “I didn’t hear about sustainability until late high school,” said Ruzbasan. “I feel like there would be a lot more people in careers like that if they knew about it earlier.”