During April, ActivUs, a group of student environmental and social justice activists on campus, will host several events promoting its mission.

“Our goals are generally to get the administration to change a certain campus policy so that life on campus would be more sustainable,” said Rivka Fidel, president of ActivUs and graduate student in agronomy.

This is accomplished through two grassroots campaigns, Beyond Plastic and Beyond Coal.

Beyond Plastic is a campaign whose main purpose is to phase out the sale of bottled water on campus.

“We want to do that because bottled water has negative health and environmental impacts from its manufacture to its consumption to its disposal,” Fidel said. “We like to emphasize the reduce rather than just the reuse.”

In order to raise awareness, ActivUs is hosting a water bottle sculpture contest Friday through Sunday. The event is free, but students must register by Wednesday at [email protected].

Participants get 100 water bottles and 48 hours to complete their sculpture, after which two professors from the College of Design will select three winners from three different categories. The winners will then have their sculptures displayed in the Octagon Center for the Arts.

In addition to the sculpture contest, ActivUs has also been hosting water bottle interceptions.

“People walking around are constantly just throwing away bottles in dining halls and other places, so we set up a table saying we want your bottles,” Fidel said.

Students who give up their plastic water bottles, show a reusable bottle they have been using or sign a petition saying they would support the phasing out of plastic water bottles on campus will all receive a prize.

Beyond Coal is the effort to phase out the burning of coal at the campus coal plant.

“We chose to run this campaign because we believe that students have a right to clean air and have a right to say how their campus is powered, and we want to protect the environment,” Fidel said.

To raise awareness for this campaign, ActivUs will be hosting the Run Beyond Coal on April 22. The run begins at 11 a.m. in the Lied Recreation Athletic Center parking lot. Those participating will run throughout campus and finish back at Lied.

Online registration starts this week on AccessPlus, but participants can also register at 10:30 a.m., before the race starts. Registration costs $13, but that pays for a T-shirt and snacks. The first 20 students to register will also receive a free aluminum water bottle.

Pinwheels surround the course, representing wind energy.

“For our campaigns, we like to do events that raise awareness and events where we try to persuade the administration,” Fidel said. “If we get student support, that gives us more clout with the administration.”