The Chronicle

Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: News
Last update: 4/23/07 at 7:02 AM EST

Media Credit: SYLVIA QU Groups crowded the West Campus Plaza Friday and ate locally grown food to celebrate Earth Day.

Students walking across the West Campus Plaza Friday were greeted by organic foods, presentations on clean energy and a would-be Captain Planet wearing green body paint, red briefs and a planet stamped on his chest.

Members of the Duke and Durham communities gathered to celebrate Duke's annual Earth Day Festival, which featured alternative-fuel vehicles, a backpacking clinic, live music by the Durham Academy steel drum band and sustainably grown food from local vendors.

"The primary goal of the event was to highlight sustainability and the concept that individuals and businesses can use the minimal amount of resources to obtain the maximum benefit," said event coordinator Jason Franken, a graduate student in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

The festival showcased over 40 vendors and participants who stressed environmental consciousness in some facet of their work and was visited by a large number of students walking across the Plaza throughout the day, Franken said.

"I would say that what we did on Friday was a brief glance of all the different groups out there that are actually doing work to make some sort of an impact on environmental issues that affect us daily," he added.

Matt Rudolf, executive director of Piedmont Biofuels, was one of the participants at the festival to promote biodiesel fuel as a cleaner alternative to petroleum.

His organization's fuel product, which is produced entirely from chicken fat, is compatible with any diesel vehicle and can be purchased for $3.50 per gallon.

"Biodiesel fuel has numerous advantages over petroleum fuel," he said. "It's less toxic than table salt, more biodegradable than sugar and is produced using a renewable waste product."

Rudolf added that biodiesel fuel, though not the product supplied by his company, is integral to daily life at the University because it is used by all of the buses on campus.

"The emissions produced by biofuels are far better for the environment than those produced by regular diesel fuel," he said.

Although Duke has taken measures to promote sustainability on campus, Franken said, there is always room for improvement, as with any large university.

"There are a number of opportunities, many of which were highlighted at the festival, that Duke could take to be more environmentally conscious," he added.

Like all things dealing with the environment, however, being environmentally sustainable takes more than a one-day festival on campus, Franken said.

"There are opportunities that people can get involved with all the time," he said. "Hopefully, we were able to put that spark into a few people who can make a difference in the future."

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