KINGSTON, R.I. – April 15, 2013 — The University of Rhode Island will celebrate Earth Day on April 17 with local food vendors, presentations from fair trade food companies, sustainability exhibits, a tree planting, and much more. Events will begin at 10 a.m. on the Quadrangle and other sites on the Kingston campus.

The events have been planned by the student group Student Action for Sustainability and the URI Office of Sustainability.

One feature of the celebration will be The Lexicon of Sustainability, a crowd-sourced environmental project of posters designed to teach people the language of sustainability through magnificently simple yet engaging artwork and photography. The Town of South Kingstown requested that staff members from the Office of Sustainability create a ‘pop-up show,’ in which the posters are displayed to an audience with a sustainable theme. The posters will be displayed on the Quad during Earth Day, with recycled office supplies as their theme.

The campus community is also encouraged to attend the annual tree planting ceremony at the northeast corner of Roosevelt Hall at 12:45. Participants will join URI Vice President Robert Weygand and Horticulture Professor Brian Maynard in planting a Chinese fringe tree. Students will receive stickers and bags of seeds to plant on their own in return for helping with the planting.

Also starting at 10 a.m. in the 193 Degree Coffee House in the URI Memorial Union, Keith Lemnios will give a presentation on the fair trade coffee business From Bean to Cup: A Coffee Bean’s Journey. Lemnios is CEO of Connecticut-based Sun Coffee Roasters, which recently became the University’s primary coffee supplier. His presentation will highlight his recent trip to Nicaragua and a study of fair wages and worker benefits he made during his time there. He will also serve free samples of his company’s coffee to students who attend.

For more information about the Earth Day activities, visit the URI calendar of events at http://events.uri.edu/event/earth_day_on_the_quad_1505.