Earth Month is a time for everyone to come together for a common cause — a sustainable planet.

April 22 marks the 56th anniversary of Earth Day. At App State, Mountaineers celebrate Earth Day every day through the university’s ongoing commitment to sustainability. The Sustainability and Energy Management team, along with many other campus community members, has planned several events throughout the month of April for Mountaineers to get involved in campus and community sustainability efforts. Mark your calendar, bring a friend and help make our world a greener, cleaner place for all.

2026 Events

• April 3, 2026

  Adopt a Stream Clean Up
  1 - 3 p.m.
  Greenway- Water Treatment Plant Parking (Segment 14 of Hardin Creek)

  Event Link →

  Volunteers are welcome to join Sustainability and Energy Management on the Greenway for our Adopt-a-Stream Clean Up. Pick up trash and help remove waste from our waters to create a healthy ecosystem for people and animals alike to enjoy.

• April 8, 2026

  Wellness in Urban Settings
  2 p.m.
  Zoom

  Event Link →

  Substantial evidence shows a strong link between student well-being and academic success, and outdoor engagement is emerging as a powerful strategy for improving both. This webinar highlights collaborative approaches across the UNC System that connect students to nature, support diverse student experiences, and strengthen access to research opportunities.

• April 8, 2026

  The Compost Diaries: Thunderhill Compost Workshop
  5 - 7 p.m.
  Thunderhill Residence Hall (residents only)

  Event Link →

  In partnership with University Housing, Sustainability and Energy Management is offering a building-wide composting workshop for the residents of Thunderhill. Students will have the opportunity to learn more about composting, App State’s composting facility, and participate in a few upcycling workshop activities. If you are interested in bringing this event to your resident hall, please contact Lanie Karstrom at [email protected].

• April 8, 2026

  “Environment and Sustainability” with Dr. Ozzie Ostwalt and Dr. Kirstin Waldkoenig
  5:30 p.m.
  Anne Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 114

  Event Link →

  Dr. Conrad (Ozzie) Ostwalt, professor of religious studies, studies the relationship between religion, culture, and society. Most recently, his interests have been focused on popular culture, and his writing and teaching have engaged movies, popular and classic literature, art, and music. Dr. Ostwalt has authored four books, including Secular Steeples: Popular Culture and the Religious Imagination (Trinity International Press, 2003) and After Eden: The Secularization of American Space in the Fiction of Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser (Bucknell University Press, 1990). The title of his talk for this series is “Spiritual Ecology and the Nonhuman World”.

  Dr. Kirstin Waldkoenig, assistant professor of philosophy, specializes in the philosophical traditions of environmental, feminist, and indigenous thought. Her publications include “Resisting Anthropocentrism with Barred Owls,” “The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, K.P. Harden, 2021,” co-authored with Asher Brandon Caplan, and “Can Moral Enhancement Address Our Environmental Crisis? A Call for Collective Virtue-Oriented Action,” co-authored with Brooke Burns, Rebekah Sinclair, and Nicolae Morar. The title of Dr. Waldkoenig's talk for this series is “Reestablishing Responsible Relationships with Nonhuman Others.”

• April 9, 2026

  New River Symposium
  5 p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union, Parkway Ballroom, 263 Locust Street, Boone, NC 28608

  Event Link →

  The New River Symposium is an eclectic conference and gathering of the New River watershed, open to anyone with interest in the New River. The 2026 symposium theme is resilience in the New River watershed. We want to highlight themes of resilience and the intersections with ecology, community and economy.

  Anthropologists, artists, teachers, students, historians, researchers, community leaders, government officials, stewards, river keepers, planners, boaters, birders, anglers, and friends from up and down the New are all welcome.

• April 11, 2026

  Event Link →

  Zero Waste Baseball
  3 p.m.
  Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium

  Building on the zero-waste initiatives in basketball and football, App State is bringing the effort to baseball! Join our Sustainability Ambassadors as we hand-sort waste into recycling and compost to minimize landfill impact. If you're attending, stop by our table for zero-waste games, swag, and learn more about sustainability efforts. You’ll also see our zero-waste stations, now featuring compost options.

• April 12, 2026

  Earth Month Cook-in: Planet on a Plate
  5:30 p.m.
  Zoom (RSVP on the link to receive the Zoom registration link)

  Event Link →

  The food: We'll be making delicious recipes using easy-to-find, inexpensive ingredients. (We will email you the ingredient and equipment list in advance so you can cook right along with us!)

  The science: Learn sustainable cooking techniques, tools, and tricks. Plus, log on to our live dashboard during the class to see real-time power data from the SPICE Lab's appliances, proving the real-world impact of energy-efficient cooking!

  The fun: Expect laughs, "gee whiz" moments of discovery, and yummy tastes. Stick around after the 1-hour class to eat "together" on Zoom, ask questions, and maybe even catch a fun kitchen physics demo.

• April 13, 2026

  Caring for the Earth, Caring for You: Eco-Anxiety Workshop
  5 p.m.
  Durham Park

  Register Here →

  "Caring for the Earth, Caring for You" is an eco-anxiety-based workshop hosted by Heidi Campbell and Natalie Jester on behalf of the App State Counseling Center. During this hands-on workshop, students will learn about the concept of eco-anxiety and explore how it affects individuals and communities in different ways. This workshop will be culturally informed, and through the information, activities, and resources provided, students will leave with a greater awareness and understanding of eco-anxiety, including its broader societal impacts. Students will also gain access to helpful tools and resources to support their well-being. Reservations are limited to 12.

• April 14, 2026

  Free Store Road Show
  11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union, Table 11

  Event Link →

  Donate your old clothes and pick up some new things for your closet! The Free Store hits Plemmons Student Union to celebrate Earth Month. Help divert landfill waste and learn how donating your old clothes helps the environment and your community. Sponsored by Sustainability and Energy Management.

• April 14, 2026

  Exploring Clean Hydrogen-based Long Duration Energy Storage at App State
  2 p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union Room 417 Virtual event with group watch opportunity (Zoom option)

  Event Link →

  Based in Colorado, the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for energy systems. The laboratory focuses on advancing energy security and reliability through the integration of existing technologies and the development of innovative solutions that support economic growth and U.S. competitiveness. NLR recently partnered with Appalachian State University to demonstrate a hydrogen-based long-duration energy storage (LDES) system capable of providing up to 72 hours of backup power and supporting peak shaving. The demonstration focused on the Holmes Convocation Center and the Central Dining Hall, both of which serve critical functions as emergency shelter and relief facilities during and after disasters, including Hurricane Helene in 2024. Researchers from NLR will present findings on system performance based and assess the feasibility of deploying hydrogen-based LDES systems.

• April 17, 2026

  Zero Waste Staff Appreciation
  1 - 3 p.m.
  Holmes Convocation Center

  Event Link →

  Staff from Sustainability and Energy Management will be working alongside App State’s Office of Human Resources to host this year's staff appreciation event as a zero-waste program. Interact with Sustainability and Energy Management staff and learn more about composting on campus.

• April 17, 2026

  Rockin’ Roots
  4:30 - 7:30 p.m.
  Roots Garden on Howard Street

  Event Link →

  What's better than an evening of music in the garden? Enjoy a free concert celebrating our campus gardens and Earth Month. It’ll be a fun night of live music, interactive activities, and information from campus environmental groups. Bring a blanket, grab a friend, and relax on the Roots Garden lawn. Sponsored by Sustainability and Energy Management.

• April 17, 2026

  Boone Clean Up Day
  9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
  Town of Boone Public Works Center, 321 E King St., Boone, NC

  Event Link →

  Join employees from the Town of Boone Public Works Center to beautify the community! Gloves, trash bags, and safety vests provided. Contact Shanon Isaacs, [email protected] for more information.

• April 17, 2026

  2025-26 Climate Stories Showcase
  6 p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union Solarium

  Event Link →

  We’re trying out a new approach for this year’s showcase. Rather than hosting an exhibition as we have in the past, this year the showcase will be a pop-up festival-style tabling event taking place in the Plemmons Student Union Solarium the evening of Friday, April 17. Featuring presentations of student visual projects set up on tables, along with performances on the main stage of the solarium, the showcase will focus on climate-themed creative projects made in the context of course-based learning experiences during the 2025-2026 academic year.

• April 17, 2026

  ARTtalk: Dear Body of Water
  5 p.m.
  Turchin Center for the Visual Arts Lecture Hall

  Event Link →

  Gretchen Ernster Henderson is a body of water, an intermedia artist, and the Spence L. Wilson Distinguished Professor in Humanities at Rhodes College near the Mississippi River in Memphis, TN. Her fifth book, Life in the Tar Seeps: A Spiraling Ecology from a Dying Sea (Trinity University Press 2023), has been seeping from deserts of the West into intermedia publications, exhibitions, performances, and field practices, including the participatory prompt of Dear Body of Water (with the University of Arizona Poetry Center, Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center, and national coalition of Poets for Science): inviting people to share their relationships with bodies of water. Through WaterWays, she cultivates community-engaged repertoires that blend restoring and restoring watersheds. Gretchen is grateful for recent artist fellowships from Fallingwater, Lucas Artist Program at Montalvo Arts Center, the University of Wyoming’s Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts, and Leopold Writing Program. In 2025-2026, she is the Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Fellow at Harvard University. Recent work has appeared in Ecotone, Brevity, Arnoldia, Orion, Landscape Architecture Plus/LA+, TSLL, and Storied Deserts: Reimagining Global Arid Lands. Gretchen is interested in acoustic ecologies and communal practices that sound gaps of cultural and institutional histories to facilitate participatory spaces for exchanging ways of knowing to collectively support our human and more-than-human world. Upstream and downstream, she is grateful to continually learn from and with bodies of water: the lifeblood of our shared planetary home.

• April 18, 2026

  Community Engaged Leadership: Day of Service
  9 a.m. - 2.p.m.
  Plemmons Student Union, Room 138

  Event Link →

  Community Engaged Leadership (CEL) sponsors a monthly opportunity for service, reflection, and education. During this one-day event, participants are urged to consider their impact and greater role in the world around them. All volunteer work directly benefits our local communities, with students providing services in a variety of ways, from river and trail cleanups to sorting food supplies at one of our local food pantries. Students working with Sustainability and Energy Management for CEL’s Day of Service will engage in recycling efforts surrounding tailgate for the Spring “Battle at the Rock” Zero Waste Football game.

• April 19, 2026

  Zero Waste Football
  9 a.m. - noon
  Kidd Brewer Stadium, Echota Entrance

  Event Link →

  Help us make The Battle At the Rock football game Zero Waste. We will be hand-sorting waste from the game into trash, recycling, and compost with our staff and volunteers to divert as much from the landfill as possible. Sponsored by Sustainability and Energy Management.

• April 22, 2026

  Earth Day Expo
  11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
  Sanford Mall

  Event Link →

  Explore sustainable organizations on and off campus and connect with groups representing each of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Students can take on a challenge from Sustainability and Energy Management—learn about at least 10 of the 17 goals to earn a free, limited-edition Earth Day T-shirt! Sponsored by Sustainability and Energy Management.

• April 22, 23, 24, 2026

  Campus Visit by Musician & Climate Storyteller Etienne Charles

  Wednesday, April 22: 2:00 - 2:50 p.m session in Plemmons Student Union, Room 137 ABC Grandfather Mountain Ballroom (class visits; also open to all)

  Thursday, April 23: 9:30-10:45 AM session in Plemmons Student Union, Room 420 Parkway Ballroom (class visits; also open to all)

  Friday, April 24: Hayes School of Music class visits, evening performance at Schaefer Center (tickets required)

  During his time in Boone, Etienne Charles will speak with classes across the university and connect with our community. His visit will culminate in a performance of his latest composition, Earth Tones, a multimedia jazz performance featuring original compositions that draw attention to people and regions that are, or soon will be, significantly affected by climate change. Stay tuned for details on the schedule of opportunities to learn about his work using music as a mode for understanding and communicating climate stories.

• April 23, 2026

  Grad Expo/ Regalia Reuse
  10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
  ,Plemmons Student Union, Grandfather Ballroom

  Event Link →

  Stop by the sustainability table at the Grad Expo to learn about our regalia reuse program and take the sustainability graduation pledge with the department.

• April 23, 2026

  Zero Waste Staff Appreciation Event
  1 - 3 p.m.
  Hickory Campus

  Event Link →

  Staff from Sustainability and Energy Management will be working alongside App State’s Office of Human Resources to host this year's staff appreciation event as a zero-waste program. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with Sustainability and Energy Management staff with the chance to learn more about composting on campus.

• April 24, 2026

  Spring Closet Clean-Outs
  10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
  East Campus - Sanford Mall & West Campus - Thunder Hill, Raven Rocks, and Laurel Creek Quad

  Join us for Earth Month with a Spring Closet Cleanout! Bring an item to swap and trade, and view an assortment of clothing items from the Mountaineer Free Store. This is an opportunity for students to update their wardrobes, keep items out of the landfill, and learn about resources available to them through Sustainability and Energy Management. There will be three locations: Sanford Mall, the P3 Courtyard, and upper residential areas including Mountaineer, LLC, and App Heights.

• April 28, 2026

  Free Store Roadshow
  11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
  Sanford Mall or Plemmons Student Union, Table 11 in case of weather

  Event Link →

  Donate your old clothes and pick up some new things for your closet! The Free Store hits Sanford Mall to celebrate Earth Month. Help divert landfill waste and learn how donating your old clothes helps the environment and your community. Sponsored by Sustainability and Energy Management.

• April 28, 2026

  Sustainability Film Series - Hearts of Glass with Panel to Follow
  5:30 p.m.
  Greenbriar Theater - Plemmons Student Union

  Event Link →

  Hearts of Glass follows the tumultuous first 15 months of operation of Vertical Harvest (VH), a multi-story, state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse that grows crops while providing meaningful, competitively-paid jobs for people with disabilities. The film weaves the story of VH’s launch with the personal journeys of several employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Innovation and inclusion create a fertile environment for people and plants to grow.

  VH is a vertical farm on 1/10 of an acre at an elevation of 6,237 feet in Jackson, Wyoming, a mountain town with extreme seasonal fluctuations in weather, population, and demand for goods and services. The employees with disabilities, part of an underestimated, underemployed and vulnerable population, are a vital and visible part of this community-based business.

  Hearts of Glass is an intimate portrait of social entrepreneurship at the intersection of disability rights and sustainable, local food production.

• April 29, 2026

  Waste Wise Wednesday
  11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
  Central Dining

  Play the waste sorting game in Central Dining Hall. As you play, you'll learn which items can be recycled, added to the compost bin, or simply put in the trash. Winners of the game will receive a raffle ticket which will put them in the running for a swag bag filled with merchandise from Sustainability and Energy Management. Pick up free stickers, buttons and reusable items.