Welcome to The University of Mississippi’s Earth Month

The UM Office of Sustainability is extending its previous Green Week celebration to the entire month of April. April at UM will be filled with events, education, and outreach in alignment with its mission statement:

“Earth Month strives to expand awareness of local and global environmental issues, increase participation in sustainable behaviors, and promote appreciation of our natural resources through educational and empowering programming. By involving a broad audience, Earth Month endeavors to improve our collective conscience regarding better resource stewardship, environmental, and social sustainability.”

About Earth Month at the University of Mississippi

The original Earth Day celebration was held in 1970 with the goal of making systematic changes in favor of environmental protection. According to EarthDay.org, Earth Day is celebrated today in 190 countries around the world, and 1 billion participants each year. This April 22nd will mark the 53rd Earth Day celebration.

The Earth Day movement has been student-focused since the beginning. In fact, the date of April 22nd was chosen because it falls between spring break and final exams, allowing for maximum student participation. In the past decades, many schools and universities have created annual events to celebrate Earth Day. The University of Mississippi Office of Sustainability chose the week of April 22nd to celebrate the first-ever Green Week in 2009. Since then, the Office of Sustainability has partnered with community and campus organizations yearly to celebrate Green Week.

This year (2023) Green Week has been extended to the entire month of April. It is the Office of Sustainability’s hope that with an entire month of programming, we will capture the broadest audience possible and encourage larger behavioral changes than ever before. There will still be several events similar to previous Green Weeks, with a few new events and our very first Earth Month competition, which aims to reward participants for sustainable action.

All students, faculty, staff, and members of the Oxford community are welcome and encouraged to participate in all Earth Month activities. If you are interested in getting involved with Earth Month explore the rest of our Earth Month website tab, join our Green Team GroupMe, or email our Project Manager, Kathryn Kidd to learn more.

To learn more about the history of Earth Day, we recommend listening to this podcast by NPR’s Throughline and watching the 2009 documentary Earth Days, which will be screened on the Grove Stage on April 3rd at 5pm. See the full Earth Month calendar for more information.