Villanova University Celebrates Earth Week

Put Waste In Its Place: Stewardship, Circularity, and Care for Our Common Home in Service of the Common Good with Al Motel

SICJS Speaker Event Featuring AI Motel (Waste & Recycling Manager at Villanova)
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Falvey Library Speakers' Corner

Volunteer Day in the Meadow

Time: Anytime between 1:00-4:00pm  
Location: Meet in the parking lot near the pond by Picotte Hall (which happens to be near the new Community Garden).

Join us Tuesday, April 14th, anytime between 1-4 for an invasive plant removal project (partnering with the grounds department) as we better our West Campus Meadow area. Come learn about the impact of invasive species on the meadow and help us prep for a new educational/fitness trail installation. We’ll be walking south from there toward the meadow area and removing Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) which has established dense thickets near the stream. Other culprits include celandine, grasses, garlic mustard and the like. Please bring gloves, water and an adventurous spirit. Classes are welcome. Email Kimberli Scott if you have any questions or want to let us know you’re coming

Beginner Bird Walk

Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: Meet at Rosie's Cafe
Hosted by: Falvey Library

Join a Valley Forge Audubon Society guide to learn more about bird watching, local bird species and citizen science tools like Merlin!

Earth Day of Service: Volunteer at the new Campus Garden

Time: 

• 10:30am-12:00pm
• 12:00pm-1:30pm
• 1:30pm-3:00pm

Register for one, two, or all three.

Location: The campus garden is located on West Campus behind the tennis courts. It is near Picotte Hall and next to the old barn. Look for the large pond and head into parking lot. You'll see us!

Registration Form (4/19)

*Note that there is another Day of Service on 4/26 with a separate registration form.

Join us for an Earth Day of Service at Villanova’s new community garden. Help care for and enhance this shared space through hands-on activities such as planting, weeding, and mulching (tasks will be assigned based on current garden needs). This is a great opportunity to get outside, connect with others, and contribute to a growing campus resource rooted in sustainability and care for creation. No prior experience needed—all are welcome! Wear closed toe shoes, comfortable clothing you don't mind getting dirty, sunscreen, and bring water!

Tree Tour on Campus

Time: 12:00pm
Location: Meeting at Corr steps facing Campus Green
Hosted by: Hugh Weldon, Villanova's Horticultural Supervisor
No RSVP is required—feel free to join us—but to help us plan and if you'd like to receive updates in case of inclement weather, you can share your contact information with us: Tree Tour RSVP Form
Rain Date: Monday, April 27th at 12:00pm.

Come celebrate the beauty of spring with a guided Tree Tour through Villanova’s vibrant campus! As blossoms bloom and leaves return, this walk will offer a refreshing way to explore the natural wonders that surround us every day. You’ll learn fascinating facts about some of Villanova’s most unique and historic trees while enjoying the sights, scents, and sounds of the season. Don’t miss this chance to slow down, look up and reconnect with nature in full bloom!

LePage Center: What's at Stake with the Energy Crisis?

Time: 6:00-7:15pm EST
Location: Virtual Webinar

Description: In 2026, humanity’s energy needs—and access—are changing day by day. The world continues to cope with global demands on a limited oil market, which have been particularly challenged by recent restrictions on oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Our modern lifestyles, including the rise of AI technologies, demand an unprecedented power supply. At the same time, advances in renewable energy offer possibilities of a post-fossil fuel future. How might we compare these times to other moments of industrial and geopolitical upheaval?

Join us for a virtual discussion on the energy crisis in context. We’ll compare today’s issues with the 1973 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries oil shock, including their similarities, lessons and downstream effects—and where renewables can create their own history. Featuring: - Robert Lifset, PhD, University of Oklahoma - Julie Cohn, PhD, Rice University - Tyler Priest, PhD, University of Iowa This event will be moderated by Associate Professor of History Andrew B. Liu, PhD.

Adopt a Succulent @ Falvey!

Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Location: Outside front of Falvey Library

Falvey Library will be hosting an “Adopt A Succulent” event on the first floor from 12-2pm (or until supplies last) in honor of Earth Week. Everyone who participates will be able to pot a succulent of their choice and take their new plant home! A giveaway for a decorated, larger planter with multiple pre-potted succulents will also take place. To enter, you must show proof of following the Falvey Library Instagram account (@villanovalibrary) at the event and we will enter your name in the raffle. We hope to see you there!

BioBlitz

Led by the Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship (CBEST).

Time: 1:00pm
Location: Please meet at the pond across from Picotte Hall.

A bioblitz is a communal effort to record as many species within a designated location and time as possible. We will be using iNaturalist app for the Villanova Meadow Biodiversity Project. We will help you download the iNaturalist app if you don’t have it.

Paper Ornament Workshop

Time: 4:00pm
Location: FreeStore (Falvey Basement)
Hosted by: Patricia Rutter

A hands-on sustainability workshop that transforms everyday materials into something meaningful. Using repurposed book pages, maps, and paper, participants will create beautiful honeycomb ornaments - turning flat materials into unique three-dimensional designs. This experience highlights creativity, resourcefulness and the power of giving new life to materials that might otherwise be discarded.

Sustainability Fair

Join our largest and most iconic event of the week featuring vendors, activities, research presentations, free food, arts and crafts and various giveaways!

Time: 10:30am-2:00pm
Location: Oreo/Connelly Plaza

Earth Day Mass

Time: 12:05pm
Location: Corr Chapel

Villanova’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Rev. John Abubakar, OSA, PhD, will be presiding over Earth Day Mass.

Keynote Address - Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation

Time: Book siging at 5:00pm. Talk begins at 5:30pm
Location: Driscoll 132

Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation is our keynote speaker. The title of her talk is "Resilient Roots: Sustaining Gullah/Geechee Culturally & Environmentally" and it will focus on how the Gullah/Geechee Nation centers cultural heritage continuation in their sustainability and adaptation. Queen Quet will provide examples of a wide array of methods that help engage community members and supporters to work to protect the coast while valuing traditional ecological knowledge as well as mainstream science.

Sunshine Through Glass Shards: Cyanotype Printing

Time: 12:30-2:00pm
Location: Campus Garden (West campus by Picotte Hall, Dundale, and pond). 
Hosted by: Dr Mary-Angela Papalaskari

Registration Form

Fragments is a collaborative art project that uses shards of glass collected after the 2020 Philadelphia protests to catalyze community dialogue and reflection on justice and healing. In this workshop, participants will use these glass fragments to design cyanotype prints at Villanova’s new sustainability garden. Cyanotype is a historic photographic process that creates striking blue-toned images using sunlight. After a brief introduction, you’ll compose your own design and take home a printed cyanotype card.

Wildcat Thrift

Time: 12:00-3:00pm
Location: Oreo & Connelly Plaza
Hosted by: the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

Wildcat Thrift is Villanova’s once-a-semester pop-up thrift store. Organizations and individuals will have tables set up with second hand items for purchase. Support a circular economy and join us for sustainable shopping. The planet can't afford fast fashion. 

Participate as a vendor: Register your table

• Purchase a table;
• You keep the profits;
• Encourage group participation: Gather friends to create tables together;
• Unsold clothes can be collected for donation by us. 

Bowl'd & Beyond: A Sustainable Picnic with Dining Services at the Oreo

Time: 11:00am-2:30pm (or while supplies last)
Location: Oreo

Celebrate Earth Week with a feel-good meal. Order ahead from the Bowl’d station on Grubhub, then grab your bowl at the VDS cart and relax in our pop-up picnic area or take it with you on the go. Feel free to shop the Wildcat Thrift Event happening at the same time!

Earth Day of Service: Volunteer at the new Campus Garden

Time: 

• 10:30am-12:00pm
• 12:00pm-1:30pm
• 1:30pm-3:00pm

Register for one, two, or all three.

Location: The campus garden is located on West Campus behind the tennis courts. It is near Picotte Hall and next to the old barn. Look for the large pond and head into parking lot. You'll see us!

Registration Form (4/26)

Join us for an Earth Day of Service at Villanova’s new community garden. Help care for and enhance this shared space through hands-on activities such as planting, weeding, and mulching (tasks will be assigned based on current garden needs). This is a great opportunity to get outside, connect with others, and contribute to a growing campus resource rooted in sustainability and care for creation. No prior experience needed—all are welcome! Wear closed toe shoes, comfortable clothing you don't mind getting dirty, sunscreen, and bring water!

The Philadelphia Theatre Research Symposium

Time: 8:30am-5:30pm
Location: John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

Villanova Theatre is partnering with Villanova University’s Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice, and Sustainability to make this symposium possible. This year’s theme revolves around the connection between theatre and environmental sustainability. In 2024, Extinction Rebellion interrupted a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People on Broadway with the message that there can be “no theatre on a dead planet”, motivating questions concerning the theatre’s role in environmental sustainability. How has theatre and performance responded to climate change? What methods has the theatre industry used to provoke thought about this important topic, and how has it modeled change?  

This year’s keynote is Pulitzer Prize-finalist Lisa D’Amour, whose work has often focused on the theatre’s role in both social and physical environments. Her 2011 performance installation How to Build A Forest, co-created by Katie Pearl, was both a response to the deforestation caused by Hurricane Sandy and a look at how the physical materiality of theatre-making interacts with the environment. 

Learn more about the event.

Plant Sale with CBEST

Time: 10:00am-2:00pm
Location: Campus Greenhouse