ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) invited the Ithaca community to enjoy a day of outdoor fun at Ithaca Children’s Garden on Saturday, April 27. The free event showcased the building and installing of ten eco-friendly sustainable planters for the garden, which will reside at the main entrance and within Ithaca Children’s Garden.
During the Build Day, over 40 participants witnessed multiple engineering demonstrations (featuring a wind turbine, a pico-hydro turbine, and more) led by different ESW Cornell sub-teams. The live demonstrations served as an opportunity to educate and encourage the community to learn more about renewable energy. The freezing cold and rain did not deter the students and participants of the event from achieving their main goal.
“Our overarching goal with Build Day is to have a positive impact on the garden and community with the planter boxes we build on Build Day,” Trisha Ray, Cornell Build Day Project Lead explained. We hope that our team’s passion for sustainability and engineering will help bring awareness to different issues such as climate change during the Build Day.”
Free lunch was provided to the participants of the Build Day. The Build Day was also listed as one of the events for People’s Climate Week, a week of action at Cornell focused on humanizing the fight against climate change.
Local and state ESW chapters host similar events with students and young professionals nationwide each year to introduce youth to sustainable living through the Build Day programs. Build Day is a new initiative created by Engineers for a Sustainable World that creates local sustainable change by bringing together local technical expertise and community power. Regular citizens, community leaders and engineers will work together to design, educate and build a sustainable solution to a locally pressing issue such as stable food production, clean and equal water access and urban rehabilitation.