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Students explore Transplanted’s roaming greenhouse.

The Suffolk Environmental Club and the Suffolk Sustainability Committee held an Earth Day Fair on April 19, giving students an opportunity to learn about sustainability and connect with local sustainable businesses. 

The fair aims to be educational for students and inform them of the opportunities available for them to be involved in sustainability efforts, according to Logan Casey, a Suffolk senior who collaborated with Diana Gastelum, President of SEC to orchestrate this event. 

“The big thing about this event is to help students get more information about events and opportunities for them to get involved in revolving environmental work,” Casey said. 

Gastelum added that she wants Suffolk students to know that there are campus sustainability efforts. 

“I think one of the major things that I want students to walk away with is kind of learning more about sustainability here at the university, knowing that we are doing our part and trying to advocate and continue helping the community be more environmentally conscious,” Gastelum said. 

Gastelum said that the club knew they had to orchestrate an exceptional event this year since the annual in-person event had been postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19. 

“Freshman year is when I was first introduced to the entire Earth Day fair,” Gastelum said. “It is an annual thing, but due to the pandemic, it didn’t happen [recently]. So this is the first event since COVID that we’re doing this back on campus.” 

Transplanted, a roaming greenhouse, was one of the local businesses that partnered with SEC and SSC to put on the event. According to their website, their vision is to “transform people’s lives through the power of plants.” The business is focused on raising money for local charities. 

“We are super excited to celebrate Earth week with you guys [Suffolk University],” said Valerie O’Reilly, director of Transplanted. “We really like to make nature a part of our lives, and so we do that by bringing plants into our living space. By doing so, it really does increase happiness, it increases productivity.” 

Transplanted runs with a biophilic design, according to O’Reilly, which means they implement plants into the design of their workplace in order to increase happiness and productivity. 

“We try to bring nature inside, to people in the city, where you really wouldn’t see a lot of nature, especially in this concrete jungle,” said O’Reilly.

Students were able to pick up a plethora of freebies at the fair, including plants and reusable straws. This incentivized students to want to learn more about campus sustainability efforts. 

“I love events like these because I feel like it’s an opportunity for students to not only gain awareness but to have a fun little treat to take home,” said Hannah Mitchell, a Suffolk student. 

Follow Grace on twitter @EGraceDreher