As part of Focus the Nation, an event that consumed last Wednesday night and all day Thursday primarily with lectures, students were able to leave the classrooms and still learn about practical solutions for helping the environment.

The Sustainability Fair, which took place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the two day event in the Centenary Room of the Administration building, housed eight exhibits from local and international organizations.

Students seeking ways to incorporate energy efficient products into their lives moved between tables, picking up pamphlets and asking questions of the many representatives standing nearby.

Some had come to earn extra credit for their courses, but even more sought the information provided only because this exhibit offered them the means of learning more about the topic that has been continually discussed across campus, within and outside of the classroom.

“I got really curious about [global warming],” Lee student Jessica Cecillio said. “I just felt really uneducated about it.”

Cecillio said she knew that several students planned on attending lectures only because of the extra credit given by many professors for doing so, but that she was more interested in learning about this significant subject.

“There are so many people who have no idea about this stuff. That’s why when an opportunity comes, you go and learn,” Cecillio said.

Her sentiments were echoed in the reaction of the community towards the event, as several local residents attended the fair along with the students.

At a table showing the negative effects of radon on the environment and the health of homeowners, one local resident questioned the representative at that stand about the ways radon enters the home and what could be done to prevent it, afterwards pointing to diagrams and charts for her two sons to see.

“It’s not a lot of new stuff,” said Allan Gentry.

Gentry set up an exhibit at the fair on behalf of his employer, the Cleveland State Community College. Gentry also works with Habitat for Humanity, through, with whom he helped build the first house in Bradley County to meet Energy Star standards.

The local building company that completed the house in 2006 managed to find the insulation materials and energy efficient windows that Gentry recommended without difficulty.

Most of these insulation methods were developed in the 1960’s and are now easily attainable, and because of this Gentry said what could be considered the theme of the Sustainability Fair, that protecting the environment does not require extreme change, but rather “common sense with common materials that’s just not common practice.”

Cleveland High School put this theme into practice with the creation of a solar-powered bicycle. Created by senior class students who were involved in Cleveland High School’s Lead The Way program, the bike allows a rider to travel great distances at fast speeds with fewer rotations of the pedals, making it a more convenient means of travel than an ordinary bicycle and more energy efficient than a gas-burning automobile.

These and many other unique alternatives to environmentally hazardous energy sources, such as the Green Power Switch company which provides consumers with electricity from environmentally friendly power plants and the use of bio-diesel as an alternative to gasoline provided visitors with diverse, affordable, and practical solutions that benefit the environment.