Students can find new ways to “go green” — from the clothes they wear to the music they listen to — on the Tempe campus today as part of national Campus Sustainability Day.

The celebration will take place on Hayden Lawn and around the Memorial Union, and the events are a collaborative effort by the Undergraduate Student Government’s Green Team group and Students of Arizona Network for Sustainability.

Lauren Kuby, an academic associate for the Global Institute of Sustainability who helped coordinate the event, said student initiative brought the day together.

“Students are the ones who really drove this, and this event is going to show that because students know how to appeal to other students,” she said.

USG Campus Environment Department Director, sustainability junior Natalie Fleming, said it was important to appeal to a wide range of students in planning the event.

“There is more to sustainability than meets the eye,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize how just changing little things in their [daily] lives makes a huge difference.”

Fleming said activities at the event, like an organic fashion show, will show students how easy it is to live sustainably.

“The clothes in the show are fair trade and organically made,” she said. “They are attractive and comfortable, an easy way to live sustainably without changing too much, except for where you shop.”

Band Step’s Junk Funk will serenade students on recycled instruments, including trashcans and their own bodies.

The event will hopefully show how simple it can be to make changes that allow sustainability to fit into students’ daily lifestyles, Fleming said.

Campus Sustainability Day is important because it will demonstrate the importance of individual students making an attempt at sustainable living, she said.

“People sometimes don’t know the power of an individual,” Fleming said.

Kuby agreed with Fleming about the power of an individual, and said it could be as simple as someone eating less meat, which helps lessen people’s carbon footprints.

She said she hopes the day will cause students to become more engaged and energized about sustainable projects.

“I’m hoping students will see they don’t have to take what they know and show the world, although that would be nice,” Kuby said. “They can just take it to their own kitchen table and it will make a difference.”

The cost to host Campus Sustainability Day is estimated to be about $6,000, which Fleming said is fairly cheap. USG provided the funding, most of which is being spent on making a sustainability pledge video.

“Basically, we have a general pledge that we’re asking students who stop by to take and let us film them,” she said. “We’re also asking them to make a more individual commitment to be more ‘green’ or sustainable.

President [Michael] Crow has said he is going to pledge, too.”

Many “green” or sustainability groups will also host their own activities during the day, including TOMS at ASU, a group that encourages students to buy TOMS shoes. For every pair bought, the organization donates a pair of shoes to a child in another country that cannot afford shoes.

Vice President of TOMS at ASU Sarah Atwill, a history junior, said the group plans to have students bring their TOMS shoes to paint and decorate. They can also bring T-shirts and order shoes online at the booth, and the club will provide all the materials for decorating the footwear.

TOMS shoes are sustainable because they are made from vegan material and aren’t produced in sweatshops, Atwill said, which is why she wanted the group to participate in Campus Sustainability Day.

The reason the day is so important is simple, she said.

“If you trash the Earth, you’re not going to be able to experience the beauty of it much longer,” Atwill said.

Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu.