Upcoming events and activities

VCU Green Games Volunteer Interest Session

Let's slam dunk for VCU Sustainability!

We're inviting students, faculty, and staff to an important open house presentation about a unique volunteer opportunity, the 2025 Green Games at VCU. This initiative aligns directly with VCU’s commitment to sustainability, and we’d love your help in sharing this opportunity with your group.

What are the Green Games?

The Green Games are two VCU basketball games in early 2025. These hands-on experiences aim to maximize recycling, composting, and reduce waste—bringing us one step closer to a zero-waste campus. You can read more about Green Games at this link when the University of Richmond won First Place in the National Campus Race to Zero Waste Competition!

Stop by VCU Sustainability at 930 W Grace Street for a brief presentation any time from 11am-2pm on November 20th, 21st, or 22nd. Walk-ins welcome, no registration needed.

If you have any questions or need additional details, feel free to reach out. We look forward to seeing you there and working together to make VCU a leader in campus sustainability!

Help VCU Basketball go Black, Gold and GREEN!

Volunteer

• The Urban Gardens and Community Forestry Program offers weekly volunteer opportunities at the Monroe Park Campus Learning Garden and Amelia Street School, as well as monthly volunteer opportunities at our MCV Campus Community Garden. Tasks include weeding, watering, harvesting, planting, maintaining trees and perennial plants, and occasionally assisting with small-scale building projects. Eligible VCU employees, with their supervisor’s approval, can use their community service leave to volunteer. To learn more, email gardens@vcu.edu.
• The VCU Free Store periodically provides volunteer opportunities for students, faculty and staff to help with processing and organizing inventory as well as assisting with donation drives. To learn more, email freestore@vcu.edu.
• HandsOn Greater Richmond offers a variety of opportunities to participate in volunteer events and activities throughout the year in the Richmond area. Visit the HandsOn Greater Richmond website to search for opportunities related to sustainability and other topics.

Donate

• The VCU Ram Pantry, which ensures that VCU students in need have access to nutritious food on campus, invites individuals to contribute in various ways. For opportunities to donate, visit the Ram Pantry website.
• The VCU Free Store relies on donations from the VCU and Richmond communities to operate. Donate your gently-used goods. Visit the Free Store page for a list of items we do and do not accept and our hours of operation.
• The Urban Gardens and Community Forestry Programs accept building and gardening tools and supplies that will help us complete our work in the garden and community. To donate, email gardens@vcu.edu.
• We are hosting two compostable materials collection sites for the Richmond Compost Initiative pilot program — one at each of our campus gardens. Check out the program website to learn more about what you can and cannot donate, and to view a map of all the collection sites around the city.

VCU Sustainability student internship program

VCU Sustainability offers fall, spring and summer paid internship opportunities, including Federal Work Study opportunities, for students interested in contributing to sustainability initiatives at the university. Learn more on the internship page.

Student groups

These VCU organizations are dedicated to promoting environmental awareness, fostering sustainable practices and driving positive change in our community. Joining these groups offers an exciting opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, participate in impactful initiatives, and collectively work towards building a greener and more sustainable future. Visit the groups page on Rams Connect for more information. 

• Clean at VCU cleans areas around campus and in Richmond, provides volunteer service opportunities for students, and fosters positive environmental habits.
• Eco Fashion promotes sustainable fashion by teaching students different ways to create a more sustainable wardrobe. They also bring awareness to how clothes have an impact on the global environment and on people around the world.
• GIVE at VCU is a community of students interested in entrepreneurship, sustainability, adventure and travel. They work on asset-based, environmentally-minded projects in the Richmond community and enjoy exploring the city.
• Green Action! is a student-led organization that helps local and global communities become greener through social, economic, political and cultural change.
• Sustainable Pharmacy Project is a student led and founded organization. Their mission is to educate future and current healthcare providers on the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals in order to encourage positive change for climate action and improved patient outcomes.
• VCU Veg Club is an inclusive organization aiming to provide a supportive community for vegan, vegetarian and veg-curious students while also bringing more awareness about the benefits of plant-based eating to campus.

Campus engagement

• Environmental Humanities Lab is a convening ground-centering humanistic inquiry in a broader field of transdisciplinary environmental scholarship. They understand environmental humanities as an interdisciplinary mode of inquiry that seeks to understand, interpret and diagnose how social and cultural relationships with the natural world are mediated by texts, media, art, history and embodied experience. 
• Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environment provides educational opportunities that supplement and build upon the current sustainable energy and environment curriculum at VCU, such as courses, guest lectures, workshops, research projects and mentorship. 
• VCU Rice Rivers Center supports scholarship and student instruction across diverse disciplines, including water resources, climate science, wildlife conservation and wetlands restoration. VCU Rice Rivers facilities can be reserved for departmental retreats, classes, academic meetings and other professional, agency or NGO events that are consistent with VCU’s mission. 
• The Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling Program is a public-private and nonprofit collaborative effort whose focus is the restoration of oyster populations in the Chesapeake Bay. The program takes shells destined for the trash and returns them to restoration areas in the Piankatank River. Visit their website to learn about volunteering, donating or utilizing their oyster shell drop off locations.