On Thursday, April 24, the 15th annual University of New Mexico Sustainability Expo invited the community to visit dozens of booths that promoted efforts to increase sustainability and environmentally-friendly practices.
Ansely Emeanuwa, whose business — Live Flowers by Ansely the Flower Guy — can be found at the Downtown Growers’ Market and the Rail Yards Market on the weekends, said the expo was a rare opportunity for UNM students to have access to locally grown vegetables, herbs and flowers on campus.
“This event is showing students how to give back to the earth, but also seeing it in a different perspective,” Emeanuwa said. “No farmers means no food. No bees means no food. We don’t want to trash up our place.”
First-time Sustainability Expo vendor Chai Chai Love is a locally owned tea company that grows their own chai, functional mushrooms and organic spices, which are infused together in its different teas.
Gurumustuk Khalsa, the founder of Chai Chai Love, grew up in India and has firsthand knowledge of the benefits of chai, as well as the culture surrounding it.
“Chai was a part of all of the community gatherings; we’d brew a big pot of it with the fresh, organic spices,” Khalsa said.
All of Khalsa’s ingredients are ethically sourced and fair trade, he said. The packaging for Chai Chai Love’s products is chiefly made out of paper and other compostable materials.
For Khalsa, the Sustainability Expo provided networking opportunities.
“I don’t normally see all of these things out in one place, so it’s a big boost to have a lot of resources and local organizations or individuals who are doing unique things in the space of the environment and sustainability,” Khalsa shared.
Enchanting Soap Collections is a family business run by Chrystal Trykoski and her mother, Roberta Easter. They make handcrafted, all-organic and plastic-free bath and body products.
Part of the mission of Enchanting Soap Collections is to hire formerly incarcerated women and women living with mental illness and addiction.
On sale at the Sustainability Expo were soaps with fragrances like New Mexico blue corn, biscochito and margarita. This was Enchanting Soap Collections’ second year at the Expo.
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Trykoski also spoke about the Expo’s ability to bring small business owners together.
“We like to infuse a lot of plant matter into our products, and if I can connect with a farmer to get that plant matter — bonus,” Trykoski said.
The UNM Lobo Closet hosted a clothing drive and swap. Isa Jaramillo, a fourth-year UNM student minoring in Sustainability Studies, began the club as her capstone project, has since gotten it chartered, and is now its president.
“It’s really special to have a community where you can depend on each other and know that ‘my neighbor cares about the environment,’ which seems like such a simple idea, but not everybody has awareness of what’s going on,” Jaramillo shared.
People did not have to provide clothes in order to take something, but the donation of new and gently used clothes was highly encouraged.
The UNM Lobo Closet is currently applying for a space within the Student Union Building’s Lobo Lair. They have a donation box in the Global Education Office and are working on placing a second one in the Student Activities Center.
“It’s so important to know how to take care of what we already have, because this is all we have. The smallest differences make such a huge impact,” Jaramillo said. “That’s one of the most special things about sustainability: It doesn’t have to be a huge change in your life; it’s literally just like, ‘Let me swap out my clothes instead of throwing them out.’”
Project Feed the Hood is a food justice organization centered around a green space model, meaning that it shows what empty land could be. It functions as a community garden, pollinator corridor and a teaching site through Project Feed the Hood’s summer internship program.
Lead food justice organizer Zia Martinez said the organization has a holistic mission. It is involved in many initiatives across Albuquerque, including Bernalillo County’s Alleyway Activation Project, which aims to clean up and beautify Bernalillo’s alleyways. Project Feed the Hood also works with schools across Albuquerque to develop and maintain school gardens.
“Sustainability is reciprocity with everything and everybody. It’s humanizing all of our resources and all of our living beings. It’s investing in our students, investing in our foundations: soil, housing, streets. That is going to create this level playing field,” Martinez said. “Sustainability is making sure that we’re giving back just as much as we’re taking — if not giving back more.”
Elijah Ritch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
