You can find your cardinal and gold foam fingers and tee shirts at Iowa State University\’s fair booth, and learn to live green. ISU Marketing Director Carole Custer says, \”This year our Iowa State University booth is all about sustainability.\”

During the fair, Custer and a group of volunteers are showing fairgoers what the university is doing to be sustainable. You can check out a solar car a group of thirty students designed. She says, \”This is the solar car that raced in the national race just a few weeks ago.\”

One of the school\’s four electric vehicles is also on display. She says, \”We find we save thousands of dollars in gasoline and all we do is plug it in with an electric cord.\”

Custer says people are interested in their efforts.

What\’s impressed me the most is people from all ages are interested in sustainability

She says fairgoers will also see initiatives like a solar trash compactor. It minimizes trash collection. And, a tower of trays represents the trayless dining program in the residence halls. She says, \”We have found it saves tons and tons of food by not having trays.\”

The exhibit also features a tree, symbolizing the tree recycling program. Custer says, \”That\’s where we reuse all of the wood from fallen trees that have to be removed and then we use the lumber for woodworking projects on campus and furniture as well as mulch for campus use.\”

The booth is also interactive. You can write down how you\’re living green on the wall of inspiration. Custer says, \”All kinds of great suggestions as well as how people are living green themselves. Here\’s an interesting one, \’I plowed up an acre of lawn and planted a prairie.\”

She says the wall is meant to inspire people to take their own sustainable steps. She says, \”Part of what we do as an educational institution is to prompt people to think.\”

You\’ll find Iowa State University\’s booth in the northeast corner of the Varied Industries Building. Volunteers are also handing out free football posters and tattoos.