What are your favorite sustainability topics? What are you working on?

I am passionate about preserving and creating wildlife habitat and I am excited to be working on a new NWF resource guide to Campus Habitats highlighting campuses who are already doing great work about creating wildlife habitat and green spaces on their campuses to serve as best practice case studies and inspiration for other campuses to get on board!

My passion involves analyzing how best to integrate sustainability initiatives into business organizations and communities. As a Clean Energy Solutions Fellow I am working on my project called No Light Left Behind, a feasibility study assessing the potential for implementation of solar panels into Bryant University's outdoor lighting systems. 

I am super in to waste reduction! Plastic water bottles are my worst enemy and I am working on getting my floor to commit to using reusable ones. Also, I am really big on environmental communication, so I am working with my school's Center for Sustainability to promote what the office does and just how sustainable Luther College is to all classes, especially incoming freshmen.

I am interested in Clean Energy initiatives, while finding equitable access to various renewable forms for low-income, communities of color. Currently I am working on the Clean Energy Summit Campaign with Sierra Student Coalition to help students go beyond coal and transtion their schools to a more eco-friendly energy source. My passion to indulge more into environmental and energy policy is helping me with this initiative and I'm looking forward to helping kick this campaign off soon! 

meghanbarker:
I am super in to waste reduction! Plastic water bottles are my worst enemy and I am working on getting my floor to commit to using reusable ones. Also, I am really big on environmental communication, so I am working with my school's Center for Sustainability to promote what the office does and just how sustainable Luther College is to all classes, especially incoming freshmen.

Hey Meghan,

I am also very passionate about waste reduction and recycling. I have been the Recycling Program Coordinator at LIU Post for the last 4 years. I've been the Sustainability Coordinator for the last 2, with one of my biggest endeavors being communicating all of the sustainability initiatives we are doing.

If you'd like, check out the campus sustainability blog I created....theliucommpost.com

I found Wordpress extremely user-friendly and it's been a faster way for me to communicate our progress as it is happening.

I'm working on bringing sustainable practices into the consciousnes of the main student body, through a campus-wide certification program that recognizes student organizations that behave responsibly through their events and operations, and awards them with a 'Silver Leaf' thereafter. Really excited to see the stuff y'all are doing!

Rachit, 

That sounds like a great program! I would encourage you to create an EcoLeader project profile for it - I know I would be interested in tracking it's progress and I'm sure others would like to learn how they could institute something similar at their institution. Keep up the great work!

Courtney

Hi Rachit,
Love your idea about the silver leaf award. Would you mind share how you put this into motion.

Hey Colleen!

Thanks so much! Well, it was basically through a collaboration with our Office of Waste Management and our Office of Space Management (which handles the event spaces). The program is still in the Beta phase, as we've started rolling it out to a few student organizations. I'll put in more details on my project profile page so I can share it with everyone and would then love for y'alls feedback! 

Let me know what you think once I put up the project profile!

Rachit

Hi Rachit!

Can't wait this sounds like something that would get alot of involvement at Catawba.  Thanks for shareing.
Have a great weekend.