January - Recyclemania
RecycleMania is a ten week contest that challenges colleges and universities across America to promote waste reduction on their campuses. See the RecycleMania commercial
Boston College has been involved with RecycleMaina since 2005. This year, Boston College came in first in the ACC and third in Massachusetts with a cumulative recycling rate of 42 percent! See the RecycleMania website for more competition information and results. Also, check out the Heights article "RecycleMania Comes to BC"
FEBRUARY - NRG GAMES - EVER TO CONSERVE
The campus-wide NRG Games, running throughout the month of February, encourage each hall to compete to conserve the most energy. Significant energy reductions have been witnessed during this time period, illustrating that students can do their part to help the environment simply by turning off some lights, taking a shorter shower, or lowering the heat. For more energy saving tips, including things you can do in your dorm, see our What You Can Do Page.
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2009 NRG Games!
Keyes took the Upper/Newton Campus division with an 8.63% reduction in energy use.
90 St. Thomas More Rd. finished victorious on Lower Campus with a 9.77% reduction.
Ignacio beat out Rubensteing with a reduction of 4.72%.
Keyes and 90 St. Thomas More Rd. will receive a private BBQ in their honor, sponsored by UGBC and Facilities Management. Ignacio will also be rewarded with an ice cream party.
-
Overall, Boston College residence halls saved 44,139 killowatt hours of energy. This is the same as:
-
Saving 63,118 lbs of carbon dioxide from being released into our atmosphere.
-
Taking 67 cars off of the road for one month.
-
Planting 9 acres of forest, which absorbs CO2 and releases oxygen.
Results:
*Positive numbers represent the percent reduction in energy consumption. Ignacio and Rubenstein use electricity only.
Final Results:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
February 1-25:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
February 1-22:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
February 1-18:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
February 1-15:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
February 1-8:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
February 1-4:
Newton and Upper Dorms
Lower Dorms
Ignacio and Rubenstein
APRIL – EARTH DAY
Earth Day is an annual event held at Boston College to celebrate the national holiday and create awareness about environmental issues on campus. There are tables with information on pressing issues such as recycling, energy conservation, vegetarianism, pollution and waste. Volunteers are crucial to the success of Boston College’s Earth Day as they participate in Mt. Trashmore (see below), run a clothing swap for students to exchange clothes and/or donate them to Planet Aid, provide supplies for making t-shirts with environmental slogans, and help organize for students to pot their own plants. Earth Day is a way for students to come together to learn about and discuss environmental issues while celebrating the earth.
EarthDay.gov
EarthDay.net
EPA on Earth Day
Earth Day Countdown Button
APRIL – MT TRASHMORE
Mt. Trashmore is one of Boston College Earth Day's greatest annual attractions. Mt. Trasmore is one night’s worth of trash from Upper Campus, dumped on the Campus Green. Student and Facilities Management volunteers go through the trash to pick out material that could have been recycled. In the past, volunteers have collected upwards of thirty bags of recyclables. The purpose of Mt. Trashmore is to show students how much we waste every day and how much could be reduced, reused, or recycled. The hope is that by having such a demonstration, the Boston College community will become more conscious of what they put in the trash barrels and recycling bins. Mt. Trashmore would not be possible without the annual support of Facilities Management and Ecopledge volunteers.
April - Arts Fest
EcoPledge participates annually in Arts Fest with themed sculptures meant to educate the public on environmental issues. Past themes have focused on global warming and the faces of environmentalism.
April 26-28, 2007 - “Masks of the World”
April 27-29, 2006 - “How Are You Setting the World Aflame”
OCTOBER – HARVEST FEST
Why wait until April to have Earth Day? For the past few years EcoPledge, in collaboration with the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, has hosted a fall version of Earth Day to further raise awareness on campus of the importance of conservation.
Harvest Fest 2008: Students participated in a variety of activities including: pumpkin painting, painting recycled incandescent light bulbs, donut eating contests, sampling food from the Real Food BC organic garden, and watching friends of Ecopledge show their slacklining skills (much like tight-rope walking). A variety of educational posters were presented, and representatives of Power Vote were there to encourage students to vote for clean, just energy in the November 4th election.
Following the fine example set by the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, Ecopledge held its own water taste testing challenge. In a blind test, participants chose what they considered the best tasting water out of Dasani, filtered tap water, Smart Water and regular tap water. Here are the results: #1 Filtered Tap Water (46 votes), #2 Dasani (37 votes), #3 Smart Water (27 votes), #4 Tap Water (23 votes).
Read the Heights article about 2008’s Harvest Fest: Harvest Week Celebrates Sustainability at BC.
KISS ME, I RECYCLE T-SHIRTS
As of 2006, EcoPledge has promoted recycling by designing and wearing witty “Kiss Me, I Recycle” t-shirts. The shirts have proven to be quite popular around campus as non-Ecopledge students have purchased them to help encourage recycling. If you recycle more, not only will you show love for the environment, someone might even show you a little extra lovin’! As if you really needed another reason to recycle…