It’s hard to believe, but the semester is finally coming to a close and with that, the Tufts Eco-Reps Program officially concludes its third semester run after returning from a three-year hiatus.

The Tufts Eco-Reps, as you probably already know, are a group of residential students who work to encourage environmentally responsible behavior in their hall-mates and peers. They accomplish this through organizing group activities and collaborative projects, and by representing the Eco-Reps Program at various on-campus and off-campus events.

The fall semester started off with a bang, as this year’s newly selected bunch of Eco-Reps completed training and immediately jumped into their new roles by implementing compost bins in their respective dorms and hosting meet-and-greet events.

As the semester rolled along, the Eco-Reps began planning and hosting eco-related events in their dorms. Josh Metersky, Eco-Rep for South Hall, hosted a Make-Your-Own-Pizza night with dough from Flatbread Pizza and organic, local ingredients. Eco-Reps Katie Segal and Mel Rubin chose to host a joint event for Hodgdon and Bush on sustainable holiday crafts, utilizing recycled and donated materials to encourage responsible consumption over the holidays.

The Eco-Reps also took a part in the Tufts Sustainability Collective’s ‘Sustainability Night in Dewick,’ by hosting an entertaining Trashion Show where students designed and modeled attire made out of trash or reused materials. The event also served as a kickoff to the new Terracycle program, an initiative for “upcycling” chip bags, granola bar wrappers, and candy wrappers and making them into really cool products like tote bags and speakers.

The Eco-Reps as a group was also able to attend the 2011 Eco-Rep Symposium at Babson College last November. Tufts Eco-Reps had an impressive showing –  giving two presentations, running an icebreaker, and participating in various roundtable discussions and breakout sessions – showcasing to other schools our program successes, as well as taking in new ideas to improve our program in the future.

The Eco-Reps have also hosted multiple Meatless Meals, with over 200 participants over the course of the semester, and on average collected over 200 gallons of compost from dorms every week! They have worked hard to revamp the Green Dorm Room Certification process and hope to encourage even more students to certify their dorms as ‘green’ in the spring.  Look out for the Eco-Reps next semester, as they plan on hosting even more exciting eco-events and programs!