Category: Eco-Reps (Page 9 of 10)

Re2Pack, food for the summer and the MassCommute Bike Challenge

May 7, 2012 / / 1 Comment

With commencement only two weeks away, you are probably (a) taking finals and writing papers, (b) preparing for commencement, or (c) moving off campus for the summer or (boohoo!) for good.

We can’t offer you much help with the first two things but if you are indeed moving off campus, you should know that TuftsRecycles has a list of things that they collect for recycling, among them: books and school supplies, carpets, crutches and air casts, electronics, clothing and linens, hangers, and unopened cans of food. Look for the proper boxes in the dorms and check the TuftsRecycles website for more details.

World Peas CSADo the CSA folks miss their fresh organic vegetables? I know I do. Most local farmers’ markets won’t start for a few more weeks (usually after Memorial Day). Download a schedule of farmers’ markets near Tufts from our website to look for one near you. In the meantime, don’t forget to sign up for the summer CSA with World PEAS, a program of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project sponsored by Community Teamwork Inc. and the Freidman School of Nutrition.

Don’t forget – the 2012 Bay State Bike Week is going on from May 14-20 and you can still register and help Tufts win the MassCommute Bicycle Challenge. Tufts’ total miles wentfrom 130 to 537 in a week but we are still a distant 4th behind BU. Come on, Jumbos! If you signed up, contact us at the Office of Sustainability. We have a few t-shirts to give away. (Supplies limited)

Best of luck and enjoy the sunshine!

Fannie
– Communications & Outreach Specialist, Tufts Office of Sustainability

It’s Earth Week! What are you doing to celebrate?

April 19, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Earth Week has finally arrived! Are you ready to celebrate the beauty that surrounds us and attend some awesome events? This week is stock-full of exciting programs, lectures, conferences, and festivals all focused on one topic: our earth and how we can keep it (and us) healthy!

While there are events throughout the week, the main Earth Day event on campus,Tufts Sustainability Collective‘s annual Earth Fest, will be held on Friday, April 20th from 1-5pm on the Academic Quad! Stop by to partake in fun eco-friendly activities including a clothing swap by the Eco Reps, a Student Action Squad BYOShirt tie-dye; a composting workshop; plant-your-own seeds by Tom Thumb’s Garden, and of course delicious free food! There will be live music and a wide variety of info booths. Come one, come all – let’s have some outdoor fun learning about and celebrating the earth!

Set aside some time for your planet this weekend, whether you attend the Tufts Energy Conference, go to a screening of YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip, or listen to Professor Moomaw’s lecture on climate change. Should none of these events catch your eye, just take a step outside and enjoy nature’s springtime splendor – you just might be inspired to “green” your life.

–Anne Elise Stratton

Communications Intern, Tufts Office of Sustainability

 

P.S. Don’t know how you’re going to keep this multitude of environment-related events straight? Luckily, we’ve added them all to our Environmental Calendar, located on the Office of Sustainability website. The front page of our website and our blog also have detailed event information, as always.

Eco-Reps visit local wind turbine

April 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Last Monday, the Tufts Eco-Reps (along with a few Eco-Ambassadors and staff members who graciously offered to give us a ride) took a field trip to the wind turbine site at McGlynn Middle School in Medford… a mere three miles from the Tufts campus! If you’ve ever driven down I-93 or the Mystic Valley Parkway, it’s hard to miss the towering 150-foot-high structure next to the Mystic River. The renewable energy icon was officially unveiled back in January 2009 but has already generated upwards of 250,000 kWh of energy since it became operational 3 years ago.

Tufts students and staff members visit Medford wind turbine site at McGlynn Middle School

Northern Power Systems, the electrical engineering company that built and manages the turbine, provides real-time data of the turbine’s total energy production, saved energy costs, and even the current rotor speed! Our hosts, Carey Duques, Director of Energy and Environment for the City of Medford, and Alicia Hunt, Medford Energy Efficiency Coordinator, explained thatteachers at McGlynn Middle School have incorporated hands-on lessons from the turbine into their classroom curriculum in order to teach students the benefits of community wind. Although the project faced opposition from those fearing it would be an eyesore, a Medford clean-energy committee worked on the project for three years and was able to raise nearly $650,000 in grant money to pay for the turbine. The project has a payback period of 5-7 years with a carbon emissions offset of 133 tons per year. Read the case study about this exciting innovation in renewable energy in our very own community.

On a national level, there is good news from the US Department of Energy (DOE) – last week, the Obama Administration announced an agreement to streamline offshore wind development in the Great Lakes. The DOE also awarded more than $5 million for advanced fuel cell research and $10 million for promoting zero-emission vehicles.

If you are interested in exploring more topics related to energy, The 2012 Tufts Energy Conference is being held on campus next week from April 20-21. Register here. We hope to see you at Cabot Center next week!

Eco-Rep Semester Update!

December 20, 2011 / / 0 Comments

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!

Dec 1: Sustainability Dinner and “Trashion” Show

November 21, 2011 / / 0 Comments

On Thursday, December 1, the Tufts Sustainability Collective is partnering with Dining Services to offer an exciting sustainability-themed dinner in Dewick! Food will be sourced from local sites, and there will be a variety of organic options. This is a great way to learn about the issues surrounding your food while enjoying a delicious meal.

The Dewick stage will feature performances by multiple bands, and a “trashion” show at 6:15 by the Eco-Reps! Design your own runway attire made out of trash or reused or recycled materials, and then enter to be one of our models. Models with the best runway attire, as decided by our audience, will win awesome prizes, like gift cards to JP Licks and Dave’s Fresh Pasta! To sign up to be one of our models, fill out this form: goo.gl/10ecM or visit the Facebook event page.

Come see your friends model their recycled outfits and learn about the university’s new terracycle collection program in this exciting show. Terracycle a program that recycles chip bags, granola bar and candy wrappers into really cool products, like tote bags and speakers!

All you have to do is show up at Dewick for dinner! If you need further convincing, here’s sustainability dinner menu. See you there!

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