What’s happening

Greening the Greeks partnered with JanSport this past Sunday, November 6th 2011 for “A Sunday Hike”. The event kicked off with a pre-hike party that provided free reusable JanSport water bottles and flavored tap water. JanSport raffled off some gear  to those who entered at the Greening the Greeks information table. We encouraged sustainable hydration in addition to talking about green camping and hiking tips — such as the importance of staying on trails for your safety and maintaining the health of surrounding natural areas.

The event ended with sustainable facts and winners received new JanSport Backpacking Packs by providing facts like:

• “13.7% of household water use is made up of leaks. Check your water meter when nobody is using water to find if/where leaks are coming from”

• “It takes 50 million barrels of oil to deliver the bottled water consumed in the US every year”.

Thanks to JanSport and everyone who came out to the event! Happy hiking!

Fiji hosted a CFL exchange and educational presentation on sustainability on March 6th. There were 133 incandescents exchanged for CFLs, amounting to a potential savings of $8,937 on energy bills and preventing the emission 46,833 lbs of carbon dioxide over their expected functioning life using Berkeley’s Green Campus metric. Chris Ackman of Greening the Greeks opened the presentation with sobering words to put the need for sustainable solutions in global context. Then Morwenna Rowe of Green Campus detailed proactive changes individuals can make to address the problem. Chris then aimed the conclusion of the presentation at inspiring those microscopic changes necessary to begin building a sustainable world system. The presentation has been posted on you tube, click here for part 1, and here for part 2. Greening the Greeks sponsored the event, with grants from The Green Initiative Fund.

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With the goal of exchanging 400 bulbs by the end of the semester, Greening the Greeks is employing the sustainability chair network of the fraternity and sorority system to facilitate distribution. The CFL exchange is only one of Greening the Greeks projects. The coalition of greek sustainability chairs is working to spread recycling, composting, a green purchasing guide, communal re-usable bag systems, home efficiency refinements, and a more aware social consciousness. Fiji is one paragon of the progress, having reduced waste 25% since Chris Ackman initiated the sustainability chair position, measured by the eased requirement to pay for 3 instead of 4 dumpster pickups, saving management $3500 annually.

With species extinction rates accelerating to levels on par with our planet’s previous 5 mass extinction periods, it is imperative that we reshape the facets of human society that have allowed exponential population growth and green house gas emission rates. Would you prefer a green future or a brown future? how about for your children? or the future of humanity? Let’s proactively work together to ensure we realize the future we want to see.