Look out Recycle Mania, there’s a new environmental contest in town!
America’s Greenest Campus (AGC for short) has kicked off. College students across the nation have until October 5th to reduce their own carbon footprints in an attempt to win up to $20,000.
From over 400 campuses with over 4,000 participants, students have already stepped up to do their part reducing their carbon footprints by over 3.4 million pounds.
Brand new this year, AGC has been launched by SmartPower, self-described as “the nation’s leading non-profit marketing organization dedicated to promoting clean energy and energy efficiency” and Climate Culture, a social networking web site reminiscent of Facebook devoted to tracking users’ environmental choices. AGC is also being supported by the Department of Energy.
Any person with “.edu” in their email address can join the network at the AGC site to get their school on the list. After that, each school appoints a campus organizer, a student that is in charge of promoting campus participation in the contest and ways to reduce that footprint.
AGC encourages students to use social-networking sites to achieve these ends since most students already connect through sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. AGC makes this contest personal—as in each student is responsible for reducing their own individual footprint.
It helps highlight the idea that our own choices throughout the day, although personal, can affect the entire society if not chosen wisely. To collectively protect our environment and conserve our energy takes a commitment from every individual.
As mentioned before, AGC introduces participants to Climate Culture which is a very useful social-networking tool when it comes to environmentalism. Signing on to Climate Culture is like signing up for a personal environmental trainer. The social networking site uses your history and your statistics to order to teach you new ways to reduce your impact on the environment, save money while doing it, and meet others as passionate as you are, who have tips of their own.
The supporters of the contest will award $5,000 to the school with the most participants, and $5,000 to the school with the most carbon reductions per participant. Even better is that the money doesn’t simply go to just the school; it is to be used specifically towards sustainability initiatives on the campus.
But not wanting to leave the individual participants financially empty-handed, the contest also awards $10,000 to the winner of the SmartPower Energy SmartAd Challenge. This challenge asks any student to submit a 30-second video commercial that promotes energy efficiency.
The theme is “Energy Smart,” and the winners will not only receive a nice handful of money but also the chance to be featured on national TV. Take a look at the current submissions or submit your own video http://americasgreenestcampus.com/videos” title="here">here by October 5th for the chance to win.
Our Take
This is a great opportunity to learn more about how you can easily reduce your impact on our environment. And it doesn’t only feel good, this could come with a cash prize! Visit America’s Greenest Campus for more information on the contest.
Most importantly, don’t forget to join me on Climate Culture! I’ve been learning about how to make better choices for our environment, save money, and I’ve been meeting others like me!
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