The University has launched a new initiative to generate interest in environmental activism on Grounds. The Sustainability Pledge, available on the University's sustainability website, is aimed at improving the habits of students and the University community.
To pledge, students electronically sign their names by logging into Netbadge and clicking that they "pledge to consider the social, economic, and environmental impacts of my habits and to explore ways to live more sustainably."
Ida Lee Wootten, chair of the Community Outreach and Communications Subcommittee of the President's Committee on Sustainability, said the idea arose as a way to encourage members of the University community to consider how their actions affect the environment as a whole.
"It was developed as a way to emphasize that by working together we can make a positive difference," she said. "The pledge highlights individual actions and all those descriptions reflect the wide variety of people across Grounds trying to encourage sustainability."
The goal for the pledge is to have 1,000 people sign it before April 22, 2011, next year's Earth Day.
Student Council is working to increase awareness and to spread word of the pledge across Grounds.
Halley Epstein, co-chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee for Council, said the group will "try to pursue projects and initiatives that will help the student body engage in more sustainable practices and work with administration and other groups around Grounds."
To help get the word out about the pledge, Council plans to "give out information during events and initiatives and invite [the President's Committee] to come speak to the Student Council," Epstein said. "We have similar goals so there is no reason we shouldn't use our resources and work together."
Council's Sustainability Committee is also starting a number of new initiatives to increase awareness, including a "Track Your Trash" challenge, during which participating students will carry trash bags for a week to hold all the waste they produce. She hopes it will "raise awareness amongst students who aren't already involved in sustainability who might see one of their classmates [doing this] and get started thinking about their own consumption"
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