EcoAction Love

You know, I’m feeling particularly proud of myself, what with my regular blogging and all. I think this is my third blog in three weeks, which is what it should be, so go me! It’s a really good procrastination tool, such as when you really don’t want to get started on those five pieces of German homework or that summer job application... Bah, why is my best skill procrastination?

Anyway, last week I finally got around to sending out e-mails to my new e-mail buddies, who are prospective students thinking about coming to MTA. The admissions team matches them with volunteer MTA students who share similar interests and we talk to them about what life is like at Mount A and all that good stuff. The point of this story is that most of the students I was paired up with were people who expressed an interest in environmental issues and I ended up telling them a lot about EcoAction, MTA’s environmental society. The ones who wrote back were really interested in learning more about what we did as members of EcoAction, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of an in-depth look at EcoAction in one of my blogs. So, here we go!

EcoAction is a group that is completely run by students and meets every week at MTA's sustainable residence, Cuthbertson House. Cuthbertson House is a really great place to live if you're committed to living a low-impact lifestyle with others like you. There are... 8 (or close to that?) people who live in this beautifully renovated house and they often organize discussions and activities that focus on environmental issues and are known to cook together on a nightly basis. They are really great people and if you think you might be interesting in living in this kind of unique residence environment, I would definitely recommend going for it. It's a nice alternative for those of you who are committed to sustainable living and aren't all that interested in the bigger residence experience, so think about it :)

So back to EcoAction. As I said, we meet once a week and new members are always welcome, no matter how far along in the semester we are. We aim to create awareness and educate students and community members about environmental issues and also promote environmentally sustainable choices and living, which involves a number of different activities and campaigns. This year we've already been pretty busy, and have organized a number of different activities. One of the first ones was our annual "Buy Nothing Day" campaign, which is an event that is held across Canada. On "Buy Nothing Day" we encourage people, well, not to buy anything, and organize a clothing swap where people bring in old clothes and take other people's clothes instead of buying them. We also give away free food and drinks to hungry students, haha.

EcoAction also has a strong relationship with the administration, and those who deal with the use of electricity, heat and those who run meal hall. We are constantly promoting the use of the least amount of energy as possible, and ensuring that residences are well constructed and maintain suitable for sustainable living. In fact, last year EcoAction was responsible for having electricity efficient bulbs placed in all the residences as a result of the money we save the University during our annual C3 event (I will soon explain). We've also been promoting the purchase of locally grown foods in meal hall, and have helped in educating students about the food scraping station in meal hall, which has reduced our food waste by 44% from the previous month when it was installed. What is also exciting is EcoAction's initiative to make MTA a cup-free campus, starting in September 2009. As of the beginning of the next academic year, paper cups will not be available at any location on campus, so all students in residence and incoming frosh will be given reusable mugs to use instead! Additional mugs will be available at cost for all other MTA students as well - how exciting!

One of the biggest initiatives that EcoAction undertakes is its annual Campus Climate Challenge, also known as C3. During the month of February, EcoAction challenges all the residences and academic buildings to reduce their energy use from their totals during the previous month of February and the winning house and building get great prizes. Last year the prize was an EnergyStar flat screen TV and this year we're giving away $600 worth of outdoor equipment (including crazy carpets, soccer balls, volleyballs, footballs, frisbees, Cranium and much more!) to the winning residence. This is the first year we've included the academic buildings, and the staff from the winning building will also be treated to some lovely reusable MTA mugs. Last year Windsor Hall was the winning house and managed to reduce their energy use by 24% which was fantastic!! We've just kicked off this year's C3 campaign with speakers from MTA as well as the president of the Canadian Nuclear Association, who spoke on the benefits of nuclear energy. Hopefully this year will be just as successful as the last!

Well that's quite a lot of info, is it not? I suppose I'll leave it at that, haha. But yes, if you're interested in environmental issues, MTA has tons of opportunities for you to get involved and EcoAction is just one of them. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me, I'd love to hear from you :)

Much love,

Sue

sjhumphrey@mta.ca