Compete to Reduce

What is a better way to bring students together or at least get them fired up than through a little friendly competition? That is why The Office of Sustainability will be hosting another campus-wide competition in the Spring of 2014 that of course will promote changes that will benefit our campus today, tomorrow and long after we have all graduated. Although this sounds far away, February will be here before we know it! If you want some inside info on the upcoming competition, then keep reading.

What is it?

Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) is the largest electricity and water reduction competition program for colleges and universities in the world. In its fourth year, CCN gives a common voice and motivation to hundreds of thousands of students across North America, all working together to reduce consumption and mitigate the impacts of climate change. CCN is an opportunity to organize students and staff, host educational events and challenge students and staff to participate in fun events that can have an immediate and lasting impact on your school’s carbon emissions and campus culture. CCN is jointly organized by the U.S. Green Building Council, Lucid, National Wildlife Federation, and Alliance to Save Energy.

How it Works:

Our office Res Life Intern will be conducting several orientations in the Spring with individual Res Halls and Houses, however there are FOUR upcoming webinars that she will be hosting this month. Please email hlavinkl@g.cofc.edu if you are interested in attending. Each session will be held at The Office of Sustainability on King Street and will last for one hour.

Program Goals:

• Engage, educate, motivate and empower students to conserve resources in residence halls and other campus buildings
• Foster a culture of conservation within campus communities, and propel campus sustainability initiatives.
• Enable students to teach each other conservation behaviors that they can employ on campus and in their future homes and workplaces.
• Enable students to develop leadership, community organizing, and career development skills
• Achieve measurable reductions in electricity and water use, preventing thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted.
• Highlight the ability of behavior change tools such as competitions, commitments and social norms to conserve energy and water

Please contact Keri via email hlavinkl@g.cofc.edu if you have any additional questions! Our goal is to kick off the Spring semester with a competition that will bring us all together around some pretty important issues! More importantly we hope this competition and others will also help to encourage lasting behavior changes like conserving energy and water usage, long after you leave the College of Charleston campus.

From Guest Blogger and Office Intern: Keri Hlavin

On Friday July 27th, our group of “sustainabilibuddies” ( a group of friends who actively seek out more sustainable life practices and activities while having fun!) traveled to Johns Island to have lunch at a local restaurant and visit Dirt Works Incubator Farm. At first reveal of this office bonding field trip day there was much question, at least on my part about the exact type of operations that occurred on such a thing called an Incubator Farm. I had no idea that it was possible to grow farmers! 

We started off our afternoon eating at Rosebank Farms Café with Nikki Seibert who is the Director of Sustainable Agriculture at Low Country Local First. We did not have nearly enough time to cover the wealth of information she provided, not only about LLF and how they operate here in Charleston, but about her expertise in the way of grant writing and raising funds for businesses. The whole goal of our lunch lecture was to learn a bit more about the process of grant writing, and who better to learn from than Ms. Seibert who has been awarded so many successful grants in her position. We were able to collect some very useful tips and strategies to take back to our office as we are starting to do some of our own grant writing. Office of Sustainability is seeking ways to get funded for several projects including the purchasing of seeds for our community garden.

We took full advantage of the day and met her at the Dirtworks Incubator Farm immediately after lunch. The Farm is an effort for new farmers to have a successful chance of starting their own livelihood on local lands with the use of shared equipment. It was really great to see this initiative in action that day. While we were there a small group of local farmers were harvesting their crops and even took some time to answer our questions. It was amazing to see a part of that process.

It was explained to us that there is a crucial need for the next generation of farmers to be born! The experts or those that have been in the fields for nearly 70 years are about to retire off the soil! We need to create more young and dependable farmers who will be around to grow food for years to come. And that is how Dirtworks comes in. Since the cost of starting up a farm is so incredibly high and the risk for losing everything remains, this farm provides all the resources a new farmer would need, including tools and land. What a beautiful location for such a simple yet crucial concept. Seeing this in action was powerful. These young farmers are creating a change that is definitely a part of the sustainable solution for our planet, starting right at home on Johns Island.