With a reputation for “greening” with gusto, EcoReps tend to receive more skepticism than accolades. After all, what do they do, exactly? Mysterious individuals with a passion for scraping plates, a handful of suggestion-spattered posters, hemp, and hummus—do these vague associations define the illustrious environmental vigilantes? It may seem like the EcoReps have little impact on the campus’s environmental footprint, and that they are a group parodied by their name—“The EcoReps.” If this is the perception, there is a change a-comin’. In the first week of November, the EcoReps were granted a bulletin board space to the left of 102 Wallach. This blue-papered vastness was untouched when this article was written, but promises to bring a fundamental change to the way the EcoReps publicize their initiatives this year. With more exposure ideally comes more cooperation and participation. With more attention comes more results.
But college students are not exactly known for their attention spans, which is precisely the obstacle the EcoReps are trying to overcome. Recently, the Scorseses and Spielbergs of the group had a chance to do some good by creating a short film for the Lucid Design Group’s Building Dashboard competition. In a five-minute short, the EcoReps highlighted the Building Dashboard, a Web-based energy consumption graph designed to represent visually how much energy is being used at a given place. The idea behind it is that concise, readily available information will result in a campus-wide reduction in energy-use. Last week the Columbia EcoRep team was announced the winner of the competition, and will have a handful of these systems set up in the dorms on campus.
The planned next step in bringing action to Columbia is Energy Challenge 2008, a dorm-wide competition to have the greatest impact on energy conservation. Further, as we look at the environmental impact of our larger community, there is a plan to work in tandem with PlanNYC, the Bloomberg-proposed Mayoral Challenge to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent in the next 10 years. This all comes with Columbia’s pride-puffing standing in the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s 2009 Sustainability Report Card, which gave the campus an A-, the only A- in the state and one of 15 in the nation, for environmental stewardship. We have to strike while the iron is hot, capitalizing on the invested interest of the University’s administration. If there was ever a time for Columbia to start saving the earth and dedicating itself fully to the environmental cause, surely that time is now.
Unless it isn’t. Unless there is nothing to substantiate this promise of involvement, a promise that often goes unfulfilled in the generalized chaos that consumes this campus and our everyday lives. It seems to be the case that despite genuine interest in the environmental movement among the student body, there is a gap between intention and action. We could fill a room with all our well-wishing, but unless there is a concentrated effort from the student body, the movement will be stagnant.
They say people in glass houses should not throw stones. I like my glass house very much. But the most significant revelation to come out of this year’s environmental efforts on campus has been that achieving sustainability and decreasing energy use cannot be achieved alone—to fully realize our community’s potential for positive environmental impact there must be community-wide effort and awareness. Whatever your personal view on the environment, whether you apathetically observe, objectively shrug with Ayn Rand, hug trees, or find beauty in the man-made, the greatest gift you can give is your involvement. Opportunities abound on this pulsating, electric campus. Tune in or drop out.
This is the beauty of the bulletin board, the haranguing signs, the enthusiastic activism—they are to catch your eye and get you involved. Greater than any environmental operation is the education and attention of an individual. The board possesses the capacity for change. That piece of cork is the most powerful tool the EcoReps possess. It is a public forum. The space is a jumping-off point from which the community as a whole may become more conscious, and more active. That blue expanse is a gateway to green.
The author is a Columbia College first-year. He is the head of the EcoReps writing committee.