From Ecologic

The information on this page came from two similar documents sent out to Ecologic members in the first few weeks of Spring 2006. They were compiled and listed here in alphabetical order for reference.

Contents 1 Past Projects 1.1 Arbor Day tree planting 1.2 Biodiesel 1.3 Buy Nothing Day/Buy Nothing Christmas 1.4 Corn-based bottles 1.5 EarthFest! 1.6 EEC Concert 1.7 Engineers for Sustainable World 1.8 Envirenns 1.9 Environmental Community Service 1.10 Hunger Banquet 1.11 Outside EEC Garden 1.12 Poly Newspaper Madness 1.13 Professor Miyamoto’s Graphic Design Class 1.14 Renewable Energy Kiosk 1.15 Sophia the Recycled Giraffe 1.16 Stump EcoLogic 1.17 Troikos 1.18 Union Bulletin Board 1.19 Vegan Bake Sale

[edit] Past Projects

[edit] Arbor Day tree planting

• We have money in our budget to buy a tree (or maybe more) and plant it on campus, preferably during Arbor Day (which is at the end of April). We need to talk to Environmental and Site Services to find a location on campus where we can put a tree, and have a little ceremony and maybe a parade. OK, probably not a parade.

[edit] Biodiesel

• Graduate student Wally Morris is working on getting the shuttle buses at RPI to run on biodiesel. His own car already does (http://www.rpi.edu/~morriw/Biod1.htm)! See what EcoLogic can do in helping him to make this happen.

[edit] Buy Nothing Day/Buy Nothing Christmas

• Work with the SPEAK club to host a gift swap and informational day on the effects of American consumption levels.

[edit] Corn-based bottles

• Sam is investigating the possibility of getting parts of RPI to buy their bottled water from brands that make their bottles out of biodegradable corn polymer. He is also looking at getting RPI professors to get involved with the technology or production somehow. If we can get the window garden running, he has some experiments he would like to try with biodegradable bottles.

[edit] EarthFest!

• This is the big one. We need to start planning this the beginning of February and then keep working on it the rest of the semester until the week of Earth Day, when we have our celebration. Once we get responsibilities broken down, people can start signing up for individual aspects of the project. A large portion of our budget is devoted to this event, so if people have ideas for something they’d like to see during EarthFest!, let me know.

[edit] EEC Concert

• Last fall we had a benefit concert at Ground Zero and it was awesome! Let’s do it again! Money will go to offset GZ and EcoLogic costs and the rest goes to charity (possibly the Gulf Coast Environmental Restoration Fund). Do we want to try to have the concert this semester since we couldn’t do it last semester? Or should we just focus on securing bands for EarthFest?

[edit] Engineers for Sustainable World

• A new club at RPI that is sort of like EcoLogic, but works on poverty issues as well as environmental stuff. They focus on technological solutions to problems. Talk to them about collaborating on projects.

[edit] Envirenns

• Every semester, we publish and environmental newsletter for people to learn how to be environmentally friendly or find out what EcoLogic is up to. We need to pick a theme and start writing this semester’s. Cerissa did an amazing job producing the first EnviRenss, but now she’s graduated and we need someone to take over this publication.

[edit] Environmental Community Service

• Talk to the Capital District Community Gardens (www.cdcg.org), Nature Conservancy of Troy (http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newyork/volunteer/), or other environmental groups about helping them with habitat restoration or other projects on the weekends. Schedule some volunteer days with the Troy Nature Conservancy for this semester.

[edit] Hunger Banquet

• In the past, RPI has hosted an Oxfam Hunger Banquet to raise awareness about global hunger. EcoLogic has helped at these distributing information on the connections between the environment and hunger. Ash wants to try to set one up again, with help from Cynthia Smith (smithc@rpi.edu), who helped us organize the last one.

[edit] Outside EEC Garden

• Cerissa made some effort with this last semester, but we need to talk to the building coordinator to receive final confirmation. The concrete outside of the window in front of the EEC is boring! Let’s turn it into a garden and use compost from the composter in the EEC to fertilize it. We need to get permission from the Sage Lab. Building coordinator, figure out a good garden design, build it, and then promote it.

[edit] Poly Newspaper Madness

• The Poly prints waaaaaayyyyyy more papers than people actually read. That’s wasteful! Let’s talk to the Poly and see if we can help them target their newspaper distribution to where people pick them up most and stop printing papers that are just thrown away each week.

[edit] Professor Miyamoto’s Graphic Design Class

• He wants his class to work on making posters and banners about recycling topics, such as “How to Recycle,” “What happens when you throw away a [battery…CD…etc.],” “Creative Re-use of ‘trash’.” We need to come up with some basic text and then explain our needs to his class. They meet in the computer lab right down the hall from the EEC Monday/Thursday 4-5:50.

[edit] Renewable Energy Kiosk

• Tara had a lot of success with this last semester. She will keep us updated for the next steps. An RPI professor and alumnae are trying to get money for a renewable energy informational kiosk in the Union. Schools like MIT already have put these in. EcoLogic would be in charge of taking care of it and promoting it.

[edit] Sophia the Recycled Giraffe

• In the past years, we made a giant giraffe-looking thing out of plastic bottles. The Union loved it and put it on display. Then someone threw it away/ stole it. We need to make a new one! It can be any shape or design, not necessarily a giraffe. OK, so we made a sweet elephant last semester, but then it died. Let’s make a new one! And not let it die this time.

[edit] Stump EcoLogic

• Older students will remember Stump IPAC from GM Week. This is similar. Basically, it’s a way to promote the services that EcoLogic provides. We have a contest where people submit their hardest environmental questions, and if we can’t answer them in a reasonable amount of time, they win money! We already have money in our budget for this, we just need to pick a time to hold the contest and advertise all over the place for it. We are looking to do this in about two weeks (advertising the first week, actual contest the second week).

[edit] Troikos

• There’s a new non-profit starting in Troy that is trying to become the EcoLogic of the community – giving out environmental information (especially about green building practices) and holding workshops and stuff. Thing is, they’ll have a lot more money to work with then we will, but they need help getting off the ground. We contacted Troikos last semester, but we need to get in touch with them again to see if they can use our help.

[edit] Union Bulletin Board

• Some clubs have boards on the 3rd floor of the Union to advertise club activities. We want one! We’ll use it to get out important environmental information and just generally show how awesome we are. Need to talk to the Union Admin. Office about getting a spot up there.

[edit] Vegan Bake Sale

• We have budget money to buy vegan ingredients, then we either make baked goods or main dishes, sell them in the Union, and then use the money to fund other EcoLogic events or give it to charity.