Green Groups at BU
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDENT ORGANIZATION (ESO)
ESO is an official BU group that works to promote environmental sustainability, both on campus and globally. They conduct education campaigns and run numerous events in order to educate and get people involved and excited. Events of the recent past have included a showing of Fern Gully, a showing of An Inconvenient Truth, which also featured carbon offset sales, a trip to an Eco-Village, and occasional Charles River Clean-ups. In March 2007, along with the Sierra Club, ESO organized a major conference, the Northeast Climate Conference, which was held at BU. The group also periodically attends environmental rallies, such as rallies for Cape Wind and the Boston Coal Party. ESO also partners with the Environmental Health and Safety to plan and run annual America Recycles Day and Earth Day events.
Their weekly meetings are held on Thursday at 6:30pm in the CEES lounge (442 Stone Science Building). E-mail Vicki Barbato (barbatov@bu.edu) or Rachel Leone (rleone@bu.edu) if interested.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY ENERGY CLUB
The BU Energy Club is a respected graduate institution with the mission to “facilitate fact-based analysis and discussion between the educational and professional communities advancing our understanding of energy and its efficient use in our society”.
Formed from an alliance between the School of Management, College of Engineering and the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences we are creating working relationships between groups of students, renowned faculty, and industry leaders, to deliver solutions that both benefit the university and serve the wider Boston community.
Our large and varied membership gives us the ability to stimulate focused discussion on the role of energy in areas as diverse as technology, public policy, education, economics and conservation. This has led to the creation of credit courses and directed studies within the three schools that enhance our understanding and build practical experiences helping people and organizations to make our environment more sustainable.
Finally, using this expanded skill set, we want to complete the cycle – turning these good ideas into great businesses, sensible policies, and implemented technologies. All of these will improve our environment and act as a stimulus to future generations of students to continue to lead Boston University in the burgeoning energy sector.
For more information, please contact us at buenergy@bu.edu or visit us on the web at http://people.bu.edu/buenergy.
SEDGREEN
The sedGreen committee is an expanding group of faculty, students, and staff who work to advocate for green practices and policies in the School of Education, as well as all of
Boston University. Initiated in November 2006, sedGreen promptly got recycling containers on each floor and large bins in the basement of SED. The overall SED community has responded well, many recognizing the need to build a new "green" mindset.
Recently, the Committee in collaboration with the Science Education department developed an extensive "Healthy Futures Initiative" proposal. The plan, which is awaiting approval from the administration, calls for a series of solar panels on the third floor roof facing south and a nearby small wind turbine, both powering environmental education exhibits on the third floor as well as feeding the overall School power grid.
sedGreen is meanwhile developing a stationery bike energy production exhibit. Starting in April 2007, students, faculty, and visitors can spend a few minutes pedaling a stationery bike, which will feed energy to a storage battery, powering a computer on a stand adjacent to the bike. The exhibit will demonstrate that beside solar, wind, and other alternative power, there is also the often forgotten energy generated from human movement, usually with far less carbon dioxide emission than conventional power generation.
For more information on sedGreen, contact Douglas Zook (dzook@bu.edu), professor of Science Education and Global Ecology or Don DeRosa (donder@bu.edu), professor of education.
RECYCLING PROGRAM
Recycling is overseen by Student Recycling Coordinators, usually two, at the Office of Environmental Health and Safety. The coordinators work on recycling expansion projects and sometimes look for volunteers to help out. The coordinators are also main planners of BU's annual celebrations of America Recycles Day in November and Earth Day in April, and they need volunteers to work these events. To receive updates on volunteer opportunities, e-mail the coordinators at recycle@bu.edu and request to be put on the Recycling Outreach e-mail list.
