Students looking to go green have a great opportunity next week with No Impact Week. This week consists of a series of challenges for students that Sustainable Carolina hopes will teach participants methods of minimal impact on the environment.
The week kicks off with a Sunday challenge to not buy anything new. Monday is all about not making trash, for example, reusing water bottles. Tuesday, students are encouraged to take sustainable transportation like bicycles or the USC shuttle. Wednesday is a food day featuring a challenge to eat locally and seasonally. Minimizing is key at the end; students are asked to minimize energy use on Thursday and water use on Friday. The week ends with giving back to the community on Saturday through service.
The No Impact Project is an international nonprofit project founded in 2009 that “uses entertainment, education and group action to engage new people in the quest for ways of living that connect individual happiness with service to community and habitat.” Their goals are to “promote behavioral change, enable the public to experience their own No Impact Experiment, and engage people who are not already tree-hugging, bicycle-riding, canvas-bag-toting, eco-warriors.”
The project started after Colin Beavan and his family spent a year living a no-waste lifestyle in New York City. He wrote the successful book No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process and then started the project.
The website for No Impact Project contains instructions for educators to teach about protecting the environment, as well as continuously updating lists of tips from users on how to change yourself and how to change the world.
Students who want to learn more can check out Sustainable Carolina on Twitter at @sustainablecaro and on sc.edu/green. The No Impact Project can be found on Twitter at @noimpactproject and on noimpactproject.org.