EARTH DAY
Celebrate Your Earth

Here are some ideas for you to get started on celebrating the earth. We hope it will be a tradition continued and supported by all members of the Earth & Environment Department.

WHAT WE DID ON APRIL 22nd 2004:

1. Student Energy Survey - an evaluation of the current energy use pattern of the students.
2. Facilities management Presentation on the campus's Energy use trends and energy conservation initiatives. FM also spoke about the new Kendade and Blanchard certification criterias and about where Mount Holyoke College as far as energy use is concerned. Find a copy of the presentation here. The person to contact for collaboration with Facilities Management is Russ Boudreau and/or Rick Bigelow. Really great people!
3. Screening of "The Next Industrial Revolution" By Architect Bill McDonough and Chemist Michael Braungart.
4. Learning About Sustainability while Living Sustainably, An introduction to Ecovillages and the Living Routes Program, a presentation by Daniel Greenberg of the Sirius Community.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Suggestions

1. Start early!!
2. Get as many people involved as possible, involve other departments, especially the students. This is the best time to share some knowledge and ideas. For example -- hold an informal debate on what exactly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) actually measures, right now every time a tree is cut or someone gets cancer the GDP increases. Remember this is not about whether economists are right or wrong..its all about broadening our view points and re-evaluating our biases.
3. Publicize! Advertize! Be innovative - like paperless publicity? maybe involve the Art department perhaps.
4. Find out what the official theme of Earth day is from Earthday Network. In 2004 the theme was Water. DO your research on facts regarding the theme and present it to the school in power point format. Spread the word.
5. We are Celebrating the earth, so avoid loading people's mind with more guilt. Instead tell them what they/we can change and how we can change the stuff we ALL do wrong. A great example is this particular website by Yahoo!
6. Introduce ideas - Show short documentaries during lunch or dinner at Blanchard Great Room. Grab people's attention in a subtle way and send them home with a piece of new information. Check out PBS.ORG for cool new documentaries on the environment. Here's more from the same site: Resources at www.pbs.org. You need to book Blanchard Great Room at least 14 days in advance. Talk to Student Programs
7. If you do want to inform people about waste issues or other such issues that everyone tries to avoid - use power points (again at Blanchard Great Room) - Give Statistics and visual imageries.