ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission Launches Cool Campus Challenge

Students, staff and teachers can participate and register activities that reduce their ecological footprint

By JORDAN POLTORAK — [email protected]

The Cool Campus Challenge, organized by ASUCD’s Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC), began on April 8 and will run until April 29. Students, staff and faculty can all participate in logging activities that reduce their carbon footprint on nature. website for the challenge. The challenge was created in 2013 with a goal of carbon neutrality across the University of California system by 2025.

Kelly Abey, a fourth-year student of environmental policy analysis and planning and sustainable environmental design and chair of the EPPC, discussed the importance of this challenge.

“This shows students that it is easy to take action to improve your carbon footprint,” says Abey. “Things like walking or cycling to school are things that we don’t even realize are improving our carbon footprint.”

Participants can register individually or in groups on the website. The top ten winners will receive a prize.

“It’s like a social media platform where you can record your actions of the day,” said Daphne Crother, a fourth-year political science major and vice president of the EPPC. “Then you get points and see how much CO2 you have saved.”

The challenge was originally intended to see which of the ten UCs was the most sustainable. However, it has evolved into an individual campus competition.

“We want to encourage students to take sustainable actions during the month of April, but also apply them to life throughout the year,” Crother said. “Every little thing you do can add up.”

The website states which actions users can take and how much CO2 they would save. Their Instagram page states that it is a “student-led movement to fight climate change through individual action.”

“(The challenge) allows you to see how much difference you can make with your individual actions,” Abey said.

Abey and Crother wanted to emphasize the importance of individual actions, but also the influence of large companies.

“As much as students can do, it is also important to remember the impact that these large fossil fuel companies have,” Crother says.

To participate in the challenge, students can go to the Cool Campus website.

Written by: Jordan Poltorak — [email protected]