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Help CC students win Ecomagination challenge

The compost concept creators: from left, Tyler Dunham ´09, Leia Crosby ´09, Michael (Misha) Johnson ´08, and Michael Seager ´08.

January 17, 2007

Connecticut College is a finalist with MIT and eight large, research universities in a contest sponsored by GE and mtvU, which challenges them to "develop new, creative ways to green their campus." Visit http://ecocollegechallenge.com to see the CC students´ proposal and film, and to vote.

The college´s entry, "Community, Conservation, Compost: A Holistic Approach," proposes using commercial-sized compost units to reduce the amount of food waste generated by the College.

The top ten projects were selected from more than 100 applicants, including projects developed by students at Harvard University, California Polytechnic State University, New York University, Northwestern University, Stanford University and University of California - Los Angeles.

Junior Misha Johnson and sophomores Tyler Dunham and Leia Crosby came up with the idea for the college´s entry. The application required a film, which the students put together with the help of film student Ben Pedley ´09. Cara Donovan ´08 and Mike Seager ´08 also assisted with the application process.

The top ten projects, which include entries from MIT, Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia, are being featured on mtvU´s "Ecomagination Challenge" website, where visitors are asked to vote for their favorites before March 2, 2007. The winning team, which will be chosen on March 20, will receive a $25,000 grant to "bring their green dream to life" and will be featured on mtvU. The winning school will also receive an mtvU Earth Day Concert with a performance by Angels and Airwaves.

To see the entire Connecticut College proposal and film, and to vote, visit http://ecocollegechallenge.com. Voting ends March 2.

As the March 2 voting deadline approaches, the students plan to hold a "Voting Bonanza" downstairs in Shain Library on Wed., February 28, in the PC classroom. The group will station themselves at a table on the first floor near the library entrance and encourage their fellow students to go downstairs and cast a vote for the Connecticut College proposal.

"Composting is something that´s been thrown around since I´ve been here, but nobody´s ever really done anything about it," Leia Crosby said about the group´s proposal. "I started researching some of the different composting units, and came across this thing called Earth Tub, which is a fully enclosed and insulated composting unit for commercial duty, so it is used in places where a lot of food waste is generated, such as Connecticut College."

Currently, the college pays a local pig farmer $425 a month to haul away the college´s food waste. The plan is to reduce the amount of waste generated by the college by nearly 35,000 pounds a year. That waste would be turned into compost, using the Earth Tubs, then given to local farmers in exchange for produce to be used in campus dining halls.

"If we get the grant money, it will allow us to buy these two Earth Tubs, which will start up a composting system on campus," Misha Johnson said. "With this composting system, we will be using about eight percent of our food waste and turning it into compost." Arthur Lerner, the program director for F.R.E.S.H. New London, an organization dedicated to encouraging the use of a local food system, said composting is a great example of using the local resources that exist but are underused to meet a local need.

"The average piece of food on your plate has traveled 2,000 miles," Lerner said. Using the college´s compost to help grow local food that can be consumed on campus, "cuts out transportation, it cuts out a lot of the packaging and it creates jobs at home."

Crosby says she hopes the initiative will also serve as an education campaign for the campus as well as the larger community. "A lot of people don´t realize that their food waste isn´t waste at all," she said. "It can be returned to the soil, to the earth, to grow more plants and feed more people."

President Lee Higdon said he believes the initiative is a great idea. "It leverages our ability to acquire local produce, which is a very, very important aim and objective of ours, and it enhances our relationship with the local community, which is one of the things that our institution is trying very hard to do," he said.

Voting concludes Fri., March 2. View the video, the proposal, and vote. Visit http://ecocollegechallenge.com.

For more information contact: Amy Sullivan (860) 439-2526; amy.sullivan@conncoll.edu