Our Initatives
Precyclemania 2010
Precyclemania is a WPI competition to promote recycling on campus before Recyclemania 2010. Different Residence Halls participated, taking weekly measures for a period of 4 weeks. The winner got U$250 in prizes provided by the office of the Provost. Recyclemania is a nationwide competition between colleges and universities with a purpose of promoting waste reduction and recycling to campus communities. WPI is participating in this 10-week long event during which schools report recycling and trash data to a national clearing house. Institutions are then ranked according to which institution collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capital, and the highest recycling rate. National rankings can be found by clicking on "results" at http://www.recyclemaniacs.org /overview.htm. Click here to check WPI's data for PRECYCLEMANIA/RECYCLEMANIA 2009.
Zipcars at WPI
In August 2008, WPI announced a partnership with Zipcar-- the world's largest provider of cars on demand by the hour or day. This new partnership allowed WPI to provide Zipcars to WPI faculty, staff, and students as an environmentally friendly alternative to keeping a car on campus. "At WPI, we are aware of the impact our students' transportation choices have on our campus, the Worcester community, and the environment as a whole," said Janet Begin Richardson, WPI's vice president for student affairs and campus life. "By partnering with Zipcar, we have one more tool in our kit to encourage students to leave their personally owned vehicles at home during the school year, while teaching them to make sustainable transportation choices that we hope will extend beyond their college years." Learn more...
Carpool World
WPI's President's Task Force on Sustainability is pleased to bring Carpool World to WPI! Please visit our carpoolworld link to participate in the carpoolworld website and find carpooling partners for your daily work or term break travel-home commutes. Please note that this site is available to WPI community members only. Learn more about Carpool World...
Sustainability Pledge Drive
The WPI Student Green Team held a pledge drive at the fountain on November 4th. These were simple every day green solutions for our students, staff, and faculty to take a closer look at and pledge to follow. Check out pictures from this event! You can join our Student Green Team on campus by sending out an e-mail to studentgreenteam@wpi.edu.
Become a member of our WPI Green Team Facebook Page in order to find out more about meeting times and events happening around campus.
- Learn more about our Sustainability Pledge Drive
WPI Earth Day's Sustainability Poster Competition
As part of the 2009 Earth Day Celebration at WPI, the President's Task Force along with the Environmental Studies Program sponsored a sustainability-themed poster competition lauched by President Berkey on April 22nd, in the Gordon Library. Congraulations to the winning groups, who were rewarded with a prize of $250 each:
Category: Technological Responses to a problem associated with greening or sustainability
Project: Generation of ethanol and fusel alcohols from lignocellulosic material
Students: Jeff Swana and Nick Dufour
Category: Interdisciplinary projects with a focus on socio-technical dimensions of social or environmental sustainability
Project: Social Entrepreneurship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Students: Jillian McMillen, Divya Mathew, and Dave Mullen
2009 WPI Earth Day's Sustainability Poster Competition
Be a Flexetarian at the WPI Campus Center Food Court
A flexitarian is someone who actively incorporates meatless meals into his/her diet but isn't necessarily a vegetarian. By making a slight change in our diets and simply eating one meat-free meal a week, we can make an impact on both our health and the environment. Chartwells new "Be a Flexitarian" initiative takes steps toward providing healthy meals to customers while building sustainable communities by offering meat-free meals for meat lovers and vegetarians alike.
This is intended to encourage healthy eating on campus and across the country as other Chartwell's locations will be offering this same promotion. Starting Monday and every Monday for the rest of the term, the Chefs Table at the WPI Campus Center Food Court will offer a "flexatarian" friendly menu. In addition to the chefs table other choices are available daily such as the Garden Burger and Grilled Cheese at Coyote Jacks, at least one Au bon Pain soup is vegetarian, Gompei's offers a vegetarian item each day, and of course there is always the Garden Emporium where you can choose your own Fruit and Vegetable selections to build a wonderful salad.
East Hall
East Hall is WPI's new sustainable, award-winning residence hall. "The most exciting aspect of the building is that it's a showcase of sustainable design – from the green roof to the incorporation of energy saving features throughout the building. The building sets a new standard for student residences. East Hall is a living-learning laboratory to educate students and the WPI community about the important role each individual can play in preserving the environment for present and future generations. In this sense, East Hall fully realizes WPI's motto of 'Lehr und Kunst,' as a place where theory and practice will be explored in the areas of sustainable design and sustainability." -Philip Clay, WPI's dean of students. Learn more about East Hall...
WPI's Solar Panels
Three solar powered walkway lights were installed at WPI's Alumni Field in early September. The lights contain a solar panel which charges a battery located in its base in order to operate LED lighting at night. "There was a concern about student safety in some of the pathways leading to the Alumni Field from Harrington Auditorium. It was less expensive to purchase and install the solar power lights than installing our campus standard lights and having to run electrical power in those locations. The solar lights are similar in appearance to our standard polls, as they have the same fixture," said Fred DiMauro, assistant VP for WPI Facilities. Learn more...
