RecycleMania Comes to UW-La Crosse

UW-L is one of 510 colleges and universities participating in this year's RecycleMania event. The schools represent all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as institutions from outside the United States. Over a 10-week period from February 1 to April 11, 2009, participating schools will compete in various categories measuring the success of their recycling and waste prevention efforts.

Colleges and universities choose to participate in one of two divisions, the Competition or Benchmark. The Competition Division houses the traditional competitive rankings based on standard reporting criteria. The Benchmark Division allows schools to unofficially compare themselves with other schools and to promote RecycleMania on campus, without the formal reporting requirements of the competitive ranking. UW-La Crosse is in the competitive division this year.

The RecycleMania competition began in the spring of 2001 as a friendly challenge between recycling coordinators at two schools in Ohio, Miami University and Ohio University. From the outset, the competition was meant as a way to get students and staff more excited about participating in recycling efforts.

JCES Sponsors Webcast and Discussion on Global Warming

The UW-L Joint Committee on Environmental Sustainability will sponsor the 30-minute WebCast, Solutions for the First 100 Days, on February 5th at 6:30 p.m.

Join nationally known scholars and activists David Orr, Hunter Lovins, Betsy Taylor, Ray Anderson, Dianne Dillon-Ridgely, Jessy Tolkan, Billy Parish and Wahleah Johns as they discuss global warming solutions for the first 100 days of President Obama's new administration.

A group discussion on how each of us can be a part of the solutions, will follow the WebCast.

When: February 5th-- Introduction at 6:30 p.m., Webcast at 7:00 p.m., Discussion at 7:30 p.m.
Where: UW-L's Wing Technology Center Room 102
No charge, no advanced registration necessary
Contact: Carol Miller, Sociology/Archaeology, miller.caro@uwlax.edu, (608)785-6777.

Viterbo University Hosting Sustainability Symposium

The Viterbo University School of Letters and Sciences HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM 2009 has a sustainability theme this year. The Good Earth: Understanding Our Relationship with Nature will be running from February 2–4, 2009 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. All events are free and open to the public.

Keynote speaker Curt Meine, Ph.D., will present “Leopold’s Land Ethic in an Age of Consequences” at 7 p.m. Feb. 2 in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre. Meine is the director of the Center for Humans and Nature in Baraboo.

There will also be a free soup luncheon held Feb. 3-4 in the Reinhart Center Board Room on the Viterbo University campus.

You can find out more about the symposium and a schedule of events at: http://www.viterbo.edu/GoodEarth.aspx.

Chancellor's Energy Challenge Begins February 9th

The Chancellor’s Energy Challenge is a month-long competition where all UW-L residence halls will compete against each other to reduce there energy consumption. The competition will begin on February 9th and run until March 8th.

Weekly challenge updates and final results will be posted at www.uwlax.edu/sustainability. At the end of the challenge, there will be an award ceremony hosted by Chancellor Joe Gow. A tree will be planted outside the winning residence hall with a plaque indicating the winner of the 2009 Chancellor’s Energy Challenge. Individuals from any residence hall who submit a pledge at the sustainability website will be eligible to win prizes throughout the competition. Winners will be drawn randomly from the pool of submitted pledges.

For more information about the Chancellor’s Energy Challenge, contact Matt Groshek, groshek.matt@students.uwlax.edu.

Dan Sweetman Discusses Governor Doyle's Executive Order #145

UW-L's Dan Sweetman presented to the JCES about Govenor Doyle's Executive Order #145 requiring all state buildings to conform to high environmental and energy efficiency standards. The order will affect both existing buildings and future construction. You can listen to a podcast of Dan's presentation. You can also read the original press release related to the signing.

Dan also discussed Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown, available free online in PDF format.

Through a strategic realignment of responsibilities, Dan now has duties to represent UW-L Facilities Management's involvement with implementing an integrated campus-wide sustainability program.

Sonya Newenhouse from Community Car

The JCES recently had an opportunity to listen to a presentation by Sonya Newenhouse of Madison, WI about her business, Community Car, a member-based, car sharing service. There has been interest in expanding Community Car to the La Crosse area. You can listen to a podcast of Sonya's presentation as well as download and view the PowerPoint slides in PDF format.

UW-L Composting Program Back on Track

Although it originally started in 2002, the UW-L composting program was halted in 2006 due to a lack of volunteers to haul the food waste from Whitney Center to the composting bin. This year, with the help of Student Services and the hiring of a four student Composting Crew, the composing program has been revitalized and should prove to be a valuable addition to UW-L's sustainability efforts. Read more at: http://www.uwlax.edu/sustainability/html/composting.htm.