Article by: Derek Anderson
With a lot planned for the upcoming semester, Suffolk’s Environmental Club is taking action to make the university eco-friendly and aware.
To start off the new month, as well as Recycle Mania, a 10-week competition between schools country-wide to promote the act of recycling, the Environmental Club will be holding a Green Tea Party. The event will be throughout campus on Feb. 4 at 10:30 a.m. where members will be tabling, giving out green tea and travel mugs. The event will continue until resources run out.
Other events will be available for students to take part in throughout the semester, such as the Green Roundtable/Nexus Outing on Feb. 18 at 73 Tremont at 4:30 p.m. This group “is an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to mainstream green, healthy, efficient, and intentional building and development,” according to their website www.nexusboston.org .
“[We’ll have] the movie screening of Tapped,” said President of the Environmental Club, Andrea Thayer, 2012. The documentary covers the privatization of water and will be followed by a question and answer session with a panel of experts. The screening will take place on Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. in 73 Tremont, where snacks will be provided. “We’re all really looking forward to that, I’ve heard there’s a lot of interest in that.”
The Environmental Club’s main goal this semester is to reduce the paper usage at Suffolk, especially in the library.
“Even if you have to check out a laptop [at the library], you need to fill out a sheet and that’s just a waste of paper,” said Thayer. “I know they do double-sided printing in Sawyer, but a lot of English teachers don’t like to have English papers double sided and that’s unrealistic. That’s something we’re trying to push for as well.”
Paper, however, isn’t the only focus the club has this semester. The Boston Harbor Islands are also another issue they wish to tackle. The Environmental Club plans to throw a luncheon to discuss the problems affecting the islands.
“[The Boston Harbor Islands Earth Day Luncheon] is something that we are doing later on in April for Earth Day,” said Thayer. “There’s also going to be a competition for NESAD students to design something for the islands that represents the efforts while showing some artistic interpretations of the islands.”
As the weather moves closer to spring, the club also has hopes to do some planting around Boston.
“We want to do something with planting or some sort of urban gardening, but of course that won’t be happening until later in the semester when things warm up. That’s always something I look forward to,” said Thayer.
With all these plans, the Environmental Club is well on their way to continuing through with their mission statement to “help connect students with environmental stewardship events”.
