Students Participate in Green Challenge

Project Green Challenge, a month-long competition run by the environmental group Teens Turning Green, is beginning its second year, and for the first time the College will join a group of over 500 other colleges participating in the project.

The challenge was created and put together by mother and daughter Judi Shils and Erin Schrode in order to raise awareness about sustainable living and educate students on how they can achieve a sustainable lifestyle in a campus environment.

The competition takes place throughout the month of October. Each day, participants receive an email with the day’s challenge and theme. The theme changes daily, ranging from your dorm room to labeling to your body.

Once the participant has completed the challenge, he or she uploads proof to the website and is entered to win a prize. There is a prize for each day, as well as overall prizes at the end of the month, including an invitation to a three-day eco-summit.

“It is really easy, and the challenges teach you about the problems with the way most of us live today and how to fix them so that you are living in a way that will help improve the state of the environment as well as your own life,” said Piper Rosales Underbrink ’15, the campus representative for the project.

There are three levels to each challenge: green, greener and greenest. This system helps make the project open and welcoming to students who have no experience with sustainable living, as well as those who are already aware and want to learn more.

Sustainability Communication and Outreach Coordinator Avery McNiff brought Project Green Challenge to Middlebury through the recommendation of Tiffany Chang, a future member of the Middlebury class of 2017, who is spending her gap year working with Teens Turning Green.

“We thought it would be a good way for the Campus Sustainability Coordinators to learn more about sustainable living and interesting ways to promote it,” said McNiff.

Rosales Underbrink took control of the project because she saw the value it could have for the college community as a whole.

“Middlebury is participating in the challenge because we are a school that has made a decision to try to live as ‘green’ as possible and to promote sustainability,” said Rosales Underbrink. “This is a great way to get people excited and involved.”

Thirty-one students are participating in Project Green Challenge, beating the original goal of 20 students. Participants like Sarah Studwell ’13 are just as excited about the project as the coordinators.

“Project Green Challenge seems like a really tangible way to put into practice a lot of the ideals that we hold here at Middlebury,” said Studwell. “It has the potential to get a lot of people doing the little things that really add up.”

Students interested in joining the challenge for the remained of October can sign up at Project Green Challenge.