Wesleyan University
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

Do it in the Dark is a campaign run by Sustainability Office Interns aimed at senior woodframe and upperclass program housing to encourage reductions in energy use. The winning woodframe house each semester receives a $150 gift certificate valid at downtown restaurants and businesses. The winning program house receives $100 to purchase something that will support house programming. The Wesleyan Eco-Map was created by a group of students working with Professor Mary Alice Haddad. When completed, the Eco-Map will give students the ability to see how much energy their house is using as compared to their neighbors. The Eco-Tools project aims to develop more maps on campus for other types of pollution (water, air, etc.) and is modeled after Ma Jun's work in China. Waste Not is an annual student-run collection of reusable items. Student interns and volunteers collect reusables in the spring and sell these items to students in the fall. In 2013, Wesleyan began a partnership with Goodwill Industries to further reduce waste. In 2012, students persuaded President Michael Roth to sign the Real Food Campus Commitment. This nationwide commitment pledges colleges and universities to buy 20% real food, defined as "local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and/or humane" by 2020. The commitment aims to get colleges and universities to use their purchasing power to support a healthy food system that strengthens local economies, respects human rights, ensures ecological sustainability, and facilitates community involvement and education.

Through these campaigns, students are successfully working to conserve energy, reduce waste, and increase the availability of local and organic food on campus.