EARTH Club encourages JMU to go ‘green’
By Mary Frances Czarsty, assistant news editor
Posted on January 29, 2007

Environmentalism isn’t just for hippies and tree-huggers.
At least that’s what the Clean Energy Coalition has been trying to get across to JMU students.

“A lot of the time there’s a negative connotation to the word ‘hippie’,” said sophomore Larissa Via, a member of the coalition from EARTH Club. “We’re not crazy people; we’re environmentalists reaching for positive change.”

The coalition was created last spring in response to growing concern of JMU’s contribution to global warming.  The coalition is comprised of several organizations, all with the same goal of securing 100 percent of the university’s energy through clean energy production and purchases.

“I looked around and realized a lot of organizations on campus were already concerned about these issues,” said sophomore Ryan Powanda, a member of the group from EARTH Club. “The coalition was started to unite all of these individual groups with a common cause.”

The coalition is made up of student groups ranging from the Geography Club to the Association of Energy Engineers to its newest addition, the Anthropology Club.

Since its establishment last spring, the coalition has been hard at work developing a plan to make JMU go green. Measures include encouraging JMU to purchase energy from clean, renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal and biomass and increasing JMU’s on-site generation of renewable energy, like solar.  Members of the coalition recognize that nothing can be accomplished without the support of students.

“As of now, most of the action taken by the university has been because it sees that these issues are important to students,” said senior Justin Dusdold, vice president of the Geography Club.

Just this past Friday, JMU announced it would begin using a 10 percent ethanol blend in 260 university-owned vehicles and pieces of equipment that are currently powered by gasoline. The university has also been using a 2 percent biodiesel blend to fuel the buses that transport sports teams and other university groups since the fall of 2003.

“Until this point, we haven’t really asked for anything directly from the administration,” said sophomore and EARTH Club member Marley Green. “So we haven’t had much of a chance to be given resistance. But [the administration] sees that this is important to students.”

This week serves as the official kickoff of a campus wide campaign sponsored by the coalition to encourage the switch to clean, renewable energy, Green said.

“We have a meeting with Dr. Rose this week,” Green said. “The big thing we’re asking for is the establishment of a ‘green fund.’ It’s a practical way to make all of our goals happen.”

The coalition also plans to present a bill to SGA during this Tuesday’s meeting that will endorse meeting 100 percent of JMU’s electricity demand with clean, renewable energy resources.

“The key to sustainability is reducing our own energy use,” Green said, referring to students. A big part of the coalition’s mission is to educate students on simple ways to reduce their energy consumption.

“It’s the little things, like leaving your computer monitor on all night and leaving the lights on when you leave the house,” Powanda said. “Unless we have an educational outreach, we can only do a partially good job.”

During the campaign kickoff week, coalition members will trade compact fluorescent light bulbs for regular ones in an effort to promote the bulbs. Geography club member Aaron Sobel, who is a junior, said these bulbs are 75 percent more efficient than regular ones.

While the movement is still in an early phase, it is a reflection of a national trend, Green said.

“I think it’s important to recognize what we’re doing here in the context of a national movement,” Green said.

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed.

On Jan. 22, MTV’s Break the Addiction Challenge awarded JMU’s Clean Energy Coalition $1,000 in support of their green efforts. JMU was one of five schools recognized by the Challenge.

“Everyone is an environmentalist at heart,” Sobel said. “Sometimes it just takes a big issue to get them to do something about it.”