IMPORTANT NOTICE:
THE BE SMART CONSERVATION CHALLENGE IS
NO LONGER A SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM. THE FINAL SCHOLARSHIPS WERE AWARDED IN SPRING 2007.
WATCH THIS SITE FOR
NEWS ABOUT THE CONSERVATION CHALLENGE.
WE HOPE THE INFORMATION HERE HELP STUDENTS AND OTHERS
TAKE ACTIONS
TO REDUCE WASTE AND BENEFIT THE ENVIRONMENT.
Be SMART Conservation Scholarship Project Summaries
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Be SMART Conservation Scholarship Project Summaries, April 2007
THE EAT GREEN PROJECT: A DELICIOUS WAY TO CONSERVE
James Gapinski
Whitewater, Wisconsin
$2,000 Be SMART Honorable Mention and $1,000 J.J. Rao Award
James Gapinski was startled to learn of the phenomenal amount of resources and energy that go into raising livestock. He verified his findings with research and set out to inform people of the high environmental cost of meat. He determined that if several people made just a small change in their diets, the results would be substantial. Using a web site, flyers and personal communication, he asked people to pledge to eat three more meatless meals per week than they had typically eaten. He used e-mail updates to confirm that the participants kept their pledges. If the current participants continue for a year, they will prevent the combustion of 119,217 calories of fossil fuel and conserve millions of gallons of water.
LIGHT BULB EXCHANGE 2007
Alexandar Peykov and Jennifer Ross
Madison, Wisconsin
$1,800 Be SMART Scholarship
Jennifer Ross and Alexandar Peykov aimed to reduce air pollution emitted from power plants by cutting the energy used for home lighting. They planned to give residents efficient compact fluorescent or LED light bulbs in exchange for inefficient bulbs removed from the homes, with the goal of exchanging 2007 bulbs in the year 2007. They conducted a fundraising campaign to buy the efficient bulbs and established partnerships. The team shares information with 20 to 50 people each week through discussions at a display they constructed. When they meet their goal, the change will conserve 150,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity and will save the residents $53,200 each year in utility costs. This will prevent 948,000 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
OUR WALNUT WAY COMPOSTING PROJECT
Adam Coon and Mark Caldwell
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
$500 Be SMART Scholarship
The Composting Project set out to keep restaurant, café and grocery store waste from going to landfills while enriching soil for community gardens. The students researched urban agriculture and composting and made connections with 10 - 15 stores and restaurants to arrange regular drop-offs of material. They built a series of compost bins using discarded pallets and monitored the decomposition process, solving problems by adding organisms and insulating the pile in winter. So far, the team has collected over a ton of material.
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