User:Greeksgoinggreen/Greeks Going Green

The Greek Community:

 * The Greek community is a social network of undergraduate students at Universities across the nation. The goal of Greek letter organizations is to enhance leadership, promote service, and maintain scholastic achievement through family-like support systems, hence the name fraternity (from the latin frater meaning “brother”) and sorority (from the latin soror meaning “sister”).
 * The operations of each Greek chapter vary across the nation to meet the needs of their individual members. Most organizations operate chapter houses for their members. These houses vary in size from an average of 10-80 residents. These houses are often the area of action among sustainability activists because according to a study conducted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the culture of the houses and their attitudes toward the environment and sustainability are the main factor in the sustainability of the house. In fact, the changing of members’ lifestyle within the house proved to have greater impact than most costly infrastructure adaptations. Though the study did find that each house saved an average of $1,887 a year by changing lighting and water fixtures, as well as installing motion sensors on common area lighting (these savings included the cost of the new hardware).

Greeks Going Green:

 * In an effort to revamp the internal and external operations of individual Greek houses to lessen their environmental impact, the Alpha Psi chapter of Delta Delta Delta founded Greeks Going Green on the University of Florida campus. Greeks Going Green is a non-profit organization founded on the mission of creating a collective nationwide campaign to educate Greek individuals and promote sustainable living practices. The program began on the University of Florida campus but has quickly spread nationwide. Currently there are 11 Universities who have formally adopted the Greeks Going Green program. With an emphasis on the large number of students involved in Greek letter organizations and the generally high percentage of participation of those students in campus and community affairs, the Greeks Going Green founder noted that the Greek community was a “very powerful and effective tool that can be used to develop a collective following for a cause, and in the end, produce overwhelmingly successful results.”

Greeks Going Green on The University of Florida Campus:

 * On the University of Florida campus 15% of the undergraduate population is involved with a Greek organization. There are 62 different Greek letter organizations with over 5000 student participants. Of those chapters, 38 organizations operate chapter houses for their members.
 * Two of the most recognized issues when it comes to sustainability within these chapter houses are energy efficiency and waste. Gators Going Green is trying to prove that these two issues can be easily addressed and that the outcome can have many benefits. For example, many of the houses are now switching to reusable plastic containers for to-go meals rather than the environmentally harmful alternative, Styrofoam. This not only helps environmentally, but also financially as the houses save on purchasing large numbers of Styrofoam containers.
 * Gators Going Green has started several other eco-friendly initiatives. The main initiative is the Greeks Going Green Philanthropy Competition in which every chapter competes to see who can make the most environmentally sound changes. This program’s aim is to bring out the natural competitiveness between chapters to benefit the environment. As a requirement to participate in the challenge each chapter must organize or participate in an environmental service project. For the actual competition, houses have several opportunities to earn points throughout the year, such as showing significant increases in recycled material or decreased electrical usage. Another point opportunity is the “we don’t do plastic-BYOB (bring your own bag) challenge”. The local Publix Supermarket teamed up with Gators Going Green to hold the competition between all of the Greek letter organizations where they can earn points towards the Greeks Going Green Philanthropy Competition total by using reusable canvas bags instead of plastic. This effort is to cut down on the estimated 500 billion plastic bags used by the world annually.