Earth Day/Environment Day celebrations

[Aditi Sahu]

Hi everyone,

I am a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York. With the help of MSKCC Sustainability Team (Rowena Eng, part of this group) we are thinking about organizing some "active" activity for the Earth/Environment months that will foster information dissemination, engagement and self-action. We are contemplating within institute or inter-institute challenges specific (and relevant) for graduate students and postdocs.

Would any of you have ideas/suggestions for activities and prizes that we could use? Also, would any of you be interested in organizing a similar event so we could plan and/or compete against one another?

Best,
Aditi.

[Lee, Gail]

HI Aditi,  This is an interesting idea!  We are thinking about using the UC Cool Campus Challenge platform, I2SL Freezer challenge, or focus on getting labs certified.  We’d be happy to share our green lab checklist to the group.  Rowena is familiar with our checklist which may have been updated in the past year or two.  Liz can share the template.

 

Gail Lee

UCSF

 

From: green-lab...@googlegroups.com <green-lab...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Aditi Sahu
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 8:55 AM
To: green-lab...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Earth Day/Environment Day celebrations

 

Hi everyone, I am a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York. With the help of MSKCC Sustainability Team (Rowena Eng, part of this group) we are thinking about organizing some "active" activity

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[anu verma]

Hi. Aditi. I remember participating in a panel discussion and while we talked about why we all need to jump to action, panelists talk about green changes they did in their departments and campuses. It’s aspirational and educational. You can pick plastic issues to batteries to freezer challenge. There is so much to talk about. Moderator can ask  some challenging questions and leave time for Q&A. If you provide lunch, do ask people to bring a reusable plate and a water bottle to prove the point. 

Hope this helps. 

Anu Verma. 
 

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[Allen Doyle]

HI Aditi,

               A rivalry is a great idea and can add some fun to these events---that’s how Freezer Challenge got started, with a pretend “bitter” rivalry between UC Davis and CU Boulder….Grrrrrrr!!!!

               Do you have any colleagues at Weil Cornell who want to “duke it out”?  HHMI? A colleague just about anywhere at a similar institution can be a great motivator, (and learning buddy).

                Cheers,

	Allen Doyle, MS Safety and Sustainability Specialist “Ensuring Safe & Efficient Airflow Systems for Critical Workspaces”
	Raleigh  Atlanta  Detroit  Hartford  Erie Office 919.319.4290 | Cell 805.729.1581 Web Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

 

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[Christina Greever]

Hi Aditi & green labs planning group :)

I will shamelessly plug the 2023 Freezer Challenge here - if you're looking for a way to foster competition between lab teams or research organizations, it can't get much easier than rolling out the Freezer Challenge since it is an existing program with resources ready for you to harness. 

We just heard today on the I2SL University Alliance Group call about how several academic institutions are promoting the Freezer Challenge in different ways at their organizations. Some of what was discussed is highlighted here. Some organizations use food, gift cards, lab supplies benefits like a year's supply of gloves, or even just recognition from an administrator as the "carrots" to incentivize labs to participate in the competition. We give out lab and organization awards for the overall Freezer Challenge too - about 30 awards are recognized, but with thousands of labs competing, not everyone is able to be recognized. 

We have a Participant Kit to help people promote the competition at their institutions, and we have the site coordinator role so those individuals have visibility to the scoresheets started by their organization and can work from their end to get labs to complete the challenge! 

The benefits of the Freezer Challenge are:

• engage labs at your organization in sustainability initiatives!
• Save energy
• Improved sample access and sample integrity
• Reduced costs for research organizations
• Improved resiliency
• it's fun!

Keep up the great work out there everybody!

Regards,

Christina Greever

My Green Lab

[Gilly, Quentin Carl]

Aditi,

 

Energy and sustainability scavenger hunts might be a fun way to engage the lab groups on Earth Day.  You can essentially task people to explore the labs and report opportunities they find, and then you can follow up and see what people can actually implement as far as changes. I have not participated in one myself, but I have heard good things from colleagues that have tried it. There are plenty of stories online about it.  

 

My go-to Earth Day event is hosting a Freecycle.  Details and tips can be found here:  https://green.harvard.edu/topics/waste/reuse.  I consider it “active” because people donate so many items and carry them to the freecycle, and it’s usually a mad rush of dozens of people for the best items after we do a countdown at noon. 

 

The Sustainability Escape Room was a huge hit several years ago at Harvard with the undergraduates, but I remember it took them a lot of time to organize. 

 

Good luck with your Earth Day at MSKCC!

 

Best,

Quentin

 

Quentin Gilly (he/him/his)
Interim Assistant Director, FAS Sustainability and Energy Management

Harvard University, Office for Sustainability

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[larapes85]

Hi Aditi,

It's a great idea. I will contact you in private, maybe we can organize something together. At Weill Cornell Medicine we have a new energy and sustainability group. It's still pretty new and unknown to the WCM community as we want to have a website ready before sending the news out, but the green lab group exists and has been active (even if still kind of small) for over a year. I recently sent out an invitation to participate in the freezer challenge. Only 1 group reached out for now, but maybe a competition with MSK with prizes will get more labs involved!

Best,

Lara

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[Allen Doyle]

Oh, Ohhhhh… 

I hear an Upper East Side Green Turf War brewing….

This could get Gnarly!  

(Hmmmm…..Perhaps we can get some sports betting involved????)  😊

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[Aditi Sahu]

Dear all,

Thank you so much for all the great ideas and feedback!

Rowena has been looking into implementing the freezer challenge at MSK.

@Quentin, would you know of any additional resources or templates for the scavenger hunt or escape room that have been organized before?

Thank you all!

Best,

Aditi.

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