Students Doing It For Themselves!

Worldchanging has a cool article on The University of Canterbury Students’ Association, which is hosting a green orientation week along with other sustainable initiatives. It’s really awesome to continue to see different student groups at different educational institutions encouraging their schools to go green. My favorite initiative is the “Eco-My-Flat”:

Incorporating community-based social marketing techniques, the team developed an 'Eco-My-Flat' competition. It is to be run over March to promote sustainable student lifestyles, with a workshop each week covering the themes of energy, waste, transport and consumption. Research by Canadian environmental psychologist Doug MacKenzie-Mohr shows that methods advocating change for sustainability need to address specific barriers to behaviour change using a variety of techniques. Therefore, the competition not only gives information, but also guidance from a professional facilitator and a chance to learn from discussion with their peers at the workshops, as well as incentives in the form of prizes.