Over 70 students and faculty gathered in Alumni Hall Feb. 25 for Vanderbilt’s annual Green-a-thon, hosted by Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility, where students presented pitches focused on improving campus sustainability. A total of 14 teams, of one to three students, participated.
Teams identified a sustainability-related problem, proposed their solution, quantified how it would impact campus sustainability and provided estimated budgeting for the project. Judges were then invited to ask follow-up questions before selecting first, second and third place winners. In the coming weeks, a SPEAR subcommittee will review the student pitches and determine how to allocate funding from Vanderbilt’s Green Fund, a $150,000 fund to finance student-led sustainability projects.
Sophomore Thomas Toole, a SPEAR co-coordinator, reflected on the significance of the Green-a-thon for students interested in sustainability.
“[The Green-a-thon] is a great way for students to get visibility in terms of getting in front of judges and their peers,” Toole said. “What I really love is how we can engage students and really use [their] ideas.”
Student pitches ranged from building a campus greenhouse and creating shelters for campus wildlife to installing solar panels on the roof of Rand and improving campus sprinklers.
Senior Mark Sowers presented a project titled “Fixing Vanderbilt’s Broken Irrigation System,” after noticing what he described as excessive water waste from malfunctioning and poorly-angled sprinklers.
“I used to adjust sprinklers as a kid, and after coming here and seeing those same issues happening with Vanderbilt’s sprinkler system, I thought something had to be done. And the Green-a-thon’s a great pathway to get these things done,” Sowers said.
Sowers’ proposal expanded on another pitch of his that earned second place at last year’s Green-a-thon. The Green Fund pledged $35,000 to implement aspects of both of his proposals.
First place was awarded jointly to three teams, whose projects focused on reducing waste during move-out season, when students often discard dorm decor and appliances. These projects were titled “Move Out Trash to Move In Treasure,” “Summer Sustainability” and “Anchor Exchange.”
“Anchor Exchange” is a proposed website that would allow students to sell or give away decor or appliances. Sophomores Wasi Hussain and Varun Kandasamy, the co-creators of “Anchor Exchange,” said existing platforms, such as Fizz Marketplace, can be untrustworthy and difficult to navigate due to their unreliable search features.
Hussain shared his appreciation for the judges’ decision to combine the three first-place teams.
“It was really nice that [the judges] chose to combine all our groups together. I know it’s going to be much easier working on such a large team with other talented people,” Hussain said.
Toole also said he hopes the momentum continues beyond the event itself.
“In the long term, we’re just excited to see all these efforts compound into making Vanderbilt greener and to get the word out there about campus sustainability,” Toole said.
