Ecolympics 2026 making an impact - Bettie Johnson Hall wins Resident Race
Ecolympics 2026 is in full-swing and making a big impact! This eight-week challenge runs through March 28th, and there's still plenty of time to enter and win!
Ecolympics is two fun sustainability competitions to get you engaged in saving our one green planet!
Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of the fabulous weekly prize baskets!
Prizes:
- Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket!
- Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics will take home our grand prize: a bicycle and helmet.
- Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!
The Resident Race! has just concluded. For three weeks (February 9 - March 1), residents in eight halls were encouraged to win with conservation as they competed among each other to see who can reduce electricity use the most, by taking simple steps to reduce energy use such as turning off lights, fans, space heaters, TVs, game consoles, etc.; unplugging anything not actively in use (especially empty refrigerators); skipping the elevator for the stairs; closing windows tightly; waiting until you have a full load to do laundry & wash with cold water; drying clothes on a rack/line; taking shorter showers or showering with solar power at the SRC; etc. Residents could keep up with the Race on UofL's Building Dashboard.
Our big winner is Bettie Johnson Hall, whose residents were able to reduce electricity use by 28.1%, and they will be rewarded with a dinner party sponsored by RHA! The competition was stiff this year, with all but one of the halls reducing energy use, and many making significant cuts. All residents should be congratulated! Even with UTA’s huge increase, we saw an overall 2.6% reduction in energy use across all 8 halls throughout the three week competition, saving 7474 kWh, or 6 Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) equivalent. That’s equivalent to the emissions from 15,205 miles driven by an average gas-powered car, or 6,632 pounds of coal burned; or the amount of carbon sequestered by nearly 100 tree seedlings grown for 10 years!
Even though the Resident Race has concluded, there's still plenty of time to dive into Ecolympics 2026 and enter to win fabulous prizes as UofL continues to compete in the Campus Race To Zero Waste! - February 1 - March 28, 2026. This is a friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL is competing to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website
.
- REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by avoiding disposables (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.), donating useful stuff to the UofL Free Store instead of throwing it away, and fully utilizing UofL’s amazingly easy, single-stream recycling system that lets you recycle everything in the same bin, everywhere on campus: all types of plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass! Details on what you can recycle at UofL here.
- COMPOST! Turn trash into treasure just by composting your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons next to the Baptist Center and the Urban & Public Affairs Garden behind Bettie Johnson Hall. Request a compost caddy for your room through our online request form! If it came from a plant, we want to compost it: fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, baked goods, grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.). We are always collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and will be adding those numbers to UofL's organics recycling totals in the Campus Race to Zero Waste.
-
RECYCLE E-WASTE!
Don't send your old electronics to the landfill! We will have special collection points set up in the following locations Feb. 18 - March 13:
BAB (1st floor lobby)
SAC W310
Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st floor Study Area, SE corner)
HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators)
Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. Separate bins will also be available for recycling of any type of batteries, lamps/bulbs, or ink/toner cartridges.
Finally, we'd like to shout-out the first four weekly prize basket winners!
- Professor of Art, Rachel Singel, was the first weekly winner in UofL’s Ecolympics 2026. We were inspired by the steps Rachel takes to reduce waste and pollution. Rachel shared many green actions in the first week, including donating clothes to the Free Store, recycling and repurposing items, commuting by bike, composting, and air-drying laundry.
- Student Jalen Harbin took home the prize basket for Week 2 of Ecolympics. Jalen’s green actions included recycling, walking, turning off electronics, and using a reusable water bottle.
- Alarah Gillum, a Community Engagement Specialist with Student Involvement, won our Week 3 Ecolympics prize basket. We were inspired by her efforts to gather five pounds of outdated surplus cords and technology to contribute to our E-waste Recycling Drive that runs through March 13th.
- Student Fre Burke won the Ecolympics Week 4 prize basket for inspiring us with their green actions, including walking and riding TARC, turning off lights and equipment, refilling water bottles, and composting
.
