The UofL Sustainability Council’s annual engagement challenge is on! Ecolympics 2021 gives all students, staff, and faculty the chance win with sustainable action every week throughout February and March!
Post your actions to social media and tag @UofLsustainable, or submit them via our webform and you could win one of 8 weekly themed prize baskets and the grand prize folding bicycle. Stretch yourself to try something new: air-dry laundry, bike, compost, take the stairs, take the bus (free with UofL ID!), shut off computers & lights, unplug, recycle, reuse, etc. Full details online.
Congratulations to our first two winners!
Junior Political Science & Societal Health major, Leah Hazelwood won the week 1 coffee-themed prize pack by supporting local black farmers, composting, making her own detergent, and practicing zero waste dental hygiene.
In week 2, Anam Ahmed, a junior Biology Major and Brown Fellow from Elizabethtown, KY, wowed us into awarding her with a green thumb prize pack by avoiding car idling, boycotting bottled water, using daylight instead of fossil fueled lights, and heating only the occupied rooms of her home.
Campus Race To Zero Waste!
January 31 – March 27, 2021
A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete 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 & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by avoiding disposables (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.) 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! We will be collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and adding those numbers to UofL’s organics recycling totals! You can also compost your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons (SW corner of Strickler Hall) and the Urban & Public Affairs Horticulture Zone. Please no animal/dairy products, but otherwise, if it came from a plant, we want to compost it: fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, bread, pasta, rice, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.).
Lockdown Drawdown!
February 5 – February 25, 2021
Live on campus? Win with conservation! Inspired by Project Drawdown, all campus residence halls will compete among each other to see who can reduce electricity use the most over three weeks. All you have to do is stop wasting energy! Turn off lights/TVs/computers; unplug anything you’re not actively using; skip the elevator for the stairs; close windows tightly; dry clothes on a rack/line; take quick showers or shower with solar power at the SRC; etc.
- Keep track of each hall’s progress with UofL’s Building Dashboard, where you can see how much electricity your hall is using and learn how you can conserve! Halls in the competition include:
- Bettie Johnson Hall
- Billy Minardi Hall
- Kurz Hall (real-time data!)
- Louisville Hall (real-time data!)
- Miller Hall
- Unitas Hall (real-time data!)
- University Tower Apartments (UTA)
Prizes
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Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2021, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a curated gift basket on the following themes:
– Green Thumb
– Outdoors
– Transportation
– Cooking Local
– Sustainable Home
– Relaxation
– Fair Trade Coffee
– Social Justice - Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2021 will win a Cardinal-colored Danon Folding Bicycle (or another bike of your preference)!
- 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!
