University of Guelph Drive

Posted by admin on 12.06.2007 at 9:44 am

To be one of the most successful drives every semester takes a level of commitment and ingenuity that any book drive participant will tell you is extraordinary.  In Ontario there is such a book drive, at the University of Guelph.  It started with a grad student named Mark Sun deciding to lead a Books for Africa drive and continues with uber-rep Ana Perkovic these days.  As Ana chooses a successor for next year, I thought I’d better use her as a resource for as long as I can.  First, the numbers:

Fall ’05 – 149 cartons (3,427 books)*
Spring ’06 – 284 cartons (6,532)
Fall ’06 – 109 cartons (2,507)
Spring ’07 – 116 cartons (2,668)

*based on average of 23 books per carton

So how have they had such success?  I’ve never heard Ana say she was doing something incredibly out of the ordinary, per se, but instead they just know how to use the resources provided to them in an effective manner.  Between

• on a cold day (they get a few of those in Ontario) ”Give a book get a hot chocolate,” to
• large banners created at the print shop to advertise in the student center to
• a heavy advertising campaign with articles such as this in the campus e-bulletin and getting the word out to both teachers and students to
• the much appreciated and helpful assistance of the wonderful folks at the University of Guelph bookstore to
• painting the cannon on campus (apparently you can paint a large cannon and as long as someone hangs out at it then no one can paint over it until you leave) to
• the very awesome idea of putting a sign on their backpacks that says “ASK ME ABOUT OUR BOOK DRIVE!” with the dates and locations on it to
• a thermometer showing how many books they collected with a goal to
• a donor appreciation day with a raffle to get people out to
• well you get the picture, they get what they need to do!

Here are some of the volunteers (including Ana) reppin’ BFA and Better World Books.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, ana perkovic, book drive, books for africa, college, Ontario, university of guelph

Colleges and Sustainability

Posted by admin on 11.06.2007 at 8:02 am

A colleague of mine pointed out this article from Grist (an excellent site for environmental news):

Wondering which colleges are greenest? The Sustainable Endowment Institute has released its second College Sustainability Report Card, grading the environmentaliciousness of the 200 U.S. colleges with the largest endowments. Two-thirds of the schools got better grades this time than last; the average overall grade was a C+, and six schools received an overall A- for their efforts — Carleton College, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Middlebury College, University of Vermont, and University of Washington. The colleges were graded on transportation, administration, climate and energy, food and recycling, green building, and investment priorities, as well as endowment transparency and shareholder engagement (both of which most schools solidly failed). Among the encouraging statistics: Around half of the schools have committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, more than two-thirds have green building policies, and more than 80 percent source at least some cafeteria food locally.

[Thanks to Ed Would at Grist]

This is fantastic.  Awareness breeds accountability, and the more of these we have, the better.  Go see where your schools stands and do something about it!  Sustainability isn’t magic, it’s about the effort that you put in everyday.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, college, green, sustainability