This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Greener Horizons at Stonehill College

The school continues to expand its green programs this year

Two environmentally friendly programs are helping to become greener this year.   

The first is a car-sharing program, which allows students to rent cars on campus through hourly or daily rates, and the second is a campaign to reduce bottled water on campus.

Stonehill launched the car sharing program this September through a partnership with ZipCar, Inc., the worlds’ leading car-sharing network.  It now has two cars on campus to be shared – a Ford Focus and a Honda Insight Hybrid – which are available in a campus parking lot. 

Find out what's happening in Eastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Students can borrow them for just an hour, or for multiple days, at rates starting at $7 an hour.   Martin McGovern, Director of Communications and Media Relations, said the program is off to a great start. 

“There’s a lot of initial usage and interest in it, and the buzz is very positive,” he said.

Find out what's happening in Eastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

McGovern added that the program not only helps the environment, by reducing the use of permanent cars on campus, but it is also convenient for students.  

“Anything we can do to provide options, and smart options such as this, is a move in the right direction,” he said.

The second program is a movement to reduce the number of disposable water bottles on campus.  The drive is being led by college students belonging to the school’s Activism Club, who say plastic water bottles undermine public confidence in tap water and also waste energy. 

The students have worked with administrators to reduce bottled water by convincing them to change some of the practices on campus.  Instead of providing bottled water at all school events, Stonehill will now provide pitchers of water for events that serve fewer than 50 people.  The college has also installed ten bottle filler spouts on existing water fountains, and will be installing four more this year.

The students have been working for about a year on the program, which is in line with a national campaign, called “Think Outside the Bottle”   It was created by Corporate Accountability International, a non-profit, corporate watchdog group, and it has been implemented by about 12 other colleges. 

Other environmentally-friendly changes that the school has adopted include recycling its food oil, giving reusable water bottles to freshmen, reducing paper use, using natural cleaning products, participating in Earth Week, implementing a water conservation competition at residence halls, expanding its environmental studies program, and implementing greener construction standards that save energy.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?