The Date Of No Impact Week Has Changed!

The no impact week has been changed from March 22-26 to March 29-April 2 due to scheduling. This should actually work out better because it's now the same week as the Eco Olympics on campus, if you haven't heard about it check it out.

iChange Sustainability Winners!

Hey Nick, Mo, Grace, and Emma!

Congratulations! Your "No Impact Hokie" project has been selected by SGA's iChange as the winner of the Sustainability Contest! We are proud to award you $200 along with the opportunity for an internship in the VT's Office of Sustainability (if one of you is interested). As iChange's Sustainability Contest winner, we would also like to assist you in any way to make "No Impact Hokie" the best it can be! Whether it's through marketing, university connections, planning,or anything else, we'd love to help in any way we can!

Lauen Fialkow

Director of iChange

The Experiment & No Impact Laws

The experiment addresses 5 sections of an individual’s lifestyle: Section 1, Water; Section 2, Food; Section 3, Electricity/Energy; Section 4, Transportation; Section 5, Waste. Sticking with the theme of the project, our tagline for the week is, “How low can you go?” For each of the addressed sections, we have implemented a set of rules and regulations for the participants to follow (all of which can be found on the blog). For example, under Section 2, all participants are recommended to adapt a vegetarian/vegan/local (choice is up to the participant) diet; buy only food from the farmer’s market, Eats, or Annie Kay’s; eat only at Farms & Fields on campus, create close to zero food related waste (no Styrofoam, no disposable silverware, limit napkin usage); and compost all organic matter if possible. The rules and regulations are up to the discretion of the participate depending on feasibility, but we recommend to go as far as possible. The specific ideas for each section may be optional, but the experiment does have a few stricter rules that all participants are asked to follow to legitimize the No Impact Hokie experiment. For the sake of organization, we will call these rules, The No Impact Hokie Laws.

No Impact Hokie Laws:

1) No cars in Blacksburg

2) Must eat food from natural food stores and/or adopt a vegetarian diet

3) No plastic bottles

4) No TV

5) No Styrofoam

No Impact Hokie - Planned Week Events

(March 22nd - 26th)

Saturday, 27th: Farmer's Market & Eats trip - 11:00am

Sunday, 28th: "No Impact Man" movie/Potluck/No Impact Hokie Kickoff - 6:00pm

Monday, 29th: Farms & Fields lunch - 1:15pm, candlelight homework session (location TBA) - 7:00pm

Tuesday, 30th: EC (Environmental Coalition) meeting in Smyth 147 - 7:00pm

Wednesday, 31st: Acoustic jam session - 7:30pm

Thursday, 1st: Potluck - 7:00pm

Friday 2nd: End of the week celebration! - 9:00pm

*The potlucks and jam session will be at my place, 101-2 Country Club Drive

Intro Into The No Impact Challenge

Get Involved With Environmental Coalition At Virginia Tech

http://www.theecvt.org/

FAQ

1. What are the next start dates?
March 22nd to March 26th

2. How long will the project take?
Five days, Monday through Friday

3. Can I do this alone?
Sure, but we recommend doing it with at least one friend.

4. How many days do I have to participate?
Do as many as you can, but like most challenges in life, the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.

5. What if some of the activities are impossible for me to do?
If a challenge is truly impossible, don’t sweat it.

6. How will taking these small steps have any real impact on climate change?
Every small behavior change you make or every political action you take adds to a growing wave of change and influences your community to get on the ball!

7. Do I have to be a hippie, activist, granola eater to participate in the experiment?
No. And that stereotype is so passe’.

8. What if I need to use a car to get to around?
You don't need a car. Get a bus schedule.

9. I’m really into this project, but my roommates don't want to join in. How do I lower my impact without driving my roommates crazy?
Find positive small ways to engage the people in your life. Cook a local meal for them, carpool with them for the week or organize a TV-free game night.

10. I live in an area that doesn’t offer recycling. How can I participate in the trash phase?
Try to avoid buying anything that needs to be recycled, such as plastic bottles, and turn glass jars into travel mugs (like Colin did) or pencil holders. For all phases of the experiment, it’s best to see what resources you have available and to use your creativity to make the most of them. You can always recycle at the local YMCA thrift store on North Main street.

11. I don’t really have time for this project but I want to do something. What can I do to help the planet and maintain my busy schedule?
Look through the no impact man website for some tips and advice, http://noimpactproject.org/

12. I have to use my computer for work all day every day, how can I take part in the Experiment?
We completely understand that most of us depend on computers for school. We are not asking you to fail your classes and go back to the land. This Experiment is about making realistic behavior changes. If you can power down over the weekend or at night that’s great! If not, don’t sweat it.

*Taken from the No Impact Man blog