UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES

ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIETY

Visit the Environment/Energy Club on Facebook!

The Yeshiva University Environment/Energy Club, which includes students from Stern College for Women, Sy Syms School of Business and Yeshiva College, has several goals:

• to initiate discussion of the relationship between living green and Halakhah as well as to promote energy efficient living
• to encourage the reduction of the free world's dependence on Middle eastern oil, thereby putting both the United States and Israel in better positions of national security
• to create awareness among students about the detrimental effects of excess waste and use of non biodegradable products
• to encourage the slogan Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in order to make a greener and cleaner tomorrow for generations that succeed ours

CLUB HISTORY

The Yeshiva University Environment/Energy Club, founded in 2007, began with a few individuals who had a common interest: The environment. They informally discussed the efforts that each had taken to green their communities but believed that their combined efforts could affect YU on a much larger scale.

Now, the Club coordinates all of the student-run environmental efforts taking place on the Wilf (Washington Heights) and Beren (Murray Hill) Campuses of Yeshiva University.

Through funding from the Student Council, the Environment/Energy Club has increased awareness and heightened understanding on the ecological issues that affect our planet today.

INITIATIVES

Following are some of the recent projects sponsored or initiated by the YU Environmental Society:

• RecycleMania: A fun recycling contest to promote waste reduction ran from January to April 2008. Beyond the official competition against other universities, participants created a Beren Campus vs. Wilf Campus competition, plus a floor vs. floor competition within the dormitories. This brought the competition to a more personal level with students carrying bottles back to their rooms to be weighed weekly. The Beren campus, emerging victorious, received green cloth bags during Fall 2008 orientation.
• Club Hikes: To promote an appreciation for nature and the outdoors, two hikes were held, one in the spring and one in the fall. Several dozen students enjoyed a four-hour hike in upstate New York.
• Sustainability Event Host: Michael Granof, founder of Better Place, spoke about his organization's model, whereby countries would no longer be dependent on oil for transportation, and explained how this will be implemented in Israel as one of the test countries.
• Neighborhood Beautification: In the fall, twelve students went to Fort Tryon Park, near the Wilf campus, to help clean up the surrounding community's natural environment.
• YU Unplugged: After our RecycleMania success with the dorm vs. dorm competition, YU Unplugged was established as an energy-saving contest. Every two months, each dorm's energy usage was calculated. These numbers were divided by the number of people living and working within the dorm and tallied to compare to previous energy bills. The dorm with the largest percentage decrease received a trophy to display in the lobby of their building.
• Recycling Printer Cartridges: Student collect empty printer cartridges to be sent in to empties4cash.com, an organization that pays for such cartridges in order to recycle them. Money earned through this fundraiser will be donated to Jewish National Fund, an organization that helps plant trees in Israel.

CONTACT

To join the Environment/Energy Club or learn more, visit the Club on Facebook.