Changent Katherine Walsh Greens Up Boston College

When Katherine Walsh joined a student organization called ‘Ecopledge’ at Boston College, it wasn’t exactly a popular group to be in. There were just five members, and the general sentiment among her fellow students at the time was that environmentalism was just for “crazy hippie treehuggers.” Then, as part of the group, Walsh attended the annual Northeast Climate Summit at the University of Vermont, meeting hundreds of other college students dedicated to environmentalism – and it changed her life.

When, as a sophomore, Walsh found herself thrust into a leadership position in Ecopledge, she decided to make some changes. From Changents.com:

We started questioning our focus as a group and realized we could not continue focusing on the national issues without trying to change our own issues at BC. We started off slowly, establishing and nurturing better relationships with Facilities Management,Residential Life, and Dining Services, or as we liked to refer to them as “The Big Three”. And so began the next three years of triumphs, disappointments, lessons, and great change. Some highlights: BC moving from 33rd to 12th in RecycleMania; the beginning and continuation of campus events like Harvest Fest, Mt. Trashmore, and the Better Off Contest; the changing of over 800 incandescent bulbs throughout campus to fluorescent bulbs; hiring of an Energy Manager, promoted to Director of Sustainability and Energy Management; the creation of a BC sustainability website (bc.edu/sustainability); the purchase of five BigBelly solar trash compactors; numerous energy retrofits in garage and Plex lighting and heating and cooling mechanisms; the creation of a campus organic garden. BC even just had its first (and very successful) “BCisGreen Week”.

BC Dining has been a true “Changent” of its own, establishing a Green Cafe of organic and local foods only, composting and new recycling patterns in the dining halls, and no longer selling bottled water within the actual food areas. These many accomplishments came through our committed long hours of meetings, campaigns, collecting signatures, hosting campus events, and campus-wide publicity through “The Heights”. We in Ecopedge were rewarded for our work with the Mass Lottery Community Champions Award, the “Ever to Excel” Award, the “Skills: Leadership Award”, and the 2008 Heights Person of the Year Award.

Today, Ecopledge is a popular campus organization with over two dozen members. In addition to winning the “Ever to Excel” Award as a group, Katherine Walsh won the 2008 Leadership Award for her efforts on behalf of the environment.

We’d like to congratulate Katherine and all the other past and present members of Ecopledge who have helped make Boston College a much greener place. Check out Katherine’s continued work to ‘Grow Boston Greener’ at Changents.com/KatherineWalsh.

Link [Changents]

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