Preparation Day, better known as P-Day, on St. Michael’s campus has always been a day of fun-filled events and great food in celebration of the end to another academic year. This year, for the April 28 event, Green-Up SMC is trying to make a small change at P-Day that could potentially make a huge difference.
Green-day
Green-Up SMC is trying to create a “green P-Day” this year. It will try to provide renewable energies and biodegradable products to try to set off everyone’s “carbon footprints,” says senior Jennifer Kerns, coordinator of Green-Up.
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The solar in its usual set-up at events and concerts.
(Photo courtesy of www.solarbus.com) |
Senior Zachary Mangione a Green-Up participant and Kerns, are organizing the “green” P-Day.
"Our goals for green up are to make the event totally carbon nuetral meaning the school purchases renewable energy credits to offset the week," says Kerns.
Mangione is working closely with Executive Board member and Student Associations's co-secretary of programming, Christene Hultgren to fund biodegradable plates, forks and knives.
Mangione and Hultgren will purchase biodegradable plates but are not sure whether they will need forks and knives for the food yet.
“We are trying to get finger foods and trying to avoid that so that everything else will be decomposable,” Hultgren says.
"What we want to do for earth week is totaling up energy use and then buying the renewable credits for it. We are looking at that as another option," Mangione says.
Renewable energies will be provided by a combination solar-powered, bio-diesel bus. The bus is sponsored by the Harmony Institute, an organization that “promotes the common core teachings of all the religions,” according to its Web site.
The solar-powered bus made its way to Jonesville, Vt., after serving schools in California until 2003.
“We yanked out the seats, put some solar panels on the roof, began running it on bio-diesel, gave it a paint job, and started driving around showing and teaching people about the real uses of renewable energy,” according to the Solar Bus Web site.
“Green-Up has volunteered to monitor the trash to make sure people are not throwing plastic into the trash,” senior Zachary Mangione says. |
The Solar Bus crew sponsors festivals, various events all around the Northeast and educates schools in the Vermont area. The bus has 400 watts of solar panels on the roof, six golf cart batteries, and a 2800 watt inverter, meaning the bus is able to power public events such as small concerts, according to the Web site.
"It's like a big electrical outlet," says Hultgren.
Although Green-Up has not yet spoken with the electrical department on campus, it is hoping to power all inflatables and WWPV's disk jockeys during the day with the solar-powered bus.
Avoiding the landfill
Mangione says that the biodegradable products used for serving food on P-Day will be re-located and thrown away to Intervale Compost Products in Burlington , Vt. The entire point of getting biodegradable products is to create decomposable waste products instead of filling more landfills. He also believes that this might change the idea of P-Day to outsiders.
“Two years ago P-Day got bad publicity around Vermont, so if this thing happens and we get a solar bus and especially if we get these forks and knives, we are not going to be sending any trash to the landfill so that’ll be good for our school,” Mangione says.
Not only will the plates be biodegradable, Green-Up members will also monitor the way trash is thrown away by students during the day.
“Green-Up has volunteered to monitor the trash to make sure people are not throwing plastic into the trash,” Mangione says.
Show me the green
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Intervale Compost in Burlington does not accept any sort of plastics for its composting.
(Izabela Socha, photo) |
Mangione says that costs for the biodegradable plates and cutlery will only be about $300, which will be funded by the P-Day budget. The Solar Bus does not usually charge any money to provide services because the company aims to spread education about renewable energies. The Solar Bus usually only initiates this fee to an institution if the organization is not able to sell their products which include books, t-shirts and stickers. Since Green-Up is not sure if the Solar Bus will be able to sell any products on P-Day, a fee might be proposed for costs of set-up and working crew payments.
"You kind of have to look at the reality if he is going to be able to sell books and t-shirts to a bunch of drunk students," Mangione says.
Not all plans are final yet, but the Student Association and Green-Up are doing all they can to make this year's P-Day, more distinct and eco-friendly than any other year.
“Once we get the final details all set up and see if the bus is going to cost anything, if [the Solar Bus] is going to be selling anything, if we need the forks and knives then we are really going establish final plans and events,” Hultgren says.
