Wrapping It Up: A Great Semester Behind Us and Another Soon to Come

This semester was absolutely awesome and we'd like to extend a big thank you to everyone who helped out along the way. A quick reflection on some things we've done recently:

Clothing Swap (11/16)

What an overwhelming success! More than 80 people participated, sustainably getting rid of their old clothes and getting some cool new stuff in the process (without using any new resources!). With 336 articles swapped, we saved cotton, dye, and an estimated 252,000 gallons of water (shout out to Kate for that calculation). We'll be hosting another clothing swap next semester, so remember to bring clothes you don’t wear back to school after Christmas break! Swap out those lame gifts for some fresh new threads. 

Community Garden Building (11/17)

In the words of Dan: On Saturday about 15 of us went to Holly Grove to work on a community garden that was just getting started.  We weeded, tilled, raked, and moved a lot of dirt!  Green Club provided awesome veggie pizza from Naked Pizza, giving us a much appreciated break.  Overall the day was a great time and we'll definitely be doing some volunteer gardening next semester, hopefully in a combined effort with Hope Garden!

Po-boy Fest bike valet with Bike Easy (11/18)

Working with New Orleans’ own non-profit, Bike Easy, we helped make biking to po-boy fest super easy and accessible! This not only alleviated the already heavy traffic in the area, but also prevented lots of C02 in car exhaust from being released. Plus we met some really cool people, had free po-boys, and got to check out the bike keg in the process. I would definitely recommend volunteering with Bike Easy when you get the chance; it was an absolute blast.

The famous bike-keg

 

 Quadruple fisting. Thanks for the po-boys, Bike Easy!

Lots of great things were done this semester and Green Club's sights are set higher for the spring. From working to green mardi gras, making cool upcycled stuff in BOSS, and fighting for Tulane’s divestment from fossil fuel companies, there are already a lot of great ideas floating around. Keep an eye on the blog and we’ll see y’all next year! Good luck with finals and happy holidays. 

P.S - Remember the Green Theme from our last meeting: Green the holidays! Wrap presents in newspaper, thrift for gifts, turn off your festive lights for part of the day/ at night, and anything else you can think of. Also spread some green holiday cheer and talk up all of our Green Themes with your family and friends, as collectively they add up to make a big difference. 

with love,

Emma Collin

Executive Vice President

To round out the fall semester this year, Green Club had its BLOW OUT WEEKEND! To kick it off, on Thursday the 15th, Green Club co-sponsored the screening of a film with Gulf Restoration Network. The film contained short documentaries and movies that Gulf Restoration Network compiled for their anual film contest.

Some clips were really funny, making fun of BP and other corporations, while others showed the drastic damage and critical state that the gulf shore is still experiencing today. For example, a lot of the oil that was dispersed and just sunk to the bottom of the wetlands during the clean up got churned up again when Isaac came through in August. Some people claim that most of the oil has been dealt with by now, but plants and animal habitats were hit again by the oil spill after the hurricane. It was a great movie, and if you'd like any more info you can check out http://healthygulf.org/. A donation could make for a great gift for friends for family!

Hope ya'll enjoyed the movie and we'll see you at the next general meeting in January! Good luck with exams, you can do it!!!

Susannah