Think green campaign launched on campus
By Hannah Larking
News Editor
August 27, 2008
 The University of Windsor’s campus cleanliness committee launched a “think green, keep it clean” campaign with a barbecue on Monday, August 26.
Arthur Barbut, Special Projects Manager at the Office of the Vice-President Administration and Finance, said that the campaign aims to get staff and faculty out to sign a pledge that commits them to making campus cleaner and more environmentally friendly by littering less and recycling more.
From there, the committee will take its campaign to Welcome Week. “We’re going to be there for three days… trying to get new students to sign our pledge to keep our campus litter-free,” Barbut explained.
“We’re trying to target all students, but we feel that [Welcome Week] is where we can make our case the best, because the students coming in will see that the campus looks pretty nice and we will try to encourage them to keep it that way. We also want them to take ownership — it’s really everybody’s campus … the onus is on all of us to not litter in the first place.”
Right now, about 60 per cent of the outdoor campus is covered with recycling stations, and Barbut hopes that within three years, it will be the entire campus. However, it will take help from staff and students to make the system work, “One of our biggest concerns is contamination. We’re trying to educate students that, if you’re not sure, throw it in the garbage,” Barbut said.
Barbut also added that there will be an incentive for staff and students to think green and keep it clean. During the upcoming year, members of the campus cleanliness committee will be on the lookout for “litter-picker-uppers”. If someone from the committee sees a students picking up litter voluntarily, they will be rewarded with environmentally friendly tote bags, water bottles or travel mugs. “We’re really trying to foster this culture of being self-conscious about what we do and trying to be more environmentally friendly,” Barbut explained.
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