Club Mission

The GreeND mission is to promote more sustainable lifestyles both on and off Notre Dame's campus.

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History

Here is a list of some of the major accomplishments GreeND has achieved or contributed to on Notre Dame’s campus since 2007:

• Expanded minimal existing recycling to campus-wide recycling program.
• Assisted in the creation of the Office of Sustainability.
• Initiated the Game Day Recycling Program during fall football Saturdays.
• The first Energy Policy Seminar in Washington D.C. over fall break is held and led by one of the club’s founders, Felipe Witchger.
• The first Green Summit is held and attended by students, staff, and faculty from all across the University’s departments.
• Opening Mass & Picnic goes green: Mass was centered around stewarding the Earth’s resources, and at the picnic, locally grown food was eaten off of 100% recycled plates and volunteers were present to in recycling almost all of the materials at one of the many recycling stations available.
• SURGE (Symposium of Undergraduate Research on Green Energy): GreeND and the Student Forum Committee for the 2008 Notre Dame Forum hosted SURGE, where undergraduates involved in energy research presented on topics covering all issues relating to energy and sustainability.  
• Game Day Recycling reached the stadium, the stadium parking lots, and the Whitefield lot with the help of student volunteers and the Office of Sustainability and culminating in over 71 tons of recyclables saved from landfills.
• Reusable Grab 'n Go Bags and a Grab’n Go incentive program were introduced at the dining halls and prizes were awarded monthly to those who used a reusable bag for their food
• THE SHOW Goes Green: A GreeND member on the advisory board for the Show helped make changes such as the t-shirt made of organic cotton and soy ink, posters and tickets made from recycled paper, increased electronic marketing and ticket sales, and the elimination of paper plates and cups.
• Energy Week:  GreeND was one of the cosponsors for the Energy Center’s Energy Week, which movie watches, quad displays, t-shirt sales, and the first year of the Waste & Weigh Project in the dining halls, which produced startling statistics and motivated Food Services to launch campaigns to encourage students to be more conscious of food waste.
• Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb (CFL) Exchange: GreeND members canvassed the dorms passing out over 4000 CFL light bulbs in exchange for incandescent bulbs and administering energy audits to record broken thermostats and other energy inefficiencies.
• Dorm Energy Competition: GreeND and the Office of Sustainability collaborated to co-sponsor the first Dorm Energy Competition where Walsh Hall was the dorm that reduced its energy usage by the greatest percentage (31%) over the course of four weeks and received $500 prize money.
• Pizza, Pop, & Politics – Energy Policy: GreeND leaders Lourdes Long and Colleen Kelly participated in a panel discussion with Professors Richard Jensen from Economics and Mark McCready from Chemical Engineering about the future of energy policy in the United States and specifically the energy platforms of the presidential candidates relative to security, technology, economics, and the environment.  
• Energy Patriot Awarded to GreeND: On October 8, 2008 Senator Dick Lugar, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee spoke to ND students about Energy Security and US Foreign Policy and presented GreeND with the Energy Patriot Award, which honors a student, professional, scholar or member of the business community who has demonstrated leadership and initiative in taking concrete action to improve America’s energy security.  
• Debating the Hard Issues- Nuclear Power and Offshore Drilling: Splitting into teams of two, students tackled the pros and cons of nuclear power and offshore drilling in heated discussions and question and answer sessions.   
• NBC Green Week led up to the ND-Syracuse Game, which was the first carbon-neutral game played in the House that Rockne Built.  Fans were encouraged to wear green in support of the cause and all of the carbon emissions produced by stadium energy use as well as fan travel, hotel stays, and visiting team travel were offset by energy conservation projects coordinated by the Office of Sustainability during its first semester on campus.
• Carbon Rally: Notre Dame challenged Syracuse to a Carbon Rally to see which school could get the most people to sign up for carbonrally.com and select pledges to reduce their carbon impacts. Notre Dame was able to trounce Syracuse and was awarded a $10,000 prize from NBC for their efforts.
• Oil Markets & Trading Discussion: GreeND’s Energy Club coordinated a lecture about Oil Markets and Trading given by ND professor Dr. Jeffrey C. Kantor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering that addressed the reasoning behind the volatility in the oil market and how to understand and interpret oil markets.
• Green Fashion Show: GreeND hosted the first ever Green Fashion Show in the LaFortune Ballroom where models donned both reused clothes from thrift shops and fashion creations made out of recyclable materials that were designed and assembled by ND design students.  All proceeds benefited the Majora Carter Foundation.
• Environmental Education Initiatives: GreeND began an environmental education in two of South Bend’s local schools.  Every week, volunteers worked with middle and elementary school students to teach the importance of the environment via green art projects and recycling projects.
• Green Summit: The theme of the second annual summit was the distinctive contribution that each academic and administrative program at the university can make to sustainability and was attended by around 200 students, faculty, staff and administrators.
• Climate Crews: Sarah Cline and the rest of GreeND were selected as one of ten winning schools in the UN Foundation's Climate Crews competition. Sarah's project on composing won her a trip to Washington DC and funding to jumpstart her proposal.  
• Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Obama Administration: GreeND co-sponsored the second discussion in a four-part panel series titled Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Obama Administration which focused on energy and climate policy.
• Earth Hour: Notre Dame joined over 850 cities turning off all non-essential lighting from 8:30-9:30PM on Saturday, March 28, during Earth Hour 2009. The Dome and Touchdown Jesus went dark for this one hour as ND united in this global symbol.
• LEED Building Lecture: Doug Marsh, Chief Architect of the University of Notre Dame, presented a one hour lecture titled: "LEED and Sustainable Building at Note Dame: A lecture by Doug Marsh, the University Architect"
• Recylemania kicked off on St. Patrick’s Day and included recycling displays, cookies, drinks, free reusable cups, and a drawing for recycled prizes. Other Recyclemania events included Recycling 101 and the Recyclemania Art Show.
• Because residence hall life is central at Notre Dame, GreeND also started a program to have a sustainability commissioner in each of the 28 dorms to serve in hall government. The Office of Sustainability now runs this program and communicates regularly with commissioners.