Central Wins EPA 2011 Game Day Challenge

Connnecticut Congressman Chris Murphy was on campus on Friday to present Central Connecticut State University President Jack Miller the official award for winning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2011 Game Day Challenge.  The Game Day Challenge is a competition among colleges and universities across the country with a goal of lowering waste generated at college football games and increasing participation in waste-reduction programs.

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The Blue Devils were one of seven schools in New England and over 75 nationwide to participate in the contest.  CCSU and the other schools involved designed waste-reduction plans for a regular season home football game last fall and then measured their results and submitted them for the contest to the EPA.

President Miller thanked Congressman Murphy and EPA Administrator Jeri Weiss for honoring CCSU's success in the Game Day Challenge: "Central is deeply committed to environmental sustainability, and this honor recognizing our efforts is most welcome. I'm sure it will inspire us to work even harder on our ongoing efforts to keep CCSU a green university."

The Blue Devils used their game on October 22, 2011 vs. the University at Albany as their targeted date for the Game Day Challenge.  CCSU won its award in the waste minimization category, measuring the least amount of waste generated per fan.  Each attendee generated an average of .06 pounds of waste on the day.

"Each of the last two years, we have made it a priority to participate in the EPA Game Day Challenge  and dedicate the theme of a home football game to promote campus sustainability," Director of Athletics Paul Schlickmann said.  "Our efforts are really a reflection of a campus wide initiative fostered by Dr. Miller to make recycling, sustainability and environmental awareness a priority in our daily campus lives.  This is very much a team award and a reflection of the efforts of many campus constituents. Special thanks go to Dr. Richard Bachoo, our Chief Administrative Officer and Dom Forcella, our Environmental Health and Safety Officer for their support of our participation in the event and to the many students who played an invaluable part in the successful coordination of the day."

This past fall, 78 participating colleges and universities including 2.7 million fans diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from football games, prevented nearly 810 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from 159 passenger vehicles.

"Reducing, reusing, and recycling moves our nation towards an environmentally and economically greener, sustainable tomorrow," says Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "These schools and fans have taken the lead through the Game Day Challenge, and now they are ready and equipped with tools and resources to continue to reduce waste across all campus activities and beyond."

The participating colleges and universities including the fans took one step further to green the gridiron and help build awareness around the importance of recycling, reducing, and reusing.

In 2010, Americans kept 85 million tons of waste out of landfills by recycling and composting, boosting the U.S. recycling rate to 34 percent. Out of the 165 million tons of waste that went into landfills, food scraps made up 20 percent. Food is the single largest waste stream that ends up in landfills.  To address food waste, EPA's Food Waste Challenge under the Sustainable Materials Management program encourages schools to donate surplus and wholesome fresh food from sporting venues and cafeterias, instead of throwing it away.

For additional information, please visit: http://environmentalheadlines.com/ct/2012/01/10/ccsu-wins-epa-game-day-challenge-waste-reduction-program/