Throughout the month of October, the Project Green Challenge (PGC) featured a new environmentally-themed challenge each day. A nationwide challenge, PGC engaged over 35,000 students on 4,500 campuses in every state as well as in 50 total countries. PGC’s goal was to “touch lives, shift mindsets, and equip students with knowledge, resources, and mentorship to lead change on campuses and communities worldwide.”
Each participant was sent an email at 8:00 AM and was given 24 hours to complete the challenge listed. They could upload pictures and videos to gain more points, with 20 prizes given out daily. Participants could also gain more points based on the challenge they complete, divided into categories of green, greener, and greenest. One example is a zero waste challenge. The “green” challenge was to watch a video on producing zero waste and to record 3 lessons that you learned from the video as well as a change you will make as a result. The “greener” challenge was to carry around a “bag of waste” for 24 hours and to place into it any items that you would have otherwise thrown away. The “greenest” challenge was to create a PSA to let the world know that we are in a waste crisis. Junior Sarah Silberman from Rice won one of the prizes for the “greener” challenge.
The Project Green Challenge is run by a student led group, Turning Green. This group aims to educate students about how they can make a change in the world by making environmentally sustainable and socially responsible choices. The group runs two other programs dedicated to conscious living, the Conscious College Road Tour, which is from March 18 to May 2 in 2019, and the Conscious Kitchen.