Social Media

Climate Culture Employs Social Media to Turn America's Universities Green


Social media has been a great tool for spreading awareness about environmental and green issues. Most recently, social media was used to spread the word about Earth Hour and the cost of electricity use. Once again, social media is being used to make an impact on the environment, this time through college campuses across the U.S.

Climate Culture, a green tech startup that helps people manage their energy usage and carbon footprint, and SmartPower, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting efficient and clean energy, have teamed up to officially launch the America's Greenest Campus contest, which pits college campuses against each other to reduce their carbon footprint.

And how are they promoting this worthy initiative? By having the Obama Girl and Jake of "Jake and Amir" (a College Humor show) star in a new web video that promotes energy-efficient habits and the America's Greenest Campus contest. The video is being produced by Barely Political, the same team that produced the original Obama Girl video.

How the America's Greenest Campus Contest Works

George Mason University Green Image

The contest works by tracking the carbon footprint of each member of a participating university and calculating how much participating students and faculty have reduced their carbon footprint. Activities such as using smartstrips, turning off the lights, and biking instead of driving earn points and reduce the carbon footprint of the school. Climate Control also tracks how much money is saved by these initiatives and suggests ways to reduce CO2 and save money.

The schools that lower their carbon footprint the most can win up to $20,000 each to promote green initiatives on their campuses. The America's Greenest Campus Contest has already started, but has only been in an early beta with a few participating members. Currently in the red is George Mason University, which has about 800 members and has reduced their carbon footprint by about 2.75%.

You don't even need to be a current student to join the contest - being an alumni (and having a .edu email address) is enough. It's powered by Climate Culture's impressive and clean interface. It's also endorsed by the U.S. Department of Energy, and there is no shortage of well-known figures and organizations involved in this effort.

Social Media for the Environment

The other cool thing about the contest is the way they are launching this thing - by using social media and Web celebrities to spread awareness. Obama Girl 'sings' a song, "Save Your Energy," (actually, Leah Kauffman sings it just as she sang the original Obama Girl video) that talks about ways to save energy. She is joined by NGO, who interludes with an environmental rap (another note: the rap is actually performed by Akilles). Regardless, the choreography, lyrics, and music are all well-done.

Social media is clearly at work here in the creation and promotion of this contest. Climate Control is a great example of a green social media technology that depends on community features and spreading the word. The "Save Your Energy" Obama Girl video is a smart and sensible use of a popular web celebrity to get more people to participate in the contest. They even have Russell Simmons on board to spread the word.

Today's the official launch, so if you're interested, you can sign up at the America's Greenest Campus website and/or Tweet, Facebook, and spread the word to all of your friends. Hopefully I can help get my school (Northwestern) out of the bottom of the rankings.

More Environment and Green Tech Resources from Mashable

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