It’s 10:45 on a Friday morning. Gathering around a table in Wallach Lounge, eight Eco-Reps tackle their bi-weekly meeting agenda.

The agenda, prepared and distributed in advance by leader Coogan Brennan, CC ’08, reflects the group’s self-defined goal “to reduce the environmental impact of the university’s operations and improve environmental stewardship at the grassroots level.”

At this meeting, they’ll discuss a range of topics, from how to make their presence better known and understood on campus – a booth where you can bob for apples and drink hot cider along College Walk some day in October, to the findings of their residence hall recycling checks – “too many yogurt cups thrown in with water bottles … students need more information.”

The Eco-Reps Program is being jointly developed by students in the Group for Environmental Opportunities and administrators from Housing & Dining to encourage green living in the residence halls.

The program is similar in operation to that of the Resident Assistants, says Heather Tsonopoulos, Housing & Dining manager of Marketing and Communication. Students apply to become Eco-Reps and agree to certain responsibilities, including a time commitment of three hours per week, according to Scott Wright, Associate Vice President, Student Services.

Eco-Rep Eva Carpenter, CC ’09, says “we need to push, to motivate students to do small things in their daily lives to make Columbia a greener place, and perhaps also take these ideas once they leave Columbia and adapt them in their lives once they leave this little bubble.”

Brennan says the group that numbers about 20 members “hopes we’ll become a staple of this campus and green living will become something that’s completely normal.” The whole goal of the program, he says, “is to make a sustainable environment palatable for everyone – as easy as possible.”

This is the group’s first “real semester,” Brennan says. Last year they managed the light bulb exchange, in which energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs replaced more than 600 energy-sapping incandescent bulbs in Watts and Woodbridge, and worked with Give & Go Green, a Move-Out activity that helped students contribute to local charities while keeping unwanted items out of the trash stream.

As their mission expands this semester, the Eco-Reps are tackling a project called the “Be Green” Living Challenge, concentrating initial efforts in the Hartley-Wallach Living and Learning Center. Ariel Zucker, CC ’09, spearheads this effort that will work in stages, the first one with Eco-Reps working with RAs to educate students about the consequences of their everyday actions on the environment, and ultimately to have them sign a “Be Green” pledge.

The pledge includes activities such as recycling, composting, conserving electric energy and water, using environmentally sensitive products, eating local and organic food, attending sustainability events, and giving away reusable items instead of trashing them.

Eco-Rep Savina Aneja, CC ’08, has already begun her work on Wallach 2.  At their study break on Oct. 16, about 20 students met with Aneja, who explained the Living Challenge and the upcoming light bulb exchange. She says the students “were really excited about the green living challenge and really receptive to the idea of small changes in their lives that the Eco-Reps are promoting.”

Students were also eager to compete with other floors for points toward becoming the most environmentally friendly floor in the LLC, Aneja says.

She credits the efforts of Wallach 2 RA Insiya Hussain, CC ’07, for much of the meeting’s success. Hussain had e-mailed each student on the floor with background on the Eco-Rep program and Aneja’s presentation prior to the meeting. “She integrated me into the floor and it was great to have her support,” Aneja says.

Eco-Rep Carpenter says her commitment to environmental sustainability has been reinforced by fellow Eco-Reps, “really outstanding undergrads I’ve been able to work with. They get stuff done – don’t just sit around. They talk, devise plans, contact the right people, get resources and act on their ideas. They fulfill their goals.”

Carpenter and other Eco-Reps praise their relationship with Housing & Dining. “Housing & Dining is enthusiastic, wonderful, receptive to our ideas, supporting anything we want to pursue,” she says.

Scott Wright says that his department wants the Eco-Rep program to be truly collaborative: “Having a common vehicle is so important to us.”

Wright says that in last year’s Eco-Rep start-up discussions, “we knew we needed to treat this program financially the same way we treat other business initiatives.” According to Wright, that’s meant reallocating some resources for what’s most important to us and to the students.”

Aneja describes Eco-Reps as unique in terms of their close working relationship with Housing & Dining administrators. She also says that other environmental groups tend to be “already-savvy green thinkers.” The Eco-Reps’ ideas, in contrast, “are relevant to every student – with no weird left-wing. That’s what’s really appealing about them.”