What is Sustain Champlain?

Sustain Champlain is a campus-wide initiative strives to infuse sustainability concepts and practices across Champlain College by coordinating and promoting best practices within four areas: our institution, academics, operations, and culture.


Thursday, January 29, 2009

Green Blogs Worth Knowing

Look Right.

See that list of blogs over there? Green Blogs Worth Knowing?

Well, we are looking for more Green blogs! If you read a blog that you want added to the list, let us know!

Where are you learning more about the environment?

Did you know about CarShare VT?

Hey! Did you know that CarShare Vermont has 2 brand new cars on campus, and 6 more around town? And, if you've had a license for 2 years with a good driving record, you only have to be 18 to become a member! It's a great way to get to out to ski at Bolton for the day, head to Boston for the weekend, or just run errands around town, and you don't have to worry about where to park the car!

If you want to know more, you check out the website, call Karen at CarShare Vermont at 861.2340 or email karen@carsharevt.org. It only takes a few days to apply and you could be driving!

And by the way, it not only helps you, it helps our community too!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Green Up Your Gaming

Play video games? Probably. But do you turn off your console when you're done?

This article gives you some important info about the amount of energy game consoles consume.
The NRDC measured the amount of power the Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii use when they are active, idle and turned off and found that these systems use nearly the same amount of power when someone is playing them as they do when they are unattended..... Video game consoles that are left on all the time might be consuming roughly three times as much electricity as the flat screen televisions they are connected to.

Two things you can do?
1. Find that POWER SAVE button on your console.
2. When you are done playing, turn off the console.

Want to level up?
If your console is plugged into a power strip, turn it off when you are done playing, leave the house, or go to bed. Doing so eliminates PHANTOM LOAD.

Stay Green.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Champlain partners with CarShare Vermont

Champlain College’s new partnership with CarShare Vermont makes a great story.


Starting as early as December 8th, two Subaru Imprezas will be parked at Champlain College for you to use when ever you want to. Or you could choose to drive a Toyota Prius from a Downtown parking location. CarShare Vermont is a Non-profit, grant subsidized organization so rates will be kept low: $4.95 an hour and $0.25 a mile with a $15.00 monthly fee. CarShare will pay for the gas and insurance and up keep and everything else, so this is cheaper than owning your own car. And multiple drivers could be on one account which would reduce costs even more.


More topical to Sustain Champlain, and the reason I’m really excited about this, is studies show that each CarShare vehicle put on the road in other cities has replaced 7 to 20 privately owned vehicles. As well as being convenient for us, it all works out as a benefit for the environment.


Between free CCTA bus passes, emergency taxi rides, and a brand new CarShare program, we are really chipping away at they reasons why people need to drive a car to campus. And that’s the idea.


Commute smart!


Gabriel Calvi

Sustainability Coordinator

Champlain College

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Sustain Champlain BLOG lives

Welcome to the Sustain Champlain blog.

Who is Sustain Champlain?
We are a group of faculty, staff and students who are interested in the environmental impact of Champlain College. Our goal is to develop strategies and recommendations that will help create a more sustainable, efficient, and environmentally friendly Champlain.

You can learn more about us at our wiki.

Or, add us to your RSS feed and keep up on what we are doing to make Champlain a greener, more sustainable place.