CUNY Sustainability Contest
by Toni S. Johnson

Living up to its name of “Most Sustainable,” Kingsborough Community College is inviting its students, staff, faculty and alumni to participate in the CUNY sustainability contest.

“CUNY Sustainable Shorts is a video contest with a $500 cash prize sponsored by Sustainable CUNY with the theme 'Going Green’,” states the KCC website.

This gives everyone a chance to participate and voice their opinions on helping make this a healthy environment.  With President Obama’s energy policy to boost renewable energy and his moves to explore alternative energy, the time is now to create ways of helping to sustain the world around us.

On the CUNY Sustainability website it states, “The City University of New York (CUNY) is dedicated to minimizing its ecological impact and promoting a culture of sustainability throughout our community. CUNY is committed to investing the resources necessary to construct, retrofit and maintain more sustainable facilities. More broadly, CUNY will work to incorporate sustainability into the fabric of the University by integrating sustainability into the curriculum, supporting research and partnering with civic and business leaders to achieve a more Sustainable CUNY and a more Sustainable New York.”

The video entries can be submitted up until March 28 and can be as creative as the individual chooses while inspiring the world around them to live sustainably.

This can be done in song, report and serious or funny, but the message should be clear. Ideas are actually all around campus, with “Think before you print,” and all of the brown paper towels located around campus are recycled. Also, organic food selections are available in the cafeteria and fluorescent lighting is also used. Submissions can use these ideas as creatively as they like.

Entries should be no more than two minutes in length and submitted to the Sustainable CUNY Shorts YouTube Group (http://www.youtube.com/group/sustainablecunyshort), or on the KCC website link to the contest.

The public will be able to view the video submission and comment as well.  On Earth Day, this April 22, students and CUNY leaders of the Sustainable program will choose a winner “based on content and public views.”