Eighteen thousand and counting ...

Painted windows on the Student Union Building. (Nick Pearce Photo)

Well, that was fast. One day into the Acadia/Dalhousie One Million Acts of Green challenge, Dalhousie has met its goal.

On Friday, January 16, Dalhousie’s total acts of green tallied to 18,160 and its group members numbered 455. To be fair, Acadia met its objective too, counting 3,311 acts among 117 members.

“Who says we don’t have school spirit? That was quick!” says Rochelle Owen, director of Dalhousie’s Office of Sustainability. “It certainly seems we respond well to competition.”

The Dalhousie goal was 16,000 and Acadia’s was 3,000 (corresponding to the number of students at each school). The challenge was expected to last four months.

Ms. Owen is eager to capitalize on the momentum started by the challenge. She’s now eyeing Trent University in Peterborough as a worthy opponent. At about half the size of Dalhousie, Trent records the highest acts of green compared to any other university registered on the website. (http://green.cbc.ca)

That momentum is bound to keep rolling with an event on Monday— a collaboration between the student society Sustain Dal, DSU’s sustainability office, the Office of Sustainability and Dalhousie Bookstores to distribute free fair-trade coffee and refillable coffee mugs. “Muggy Monday” runs Monday morning in the Student Union Building. (A $2 donation to Feed Nova Scotia would be appreciated).

Jason Pelley, with DSU’s sustainability office, says he’d like to keep the challenge rolling, too.

“I knew we were going to do it, but wow, I just didn’t it expect right away,” he says. “But in any case, it’s really about pushing ourselves and coming together as a community.