From September 16-18, 2011, the Dave Matthews Band Caravan came to Randall Island in New York City. Not only has Dave Matthews Band been a box-office leader in concert ticket sales, they also set a great example for other artists and music festival coordinators to go green at their concerts. The Dave Matthews Band Caravan was one of the greenest concerts I have ever attended and really proved that if people are given the choice to make a more eco-friendly decision, they will chose to go green and help save our environment. Environmental health is a big concern for many institutions around the world, and going to the DMB Caravan showed me how easy it is to bring the green revolution back home to our universities.
DMB Caravan teamed up with Brita’s Filter For Good Music Project to help both music artists and fans do their part to save the environment by giving them the option to decrease their carbon footprints at concerts. This includes providing an alternative for bottled water by setting up water refill stations and encouraging the use of reusable plastic bottles, sold by companies such as Nalgene. As long as there is a water source near the concert area, Brita is able to install a water filtration system on the concert grounds, providing free water to fans and workers. Smaller water refill stations are set up backstage for performers and reusable water bottles are given out at the concert so concert goers could stay hydrated and help reduce plastic water bottle waste.
I go to a large university in an urban area which definitely feels the effects of city pollution. My campus does several things to go green within our community, such as having printers default to printing double-sided, installing small water refill stations in our student centers, and having the largest solar-energy powered campus facilities in the nation. Being that our university is in an urban area, we students see exactly how pollution affects the air we breathe and the grounds on which we study and walk. We have numerous “Go Green” campaigns at school which have recently worked to get our university buses to use leftover cooking oil from the dining halls and also limit the sale of plastic water bottles.
Stay educated about the Green Movement—after all, we are in college and therefore have a huge platform to jump off of whenever we want to start a change in our communities. The first step to changing anything is educating yourself about the topic and then bringing awareness to others. If the Green Movement is something you feel strongly about emphasizing on campus, start by getting signatures to bring a water refill station to your campus through Brita.
If you are given the choice to go green, would you? Start the revolution at your school!
Dawn Angelicca Barcelona is a sophomore at Rutgers University, a member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars and a sister of Iota Sigma Beta, an elite leadership sorority. She is majoring in English and Creative Writing. Among many things, she is a poet, dancer, green tea lover, and productive insomniac. She was a former Rutgers Admissions Student Blogger and currently works at Xanga.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DawnAngelicca.