Environmental action, one step at a time

Curran Kennedy, foreground, and other students from the Clinton Global Initiative University .

"This is the spoon we use at the Student Union," said Craig Kell, CLAS '08, holding a black plastic spoon. "And this is the one we used at the conference," he said, this time showing a yellowish spoon which - on first impression - felt and looked like plastic.

There is one major difference though: the second spoon is made out of potatoes and decomposes in 100 days.

"Imagine what difference we could make just by replacing the silverware!" Kell said.

"We are not trying to cure AIDS, or halt global warming," said Curran Kennedy, CLAS '08. "But we are all doing small practical things that make a difference."

Kell, 22, a political science major, and Kennedy, 21, who is double majoring in sociology and global health and poverty, spent their spring break in New Orleans , attending the first meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University at Tulane University .

A branch of the Clinton Global Initiative - which Bill Clinton founded in 2005 to work with government and business leaders to turn good intentions into action - the CGIU intends to do the same by bringing together college students, university officials and global leaders in one network.

The two were among 700 students accepted to the conference. They were the only representatives of UConn present.

CGIU focused on four areas: energy and climate change, global health, human rights and peace and poverty alleviation.

To be part of CGIU, every member - student or not - had to make a commitment, no matter how small or big, to take some practical action to bring about change.

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"It was all about the commitment, that was the whole point of CGIU," said Kennedy.

"It was really inspirational to see what others were doing, to see the scale people are dreaming," said Kell. "You see someone with an ambitious commitment and then you think, 'Maybe I could do more,'" he said, referring to a Morehouse College student who committed to distribute one million energy-efficient light bulbs to low-income houses in Atlanta .

The setting in which CGI U took place was also important, organizers said, because the city experienced both the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the national efforts of recovery.

"What better place than New Orleans to put actions into words?" said Kennedy, who, with other students, joined Clinton and Brad Pitt in the Lower 9th Ward to help rebuild the city. They prepared the site for the construction of 150 affordable and sustainable homes, a commitment Pitt's foundation Make It Right made at the 2007 CGI Annual Meeting.

As his own personal commitment, Kennedy, who plans on working for a Non-Governmental Organization after graduation, decided to work to establish an individualized Global Health and Poverty major.

"My personal commitment is to get a link to EcoHusky high on UConn's homepage," said Kell, who added several new ideas to his initial commitment. "We could create an entire section of eco-friendly products at the Co-op, replace the Union 's silverware with sustainable ones, have a paper drive at the end of the year to encourage students to recycle more paper."

Kennedy and Kell are working on their projects so they can present final proposals to the University.

"One thing we learned at the CGIU was that when you want something done and you need to go through someone you don't dump a bunch of problems on them," said Kennedy. "You present the problems with all the solutions at once."

"It is our moral obligation to the Earth and to the next generations to do something to change," said Kennedy. "As they said at CGI U, we can either make money burning the planet or we can spend money saving it."

"We don't have to wait for others to change, we can lead the change in the country," said Kennedy.

"If students can push to make universities carbon-neutral, that alone would cut America 's greenhouse emissions by about 6 percent," Kell said. "Imagine that." - Marianna Stebbins, CLAS '09

Note: This story is reprinted with the permission of The Daily Campus, where it appeared in a slightly longer version on March 25, 2008. Marianna Stebbins, the reporter, is a junior majoring in journalism.