By Abigail Passafiume
SUNY Plattsburgh is offering an opportunity to fund members of campus’ ideas to change the world.
The Green Grant is an opportunity for students to receive funding and help implement a sustainability initiative of their design. Up to $8,000 can be awarded to a student with an idea approved for the grant.
Curt Gervich and the Campus Committee for Environmental Responsibility reviews applications and presentations and picks which proposal will have the greatest impact on our campus.
The Green Grant is funded by our student body. Each student pays a $3 green fee, which goes directly to the Green Grant.
“Anyone can apply, including staff and faculty. We just try to have every project involve a student. It is student money, so we really make sure students are the ones writing the proposals, or are at least heavily participating, and that every project has a big student benefit,” Gervich said.
Past projects have been very successful, such as Bike-topia, a student biking group that learns how to repair and care for bikes and teaches the green benefits to choosing a bike instead of a car. Other past projects involve the campus garden, electric vehicle charging stations and guest speakers.
“We look for projects that first have a major environmental impact. Second, we consider student involvement and student benefit. Then, we look at the budget to make sure money is being used effectively,” Gervich said.
The CCER board’s goal is to give back with all the money students are paying for the program, and get students involved in making our campus more environmentally friendly.
Gervich knows that not all proposed ideas are going to be perfect, but student projects deserve to be given a chance.
“Some projects are experiments, and we don’t know if they will be successful or not. Sometimes we even feel a project may be a long shot, but we still fund it because it is student money. So, if a student has an idea, then we should let them try to implement it,” Gervich said.
A project that was worth the try, but was not deemed completely successful was installing a bottle return in buildings around campus. This was supposed to increase the amount of students recycling, but many students did not want to carry their trash to a campus building.
On the other hand, proposals such as Biketopia and the campus garden have been around many years and are still incredibly successful.
The Green Grant is now over 15 years old and a new grant is given each semester. Started in 2008, the grant took a while to get approved and students were open to the idea of extra fees.
“The campus is reluctant to add student activity fees and it doesn’t sound like a lot, it is three bucks, but adding any fee always faces opposition,” Gervich said.
This project will be funding the Sustainability Summit that is happening April 25, 2025. This day is for anyone that is doing sustainability work on campus, to present their projects and celebrate. There are multiple guest speakers, poster sessions and a dinner for anyone interested.
