2002 The Environmental Coalition at Virginia Tech was founded in the Fall of 2002 in response to the budget cuts and near elimination of the recycling department. The original main goals were to bring students on campus together, pick up the paper recycling route and hold an Earth Day event. The first building on our newly taken over paper route was Burruss Hall.
2003 The first Earth Day event / week was held in the spring.
2005
In the Fall of 2005, motivated EC members were extremely successful in our first campus wide campaign of the Green Fee by collecting over 7,000 student signatures. That’s 7,000 students that are willing to PAY to have more energy efficiency and recycling on campus! The Green Fee was eventually deemed unnecessary by the administration.
2006 The EC's membership has grown bigger and more dedicated than ever because students are now demanding environmental responsibility from our University. Members are diversified with different majors, political ideologies, and general interests but all with the same passion to do the right thing for our planet and our future.
In the fall members of the Environmental Coalition attended the Youth Energy Summit (YES), the first ever climate conference at the college of William and Mary. Virginia Tech had the most members in attendance.
2007 To start off the year devoted members lobbied state legislators in Richmond for climate legislation during winter break-- President Steger was there on business and saw us actively engaged.
The tragic events of April 16th impacted the entire Hokie community. Earth Week (entitled Envirofusion) was canceled as a result. The environmental community lost many devoted and talented students including SEEDs and EC member Julia Pryde.
In the Fall the Environmental Coalition became active on the national level by recruiting the most students of ANY university in the entire nation at Power Shift 2007 in November. Power Shift was the first ever-national youth summit on global warming and environmental issues that had over 6000 youth converge on our nations capital. It was not only a monumental event in the global climate movement, but also in all of history. We were 105 Hokies strong and made it clear that if we were going to make the bold statement that we “Invent the Future” at Virginia Tech, that we are dedicated to inventing the RIGHT future, a sustainable one.
Hokies at national Power Shift 2007 conference at University of Maryland, November 2007.
Hokies in front of the Capitol Building at Power Shift 2007. "Invent the RIGHT Future" motto is created.
Pictured from left: A Polar Bear, EC Officers Rachel Hamilton, Angie De Soto, Bryce Carter, and Julie Chop.
On December 10, 2007 officers of the Environmental Coalition had a meeting with President Steger to ask him to sign the Presidents Climate Commitment. The PCC asks universities to create and follow a timeline to become carbon neutral. Being an unnaturally warm day, Dr. Steger heard some of the impacts climate change is already having across the world. For the meeting, we had asked students to expand our motto of "Invent the Future" to "Invent the RIGHT Future" and say why it matters to them in a video petition. Together we show that our diverse community cares about the future of our world, and that we need to pursue the necessary task of sustainability TODAY.
Asking President Steger to sign the Presidents Climate Commitment, December 10, 2007.
Pictured from left: EC President Natalya Hallanan, EC Officer Angie De Soto, VT President Charles Steger, EC Vice President Ashley Murtha, and EC Officer Bryce Carter.
The photo petition that was presented to President Steger in support of the PCC.
2008 On January 31, 2008 the EC hosted Focus the Nation at Virginia Tech. Focus the Nation Day was a national educational initiative to teach about solutions to global warming; the unprecedented event included several lectures in the morning, a showcase on the Drillfield, the first "Green Effect Event" to support President Steger in signing the PCC, a panel discussion with representatives from environmental groups, power companies, and town and Virginia Tech representatives, and finally concluded with an awesome concert.
One of several speakers; discussing the importance of energy efficiency.
Pictured from left: Focus the Nation Co-Coordinator Jackie Pontious, Professor Richard HIrsh, and Focus the Nation Co-Coordinator Bryce Carter.
Focus the Nation Panel Discussion on Global Warming solutions.
Pictured from left: Political Science Club Moderator Trevon Talbot, Appalachian Voices' Mary Anne Hitt, Piedmont Environmental Council of Virginia's Dan Holmes, Virginia Tech Professor of Geosciences' Dr. Jacob Sewall, VT EC Member Angie De Soto, VT Vice President for Administrative Services Dr. Sherwood Wilson, Blacksburg Town Council's Don Langrehr, West Virginia Appalachian Power's Timothy Mallan, and Dominion Power's Vice President and Chief Environmental Officer Pamela Faggert.
Students celebrating after the day long of events of Focus the Nation.
Students rushed the stage as they grooved to Groovascape; Virginia Tech's a capella group Juxtaposition performed as well.
In the spring of 2008 the Environmental Coalition began to engage in various on-campus issues by allowing members to form several working groups: Energy and Sustainability, Dining Halls, Building the Coalition, Greeks go Green, and Recycling. Each working group developed a proposal that was consented upon by the entire organization to pursue a goal by Earth Week 2008. The results were everything from the creation of table cards to assisting in the elimination of trays at D2 and hosting a community-wide conservation day.
Earth Week 2008 was a complete success with daily events and involvement from other organizations and educational programs like Earth Sustainability. You can download the Adobe PDF of the schedule here.
At the end of Earth Week the Environmental Coalition received a letter from President Steger saying that he could not commit to the PCC agreement. In its place he offered to have a Virginia Tech specific climate action commitment established. You can read the letter here.
