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Photo courtesy of The Sierra Club
Eco-friendliness has recently found a niche in a place as unexpected and competitive as a college basketball court.
The Sierra Club (SC) – with the help of Indiana University environmentalist organizations and activists – spread the message of clean alternatives to coal amongst IU and Northern Kentucky University basketball fans in what were called Sierra Club Clean Match-Ups.
“One of our goals was to show that the Sierra Club and Coal-Free IU support the Hoosiers and really want to make Indiana the best that it can be,” said Kim Treplitzky, Coal Campaign coordinator for SC.
SC purchased a $17,250 sponsorship for the Big Ten rival game, IU vs. Minnesota, on Jan. 12 and gave $17,500 for the UK vs. Arkansas game on Jan. 17. IU’s game was themed “Let’s score one for clean energy” and UK’s game was “Let’s score one for clean air.”
The slogans appeared on the game programs, free t-shirts, rally towels, and courtside advertisements to packed houses for both games. Fans also received information about coal use and clean energy.
The sponsorships are hailed as the first of their kind for SC, which is looking for new ways to branch out to people through previously-untapped venues such as sporting events, said Alexis Boxer, regional coal organizer.
“We thought this would be a good way to reach a larger audience and reach out to the campus community in a different way,” said Boxer, who organizes for IU, Purdue and Notre Dame – all of which have on-campus coal plants.
Notre Dame has reduced its coal consumption and now uses a more natural gas than coal, according to the school’s Office of Sustainability. One of the objectives of the sponsorship is to influence similar change on IU’s campus, said Boxer.
“IU is somewhere we have a large campaign presence and the team was doing so well, it seemed like a perfect fit … but if it wasn’t for the incredible amount of man-hours of our volunteers at IU this never would have happened,” said Boxer.
Coal-Free IU – SC’s on-campus student group that aims towards severing IU’s dependence on coal – raises awareness of clean energy before the game, organizes with media, and passes out the shirts and towels.
Coal-Free IU delivered a petition of 5,000 signatures collected since 2009 for cleaner on-campus energy alternatives to the office of the university president, Michael McRobbie, on Jan. 6.
“The authority to orient energy policy has to come from the executive level, meaning the [university] president,” said Megan Anderson, Coal-Free activist and fourth-year nonprofit management student at IU who has been with the program since it came to the school in 2009. “Our job is to let him know that there is a lot of support for that and students deserve a healthy learning atmosphere. We delivered those petitions and we are still waiting for an answer from the administration.”
IU’s coal plant burns approximately 68,000 tons per year, and coal makes up 81 percent of sources of heat energy used on the campus, according to Coal-Free IU.
Though the Hoosiers lost the close match against Minnesota, 77-74, SC and Coal-Free IU are chalking it up as a win.
“I think that it was well-received,” Anderson said. “Students are optimistic about clean energy; they promote a technology innovation and a healthy environment – things student want to see in the future of the school.”
As students and coordinators collect themselves from activities of the sponsorships, SC is looking ahead to the possibility of similar sponsorships.
“This was definitely a new tactic for us,” said Boxer. “We have a lot of interest from other universities around the country and even from professional NBA teams, but at the moment we are not actively organizing another sponsorship. As of now we are going to continue to get creative.” |
