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Greening Dance Marathon

Dance MarathonThis March, more than 1,400 students danced for 30 hours raising money to benefit Team Joseph and research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Not only did they raise over $1.3 million, but also made a concerted effort to offset the carbon footprint of the event. For the second year in a row, the Associated Student Government Sustainability Committee (ASG SusCom), the Office of Sustainability, and Dance Marathon teamed up to provide reusable water bottles to dancers, compost food scraps, and track energy consumption to purchase carbon offset credits. In addition they organized significant recycling collections during the event.

DM and ASG SusCom are already looking forward to next year. They hope to utilize more energy efficient lighting in the dancer tent and are researching the use of an energy generating dance floor. “I have been so happy to continue this dialogue between ASG and DM,” stated ASG SusCom member, Lizzy Conger. “The productions and food committees have been so positive in considering our proposals and helping come up with their own ways of being green. What we can't do this year, we are already looking into for next year, and I know that this partnership will only strengthen year after year,” said Conger. 

ASG SusCom is working to expand their green event consulting initiative to other events, such as the Global Engagement Summit, Dillo Day, and Food Day. Email ASG SusCom to learn more about this program.