EPA People, Prosperity & The Planet on the Mall

I was priviledged to be a part of the UMUC P3 team that presented this past weekend on the mall. Although my teammates and I had been working on the project with our amazing Professor Fu for over a year, it was in fact the first time many of us had met in person. Terri flew in from England, Carrissa from San Antonio and the remainder from points up and down Maryland, Virginia and DC.

UMUC is a global University and national leader in providing higher education for adults using an online environment. Our entire project had been completed through online collaboration with help from UMUC marketing and communication departments and the wonderful Professor McLaughlin.

With the acceptance and funding for Phase 1 of our project, the first ever submitted by UMUC, we have set the bar high. Although we did not receive funding for Phase II, the very fact that a group of adults juggling demanding careers, families and various other personal committments in addition to school work, could compete with traditional fulltime students is something that we should all be truly proud of.

The whole focus of our project was to spark a global conversation on how everyone, regardless of where they live, can make changes in their daily lives, that will positively impact the environment (and we don't just mean recycling!) one of many things I don't think the judges completely got! Data on our website already shows that conversation has begun, so while we are understandably disappointed we did not receive funding for Phase II, our project is already a success and I for one will be taking more time to ask my friends around the world "Hey do you wanna talk?"

Is the Easter Bunny Environmentally Conscious?

While preparing for Easter this past weekend I marvelled at the mountains of plastic eggs and plastic grass in a rainbow of colors, overflowing from the "seasonal aisles" of every major supermarket. The amount of plastic was truly staggering and while many will reuse the eggs and yes even the grass, year after year, I wondered how many more would see their eggs and grass end up in the landfill still decomposing 10 or 20 Easter celebrations from now.

That led me to my question "is the Easter Bunny environmentally conscious ?" At first glance as evidenced above, it would seem absolutely not, however we fail to do him justice by pinning our quest for convenience, lack of imagination and the low cost of a plastic Easter, firmly on his floppy little ears.

The Easter Bunny has always used a basket, made from natural materials such as straw, reeds or cloth to carry his eggs, real ones laid by hens! that he takes great pleasure in hiding so children can enjoy the fresh, pollution free air, while searching and gathering as many eggs as they can. Once found the eggs are stripped of their colored shells, which are placed in a compost bin, and eaten with not an errant candy wrapper in sight.

One wonders if the Easter Bunny would have the will to continue were he forced to make the switch to plastic and exactly how would we explain that to our children?. Thankfully we have a choice and I believe his choice is sustainability and responsibility. The evidence clearly shows that the Easter Bunny is environmentally conscious and next Easter I for one look forward to joining him in saying NO to a plastic Easter and YES to an all natural one.