Environmental Policy
Contact Katie kmjones@purdue.edu
Our Environmental Policy team members lobby for environmental policy that is sustainable at both the global and local levels. We are responsible for communicating our environmental concerns to those individuals who are in leadership and decision making positions.
Goals:
We're expanding this semester by connecting to groups from other colleges including IU, Earlham, DePauw, and Goshen, among others. The policy group is also holding a town hall meeting organized with Focus the Nation during the week of Earth Day. This is part of an effort to hold meetings in every congressional district across the nation. Looking into the future I have ideas about grassroots organizing throughout the campus, such as using Facebook Causes and tabling to gather people for rallies and such. A priority we want to push through is a green fee for the university. We are doing this in tandem with Earlham and IU, which also lack green fees.
News
Cookies for Call - 350 day
In late October students handed out homemade cookies on Memorial Mall to students that called their senator to voice their opinions on the Kerry-Boxer Bill.

PowerShift Indiana '09 10/10/09
3 students went to Carmel, Indiana over October Break 2009 and completed different workshops that taught what is impacting our environment and how to address it on a city, state, national, and international level.

Town Hall Meeting 4/20/09
Three different councils representatives spoke at our meeting. Download the notes!

Powershift '09
Three BGI members just got back from Powershift 09 in Washington DC. It was an exciting and enlightening trip, they learned a lot about climate change, renewable energy, and how to organize activist groups. Powershift is a gathering of 10,000 young people in Washington DC from February 28-March 2 2009. The conference allows us to demonstrate and educate ourselves through a series of panels and workshops. We carpooled with some students from the DePauw Environmental Policy Project and possibly with some students from Ball State's Students for a Sustainable Campus. Powershift is a great opportunity for us to get a view on the issues facing our environment on a national level. We can also network with student groups from other states.
The agenda and more information about the conference is available at their website: http://www.powershift09.org/