Members of emPOWER have recently formed a new student group to raise awareness about environmental issues.
The group, which is currently named "Environmental Events," is the latest sub-group of emPOWER, a student organization that Steering Committee Chair Ari Rubenstein '11 calls the "hub of student environmental activity at Brown."
The goal of the new sub-group will be to work on raising awareness about major environmental issues the planet faces, according to co-founder and fellow emPOWER member Ben Howard '11.
Howard and Rubenstein said they created the new group based on a perceived need for more events centered around environmental issues.
"We want to have different awareness events about issues that may not be in the news every day," Howard said. He mentioned the buildup of plastic bags in the ocean as an issue that has compounded over time and has not received enough coverage by the media.
Rubenstein said many Brown students who care about the environment still have not found a group that suits them, adding that he hopes this group will motivate more students to get involved.
"There are a lot of students at Brown who consider themselves environmentally conscious but don't have an outlet to be active," Rubenstein said. "You don't have to be part of Beyond the Bottle or working for sustainable food systems or a specific issue like that to get involved."
The new Environmental Events group is not the first initiative created under the umbrella of emPOWER. The popular Beyond the Bottle campaign and the new composting initiative SCRAP are just two of the many projects that were created as a result of student ideas.
Howard said the new effort is a bit more "amorphous" than past sub-groups, but he and Rubenstein are already beginning to plan various projects that the group will work on.
"We're in the early stages of planning for what we think will be an ocean-oriented event," Howard said. "This could include having a panel speak, documentary screenings and some other fun events throughout the day."
The new group hopes to build on the success of past sub-groups and use the knowledge they have gained to help this current initiative succeed.
"We've gained a lot of knowledge about how Brown works and who does what," Howard said. "We've gotten a lot better at having very important and meaningful messages that the University is receptive to."
"The sub-group model allows us to build relationships with the administration and Facilities and Dining Services so we can more easily work on other projects," Rubenstein added.
Both Howard and Rubenstein emphasized that emPOWER takes the ideas of its members seriously and that the sub-groups show how student ideas can come into fruition.
"A lot of sub-groups rise naturally out of the conversations of a few emPOWER members, such as Beyond the Bottle," Rubenstein said. "We're always looking for new ideas that we can implement."
