Green UH, as part of initiative to improve campus sustainability, kicked off its “Who Wants To Be An Eco-Millionaire?” quiz game show on Tuesday at Oberholtzer Hall.
Students competed for prizes by answering trivia from a pool of 300 environmentally-themed trivia questions. Prizes included a $1,000 grand prize for students who answered all 15 questions, as well as many environmentally-conscious consolation prizes such as pens, notebooks and bags made from recycled materials.
Tickets for next semester’s Bauer Edition Eco-Millionaire were also up for grabs. Green UH will be partnering up with C.T. Bauer College of Business student organizations for this event, in which students will be quizzed on the business side of the movement toward eco-friendly products and solutions.
Leah Wolfthal, director of Green UH, said she hoped the event will “get students excited about careers in eco/social entrepreneurship.”
The game took cues from the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” in that students won the fifth or tenth level prize if they answered a question incorrectly above that level, but imposed a 60 second time limit to answer each question.
Contestants were also quizzed on what they do to reduce their negative impact on the environment.
Answers ranged from recycling to using a Kobashi compost system.
William Pham made it furthest in Tuesday night’s game, reaching the ninth question, “What does r-value indicate in terms of insulation?” before answering incorrectly.
Many questions involved UH green initiatives, such as the Hertz Connect car sharing program, the UH Eco-Tour and UH’s Community Learning Agricultural Sustainability Program.
Other current Green UH efforts include the Sustainability Task Force, which is the “task force charged with advising the University administration on green initiatives” and Recycle Mania, which runs from Jan. 31 to April 5 and includes an “Art of Recycling Contest” and the “Recycle Mania Olympics.”
Green UH will also hold the first Sustainability Roundtable on from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Oct. 21 in Cougar Village N115.
“The round table discussion is open to any faculty, staff or student research groups that are currently working on sustainability projects or research,” Wolfthal said.
She explained the round table is aimed at centralizing information, generating new ideas and bringing together those working on sustainability issues. All the information presented at the meeting will be compiled into a newsletter to be sent across the campus.
Green UH also encourages students interested in helping the environment to go to http://www.uh.edu/pts/greenpledge.htm and take the Green Commuter Pledge, and any students who would like to be more involved can email [email protected].
