Notre Dame recognized for sustainability achievements

Author: Dennis Brown

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The University of Notre Dame’s sustainability efforts recently received recognition for two distinct achievements:

NBC has awarded a $10,000 prize to Notre Dame for winning a sustainability competition with Syracuse University.

Organized in conjunction with NBC Universal’s"Green Week"and the Notre Dame-Syracuse football game last fall, the eco-competition was administered by Carbonrally.com, which tracked the number of carbon reduction commitments made by students, faculty, staff and alumni of both schools.

Notre Dame registered 1,932 commitments, to 1,446 from Syracuse. In addition, the personal commitments added up to more than 47 tons of carbon reductions.

Notre Dame’s Office of Sustainability is accepting suggestions until Feb. 2 for how best to use the $10,000. More information on the competition and a proposal form are available at http://green.nd.edu/news/9938-notre-dame-fans-beat-syracuse-in-green-contest-win-10-000 .

Notre Dame also recently became the first major U.S. university to receive chain-of-custody certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an organization that has developed the world’s leading environmental standard for certifying sustainable and well-managed wild capture fisheries.

Recent studies have shown that 29 percent of commercial fish and seafood populations have already collapsed, and two-thirds of marine fisheries are being fished at or above capacity. MSC works with fisheries, seafood companies, scientists, conservation groups and the public to promote the best environmental choices in seafood.

The chain-of-custody certification assures students and others eating at Notre Dame dining halls that the fish can be traced back to a fishery that meets MSC environmental standards for sustainable fishing.

Notre Dame already has received its first shipments of MSC-certified product: 2,000 pounds each of Alaskan salmon and pollock.

More information is available at http://www.msc.org/ .

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