Techfest is an annual festival organized by the Entertainment Committee (EC) that brings popular music artists to Stevens. For the past few years, dozens of music festivals around the world have been making efforts to promote sustainability as these types of festivals tend to produce tons of waste. Since Stevens has been named a Princeton Review Green College and is dedicated to sustainability, Techfest’s sustainability efforts were of interest.
In an email interview with The Stute, Ada Heinze gave some insight into the EC’s plans for sustainability at Techfest. One implementation will be more usable giveaway options, such as reusable cups and tote bags, much like the ones from the Battle of the Bands event. Additionally, canned water will be purchased for backstage usage. Heinze further explained, “We wanted to completely get rid of plastic water bottles at this event, but unfortunately Stevens catering has been unresponsive leaving our hands tied to use plastic bottles for students. Catering also does not have options for canned water meaning it would need to be a special order.”
Heinze also shared that the EC will be “completing an eco-audit” to gauge how much waste is produced at events and see “how invested students are in these issues.” With this information, the EC will be able to “make realistic goals for future events.” The EC wants Stevens students to know their commitment to sustainability efforts and urges the administration to join in.
Heinze shared, “There are some amazing individuals and [organizations] on campus that strive to make Stevens more sustainable, however, Stevens administration does not even have a sustainability office. This makes it challenging to get advice on this topic, especially when planning large events. Stevens prides itself in calling itself a sustainable campus, but you can’t consider yourself a truly sustainable campus if you still use single-use plastic water bottles on campus.”
Lauren Espineli and Lennox Kolics, members of the EC, also reflected, “As the next Techfest co-chairs, we want to push forward in having conversations with Stevens administration for transparency. Hopefully in the coming semesters, we can implement proposed changes that we didn’t have the resources to actualize this year. Like previously mentioned, we would love to connect individuals and orgs to help push this forward. Sustainability is definitely on our sights for the future, despite the challenges.”
Sustainability at Stevens is still a challenge due to current administration policies, and that needs to change. Clearly, Stevens students do have an interest in sustainability and want to put in the effort to make Stevens events more sustainable. Despite the many awards for sustainability Stevens has received, more work needs to be done, especially when basic efforts have not yet been enacted.
As Heinze summarized, “we find it kind of ridiculous that there are so many hoops to jump through to make more sustainable choices. It’s also ironic that we are the ones initiating this conversation, again when Stevens makes all of these claims about their sustainability efforts.”
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