MIT Earth Day Collective Grants

earth day collective
About the Mini Grant Program

The MIT Earth Day Collective is pleased to announce our third annual Earth Day Mini Grant program offering funding (up to $500 per team) for the MIT community (staff, students, faculty) to develop innovative & interactive campus projects promoting sustainability this April near Earth Day (April 22, 2017).

These small grants seek to encourage student, staff, and faculty teams to develop creative projects on campus that harness their scientific, social, artistic, and technological problem-solving skills. Projects will promote climate action, resource-efficiency, sustainable behavior and more. Ideas might include: workshops, speaker events, interactive projects, installations, experiments, and more. Projects from previous years are listed below.

Grants are made possible by: 

MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, MIT Energy Initiative, Sloan Sustainability Initiative, the MIT Recycling Office, MIT Environment, Health, & Safety Office, and MIT Office of Campus Planning

Questions or comments? Email sustainableMIT@mit.edu.

Application Instructions
  1. Review the Funding Criteria and Requirements below.
  2. Fill out application (when released - check back soon).
  3. Applicants will be informed of their funding status within 2 weeks of deadline.
Funding Criteria

All applications will be evaluated based on their integration of the following themes:

  • Climate Forward Campus: Projects that promote community awareness and action on climate change at the campus level (i.e. a focus on reducing MIT’s operational contribution to climate change).

  • Culture of Sustainability: Projects that foster education and awareness to advance a culture of sustainable behavior at MIT – from sustainable mobility to energy efficiency. 

  • Sustainable Resource Consumption: Projects that consume (and promote the consumption of) materials and supplies sustainably, considering the environmental and social impact of materials from sourcing to end-of-life.

  • Collective Impact: Projects that reach a minimum of 50 people (students, faculty, staff, community members) in a meaningful or innovative way.

Requirements

All applications must meet the following requirements:

  • ASA Student Group or Departmental Sponsor: Project teams must be affiliated with an ASA Student Group and/or include a staff or faculty sponsor within an MIT department.

  • Safety Considerations:  Be safe, legal, and possible within existing Institute infrastructure. Applicants who submit proposals that do not meet these criteria will be rejected.

2016 Grant Recipients

  • FX Rehab Furniture Open House

  • Earth Day Visiting Professor Talk - Max Liboiron

  • How to Start Compost Collection in your Office or Lab

  • Waste Awareness Booth

  • Up-Cycled Crafts and Living a Zero-Waste Life

  • ECO-Foodware and Composting Info Session

  • Shut the Sash

  • Waste App Competition

  • Cardboard Toy/Furniture Workshop

  • Trash on My Back

  • Movie Screening: Food Waste

  • Bring Your Own Bags

  • Trash2Treasure

  • Water Bottles for Orientation

 

2015 Grant Recipients

  • Furniture Rehab and Demo Day (Furniture Exchange & Office of the President)

  • Trash On My Back (UA Committee on Sustainability)

  • Aquaponics at D-Lab (D-Lab) - an installation and learning laboratory

  • Reframing Complex Water Challenges Workshop (MIT Water Club)

  • Waste Research & Innovation Night (Waste Alliance)

  • MIT Environmental Film Festival (Environment, Health & Safety)

  • How to Start Compost Collection in your Lab or Office (Graduate Sustainability Council)

  • Earth Moment - Hallway video series at Choose to Reuse (Green Committee, Staff for Sustainability)

  • Clean Earth Hackathon (Sustainability Club)

  • Waste Awareness Display (Department of Facilities & Sustainability Club)

  • Smart Water Data Link at MIT (Department of Architecture)