Carolina Green began at UNC about a year ago, designed to unite various sustainability programs across campus.

"Over time, each of those green programs has really evolved their own identity, their own audience, and thus far has been working not in relative isolation, but their different identities," said Brian Cain, research and outreach manager for the UNC Sustainability Office.

The problem with that lay in the difficulty students had in finding the green resources available to them. When looking for sustainability programs, students had to look at the Recycling 1 Office, the UNC Sustainability Office, the energy production office and others.

"What we attempted to do when this initiative started almost a year ago is to think about how we can package or represent all of those programs with one overarching brand or one overarching identity," Cain said.

Thus Carolina Green was born, creating an online directory of all campus-wide sustainability programs, resources, policies and practices. The second facet to the program was to create a logo that would identify various events and organizations as sustainable, according to Carolina Green's standards.

To see Carolina Green's online directory, visit carolinagreen.unc.edu.

green event standards

Carolina Green's standards are divided into five groups: location, communication, transportation, food and beverage, and waste recycling.

A further breakdown of a some categories follows:

Communication:

- All paper-based fliers must be double-sided and printed on 30 percent community recycled content paper.

- No fluorescent coloring: this is more difficult to recycle and results in more byproducts.

- Option to use soy- or vegetable-based ink.

Transportation:

- Can students walk or take a bus to the event location.

Food and beverage:

- Must at least attempt to compost, and must announce how to do so.

- Use reusable or biodegradable dishes.

- Condiments should be preserved in bulk rather than individualized packets.

- Any uneaten and untouched food be donated.

Waste recycling:

- Have recycling bins available for bottles, cans and paper.