Wake Tech Community College is backing up its commitment to sustainability with the launch of a new partnership with JouleBug, a mobile app customized for its students. The free JouleBug app was created in Raleigh and gives users points, pins, and rewards for making sustainable choices – like taking shorter showers, recycling, or eating on campus to reduce vehicle emissions.
Butch Grove, Wake Tech's Associate Vice President of Creativity, Sustainability, and College Improvement, says the app places special emphasis on transportation alternatives that include walking and biking.
“There are pins around taking public transportation, using carpools, ridesharing, van shares, keeping your car maintained, your oil changed, your tires inflated,” he says. “So there are pins for all those activities related to commuting.”
This short video explains how it works:
Students, faculty, and staff will all be able to use the app to collect points and compete with each other to be make more environment-friendly choices. Soon, Wake Tech hopes to run JouleBug competitions and offer winners real rewards.
The announcement was made on this Earth Day atop the green roof of Wake Tech's E Building. Wake Tech says its Northern Wake campus is the first in the nation to have all its buildings LEED certified by the US Green Building Council.