GOHO: The Green Dorm, Environmental Dialogue at Colby

We're one of two dialogue houses on campus that thrives off of our environmental philosophy. Green living means living with a consciousness of your personal impact on the earth. Living in the Green House, residents are tuned into the ways in which their daily activities contribute to energy and water usage and waste input.

Living in the Green Dorm does not require full understanding of Green Living, just a willingness to reach a better balance between the impact of your daily life and the earth's wellbeing. As a dorm, we have events that promote a campus-wide Green consciousness. The dorm is not built of an exclusive group of people. Its whole purpose is to give environmentalism a voice and a center on campus, and hope to WIDEN its influence, not contain it.

Specifically, we do things like air-dry our laundry, flush the toilets less frequently, and utilize special shower-heads that can be shut off while lathering and still maintain heat. We conserve as much electricity as possible by unplugging appliances while not in use. We have extra drying racks, and a couple dorm bikes for our residents to borrow as an alternative to driving. The Green Dorm has recycling facilities for all basics, but also acts as campus center for materials like cork and batteries. The rooms are just like any other dorm, but the people make it Green through their actions.

Living in the Green House, you can expect a tight-knit community that talks about what it can do to reduce its waste and conserve its resources. You can expect a group of people that are energized and excited to share ideas with each other, and support a Green philosophy while striving to understand it further themselves. You can expect events like apple picking, mushrooming, sustainable BBQ’s, visits to local farms, bike trips, hiking excursions, recycled jewelry making, and recycled art contests that jive with a Green lifestyle while promoting those activities and people that exemplify it. We’ll have guest speakers and discussions about what we can do as a dorm and as individuals to promote our Green inclinations. Click here to learn more about dialogue housing at Colby.

Some Green-Dorm Activities:

Mushroom Walk
Bike Ride to Common Ground
Sustainable BBQ
Refridgerator Agreement
Vermicomposting Bin
Recycling
Powershift
Herb Garden planting
Recycled Jewelry Making
Christmas Recycled Toy Drive

Green Sponsor Program:

The residents of Go-Ho try involve the entire campus in their efforts. Through the Green Sponsor Program we have appointed one resident from each dorm as a Green Sponsor for their own community. This is an exciting opportunity to educate the campus about fun environmental options. The Green Sponsors are environmental role models for their peers. Green Sponsors attend Go-Ho dorm dinners at 5:30 in Bob’s at least one Sunday a month at which time they participate in Green Dialogue with Go-Ho residents and ask questions about implementing green changes in their own dorms. Go-Ho residents provide suggestions for environmental activities, and simple green changes that all Colby students can make in their daily lives. The Green Sponsor job is an important one: sharing this info with their neighbors, and being go-to resources for their dorms' environmental questions. To make this process an easy one, each Green Sponsor is involved in the resident mentorship program. They have one personal contact resident from Go-Ho that can answer any environmental questions for their dorm on a whimsical basis!