SAVE A TON of energy, money, and the environment.
That’s the message of EcoMotion’s SAVE A TON campaign. By reducing individual carbon footprints, each of us can make a significant contribution to climate protection while saving money. The SAVE A TON campaign features how this is done by quantifying individual actions and their aggregate effects.

The SAVE A TON campaign is now on tour in New England, visiting some of the nation’s most prestigious universities with this message during Earth Day and Earth Week rallies. Thanks to THE TON, a giant display of a single ton of greenhouse gas emissions, the message is potent and galvanizes action. Students can turn off lights, buy Energy Star products, and eliminate plug loads; they can use mass transit, carpool, buy efficient cars, plan routes with right hand turns; and they can reduce “conspicuous consumption” of materials. Many students are eager to join the clean and green movement, employing advanced technologies and financing to transform society to steward a sustainable future. By taking action on campuses, students can shape their future.

The New England Tour’s first stop was Boulder at the University of Colorado in the snow! Students there signed the EcoMotion pledge and also signed up for CU’s new online tracking system for student, faculty, and administrators eco-actions. Next stop was Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, a school with 30 active student Eco-Reps. The tour moved to Millbrook School in New York, a college preparatory school that has pledged carbon neutrality by 2020 and which has hired EcoMotion to develop and guide its investments in energy efficiency and solar power.

The SAVE A TON tour continued on to Brown University on Earth Day (April 22) and Middlesex NYGoodHealth Community College (April 23). Next up is Yale University (April 25). Each of these institutions recognizes the impact of the giant display of CO2 emissions, what a Brown Eco-Rep called “a fantastic conversation starter.” EcoMotion’s Project Manager, Jordan Garbayo, says, “There is nothing like it out there. The 32-foot diameter TON makes real the magnitude of the climate situation.” Every year, 50 billion tons of emissions are released into the global troposphere, causing havoc with climate and disrupting fragile ecosystems.

The SAVE A TON campaign was developed by EcoMotion, an environmental consulting company with the mission of “the cost-effective greening of cities, corporations, and campuses.” Based in California, with a New England Campus Services office to address the academic concentration in the region, EcoMotion is rooted in “the power of the increment,” a corporate philosophy encouraging small actions by the masses to create a huge effect. Saving a ton of emissions only requires a commitment to cut energy use, driving, and material consumption by 5%. According to EcoMotion’s President, Ted Flanigan, “If each of us takes small steps to protect the environment, the cumulative effect is huge, and can be profitable.”

EcoMotion has developed tools to help cities, corporations, and campuses go green and to effectively cut costs while mitigating climate change. For cities, EcoMotion prepares Greenhouse Gas Inventories and Climate Action Plans. A workbook developed by EcoMotion presents 440 ways for cities to cut carbon, ranked by savings and costs. For corporations, EcoMotion specializes in energy assessments and solar financial analysis and project management. For campuses, EcoMotion provides a three-pronged approach by galvanizing student actions; developing campus policies and curriculum; and focusing on facility operations to cut costs and reduce the campus footprint.