Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Those are, of course, the three magic words that many students have been raised on during the last couple of decades. And while they remain the mantra of Earth Day, a recognized event for 39 years now, and so many efforts to retain the figurative and literal health of the planet, there are so many more magic words now. Like turn off the lights. And unplug your electronics. And clean out the lint trap in your dryer. And on and on.

Those are only a few of the messages that the Green Campus Action Team (GCAT) has been spreading from one end of the campus to the other during the last three years. The student organization, among the largest at Reserve with more than 40 to 50 members, aims to keep the campus as green as the school logo.

"The goal is to work together, across the community, to educate, to take care of the environment," said Justin Zimmerman, the faculty adviser who also works in both the science department and as director of studies. "How can we, as a group, do this and educate the community?"

By organizing recycling drives, for starters. Three years ago, just after the group was created by the merger of the Green Campus Committee and the Students for Environmental Action League, GCAT members worked to track down collectors to pick up recyclable materials on campus. Then the projects started to grow. A tech drive followed, then an energy reduction challenge. And with the collective conscience of the nation and the world growing all the time, these projects should only continue to expand.

All of this might have happened without the merger of the two former groups, but perhaps more slowly. Back in 2006, faculty and staff organized and ran the Green Campus Committee and students did the same for SEAL. Both groups did good work, Zimmerman said; why should they not work together? It made plenty of sense.

"As somebody who is involved with that, as somebody who cares about the environment," he said, "I proposed that we combine our efforts and form just one group."

Believe Zimmerman when he says he cares about the environment. Zimmerman was raised in the Midwest and spent more hours outdoors than he can remember. His father, Michael, often gathered the family on summer vacations to northern Minnesota where they would live out of a canoe for a week. Zimmerman never joined the Boy Scouts, opting rather for his own curriculum. He developed an interest in wildlife biology and, after he turned his career toward education, shifted to the biological sciences. Now he teaches a course in that discipline at Reserve.

His involvement with GCAT is related to that passion. Though Zimmerman advises the group with faculty members Dr. Ralf Borrmann and Midge Karam '79, the trio has turned over the bulk of the responsibility to the students, particularly the six in office this year. Sarah Wise '09 and Sarah Puffer '10 serve as co-presidents, Quinn Cutchin '10 is vice president, Nick Hobbs '10 is education and spirit leader, Kerri Symes '09 is treasurer and Emily Clark '11 is secretary. It is through their initiative, Zimmerman said, that almost all of the projects are completed.

"I worked to create it very much for students," Zimmerman said. "There was a very heavy faculty influence early on, but I wanted to turn it over to the students."

During a recent tech drive, GCAT collected more than 7,500 pounds of old electronics to be recycled. The group also collected old shoes to donate to Nike, which grinds down the rubber for playgrounds. And the students worked with Jeff Jacot, director of facilities, to reduce the kilowatts used per hour on campus by 5 percent during the energy reduction challenge. Even the group's official publication is green.

"This is a global responsibility to take care of this planet," Zimmerman said. "We all know that pollution is bad, and we all know that there are a lot of things that are harmful. I don't know what the future will bring, but let's take care of what we have."