University of California, Davis
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

The Game Day Challenge is put together and managed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is an annual program that involves the diversion efforts of football stadiums. Campuses are encouraged to participate and enroll their campus stadiums into the national competition to compete in several waste diversion related categories. Campuses are directed to choose one home game day to promote, track & monitor, evaluate and report on to EPA. Diversion data on the waste streams are collected and recorded for material generated from the chosen game. Because the Game Day Challenge involves a sports event, it provides a great opportunity to reach out to multiple audiences, including visitors and campus members, and engage them in the waste diversion process. During the game day, attendees are encouraged to participate in the source separating activities and they receive information about what can be diverted and what cannot be diverted.

UC Davis has participated in the EPA Game Day Challenge for the last three years (2010, 2011 and 2012), enrolling the Aggie Stadium into the competition. In both years, UC Davis has excelled in the overall Waste Diversion Category (total diversion rate for the game, including both recycling and composting), receiving first place for two years. In 2010, the diversion rate for the chosen game was approximately 89%. In 2011, the diversion rate increased to 93.6%, and in 2012, the diversion rate was 96.8%. Having participated in the Game Day Challenge before, more people were aware about the Game Day Challenge event and actively participated in source separating activities at the stadium. The result of an increase in diversion rate is a positive impact that also includes many campus members and visitors.