All it takes is a great idea to get the ball rolling. An idea to start something amazing and prosperous for the community. An idea to make the world a better place, even a little bit at a time. With the Green Action Fund now on campus this year, ideas to make the community better through sustainable and eco-friendly means may now be realizable.

The Green Action Fund is a project meant to fuel and ultimately realize students’ and staff’s ideas on how to create a more sustainable campus.

This concept of sustainability could mean anything from an indoor vertical garden to solar-powered tables, both projects that were accomplished at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. The basic theme is to just make the campus and overall community more considerate of society and the planet at large with a fund that can back up the various ideas people might have.

The brainchild of a committee of like-minded staff and students at UCCS, the Green Action Fund has flourished over the last four years at the nearby university, with numerous ideas being realized each semester.

Now for the first time, the fund will be at CSU-Pueblo by way of a Propel Center grant.

“The stipulation of the grant is that it has to go to certain groups, so basically only students can get it,” said Meral Sarper, co-founder of the LEAF Club at CSU-Pueblo and one of the people driving the Green Action Fund.

Sarper said it is currently unknown precisely how much money will be given to the fund, but there is a possibility that around $5,000 to $6,000 will be available for projects and ideas. The hope is to accomplish “a small, medium, and large project” with the money that will be given to the fund.

Anyone is eligible to submit ideas to the fund.

Right now the LEAF Club will still be tabling at the Library and Academic Resources Center for ideas during the semester and ready to consider anything that people come up with. Anyone can also contact or meet with the group’s leaders if necessary.

So far some of the proposed ideas include improved recycling areas and resources around campus, as well as an indoor vertical garden.

One idea that is very much on track is a campus and community garden that is slated to start around the spring equinox in March.

“We’d like to see some results before school ends and then over the summer have the club main (maintain) it,” Sarper said, in regard to getting garden growing.

While there isn’t a definite location set for the garden, there are a few places around campus where it could be started including near the dorms and on the greenhouse side of the math building.

So while it is still in its infancy at CSU-Pueblo, the Green Action Fund has been going strong for some time now at UCCS. Some ideas that have been accomplished there are viewable at http://www.uccs.edu/gaf/index.html.