Earth Week is here and what speaks sustainability better than our own Students in the GREEN World teaching the future generations how to be GREEN.
Congratulations to Mr. Eco for his letter which was chosen to represent the Earth Week edition of our Students Contest. Brett “Mr. Eco” Edwards has turned his imagination into a reality for all. Brett will receive a gift card for $100 and a new Low Energy Demand GREEN Bulb from
www.EMCoGREENBulb.com to hopefully replace his CFL necklace. We should all encourage Brett to take his GREEN-ness to the next level!
I will bet that Mr. Eco will properly dispose of his CFL as well.
We will also be paying a visit to Mr. Eco's school to introduce their Facilities Team to our GREEN Technologies.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Are you ready to GREEN UP?TM
Respectfully and enthusiastically,
EMCo CEO
The winning letter…
Dear EMCo,
I am a rap energy superhero that goes by the name of Mr. Eco. When I am not fighting “Energy Hogs” I attend school and am a project intern for the Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. What are my superpowers? Rapping. Through my music I include energy tips and try to make being sustainable fun and funny. I wear a cape and a CFL necklace for crying out loud!! You guys should check out my first music video “Power Energy Remix.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSmR1XJQJEM
I started rapping with my friend in high school and used the persona Mister E. This stemmed from my last name being Edwards and the fact that I liked to be a “mystery.” That persona easily transitioned to Mr. Eco. I was hired to the Green Campus Program last spring with no intentions of becoming a superhero. Shortly after I was hired, we met with representatives from housing about creating a video that promoted sustainability for the incoming freshman class moving into the dorms. I felt that they weren’t serious about our involvement and the video never transpired.
My sister, who is my biggest fan, had suggested that I rap about sustainability and after that meeting with housing I took her advice and started to work on Mr. Eco.
On January 21, I released the first music video for Mr. Eco. Since then, I have been featured on San Luis Obispo’s KSBY news, Cal Poly’s Mustang Daily, CPTV news and KCPR radio. My YouTube channel has had over 2,100 plays and I have 168 facebook fans. I have a mixtape titled “Brita up in the Air” that includes five songs available for download at http://www.reverbnation.com/mreco.
I am extremely excited about the future of Mr. Eco and have a meeting with our Week of Welcome (WOW) program later today. WOW puts on an orientation program for the entire incoming freshman class. They have asked me to create a rap about sustainability that will be shown in a video all the 4,000ish kids that make up the class of 2015!!
At the start, a few close friends and my family were the only people who supported Mr. Eco. My own team manager for Green Campus and the Alliance to Save Energy offered virtually no support. I paid for my backup dancers costumes out of my own pocket for the “Power Energy Remix” video. My team manager is now on board and a few of the Alliance to Save Energy employees support Mr. Eco. Our new campus lead Ellie has arranged for a special mini summit on May 13 in Santa Barbara and has set apart some time to film my next music video “Green Life” that features my good friend Fresno State linebacker Travis Brown.
It is hard to measure the exact difference I am making but I believe I am making some. Green Campus intern Diana Franklin from UC Merced had me send her my music video on a DVD so that she could play it for a particular project her Green Campus program was putting on in their library. UC Santa Barbara Green Campus intern Diandra Escamilla emailed me last week asking for my lyrics to “Power Energy Remix” because she was going to show it to a class of sixth graders that was a part of a project she was putting on. During our Red Brick Dorm Energy competition that Mr. Eco was a mascot of, two girls made a tribute song to Mr. Eco. It is really funny. And by the way, that energy competition doubled the savings from the prior year’s competition.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1351422739069&oid=114314381951111
While in New York this past spring break, I was at my nephews Baptism and my brother in laws good friends wife started doing the “lights out” dance from my song. It was awesome! Two weeks ago, I ran into a freshman friend of mine and she informed me that a random kid in her Communications Class did a speech on Superheroes and included Mr. Eco in it! Just yesterday, my high school friend who attends Emory informed me that she shared Mr. Eco with their Environmental Studies department. The most touching instance of all was the art piece that my best friends little sister created for her elementary school class. It is my profile picture on facebook. That was super cool.
So that is my sustainability story in a nutshell. If you want to keep up with everything Mr. Eco is doing follow me on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Eco/171777079534137 . I have big plans for the future and am enjoying every minute of it!
My advice to students who are trying to promote sustainably would be to simply believe in your message and yourself. All of Mr. Eco’s success has come from me believing in myself and being passionate. I could have squashed the idea when I got the lack of support from virtually everybody but I didn’t. I instead used it as motivation and the fuel to power my dream of Mr. Eco, and still do.
Happy Earth Day Everyone!!!
Brett “Mr. Eco” Edwards
