The Brown & White

A competition to determine the world's most environmentally friendly student is now underway.

"The Greenest Student on the Planet" competition was started by 3rdWhale, a group that stresses environmental activism and making sustainable, Earth-friendly choices.

3rdWhale is looking for students in junior high, high school and college to explain why they are the "Greenest Students on the Planet." All submissions entered on 3rdWhale's Web site, www.3rdwhale.com, will be posted for anyone to see. People around the world will vote for their favorites and help to determine the winners.

According to 3rdWhale's Web site, one winner will be chosen from each age group. Winners will receive an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. These devices will be registered with Luna, an application of 3rdWhale's creation. Luna will allow the user to find Earth-friendly establishments in any of the 100 currently registered cities.

For example, a user could search for "green" markets or restaurants, and the application would mark icons in the city where these locations could be found. Luna is currently available for everyone to download.

The top five students in each of the three age groups will also receive an "eLearning Course in Sustainability from the Natural Step," a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education in the area of sustainable development.

There is also a competition for the school with "the Greenest Student Body on the Planet." The winning school will be the one with the highest number of students entered in the "Greenest Student" competition. The schools will be awarded a full page on 3rdwhale.com to publicize its environmentally friendly projects and to discuss what it is doing to help the world. A minimum of 20 student entries are required for a school to be considered.

3rdWhale also launched another competition this year, the "Greenest Person on the Planet." The competition ran from Earth Day, April 22 to Sept. 29, and after more than 600 applicants from 25 countries had submitted applications, Matthias Gelber, was chosen as the winner.

Gelber is an environmental entrepreneur. He is German but has lived in Malaysia for four years. He challenges the citizens of Earth to plant one million trees by Earth Day 2009.

Despite 3rdWhale's Web site and video on YouTube, students at Lehigh are not aware of the "Greenest Student" competition, even those with an environmental interest.

Yesenia Armendariz, '12, is a member of Engineers Without Borders, which works on sustainable projects.

"It's unfortunate that they don't spread the word about such things. I never heard about it," Armendariz said.

Victoria Herrmann, '12, a member of the Green Action club, was also unaware of the competition. Green Action instituted single-stream recycling at Lehigh, educated students about the environmental policies of the presidential candidates and plans to build a greenhouse in the spring. Herrmann said there has been no mention of the competition in Green Action.

"It sounds like a good competition, but people shouldn't need an incentive like an iPod, which is an environmental disaster to produce, to live green," she said.

The "Greenest Student on the Planet" competition will run until Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m.