Washington University students returning to campus after winter break will find that the Dasani and Evian bottles in the vending machines and campus bookstore will be gone.

The “Tap It” campaign, a brainchild of the University’s Office of Sustainability, began this summer as an effort to demonstrate the University’s focus toward creating a more sustainable community.

Though it is run “top-down” by the administration, Liz Kramer, a fellow in the office of the executive vice chancellor of administration, and Student Union (SU) Academic Affairs Chair Kady McFadden have been spearheading the campaign among the student body.

Kramer described the campaign as an effort that would represent a first step toward greater sustainability on campus.

“The initiative would be a catalyst for the University students, staff and faculty to consider the impact that small changes in lifestyle can have on sustainability,” Kramer, who graduated from the University in 2008, said.

“[The administration] came to me at the end of summer and wanted me to run a student campaign,” McFadden, a junior, said. “They wanted to have education efforts and get students on board. It was an administrative decision—it wasn’t because of student pressure.”

Although the change may influence the habits of University students, McFadden acknowledged that the campaign’s results are not meant to drastically affect environmental sustainability on campus as much as they are to work toward a symbolic goal.

“We recognize it’s one small thing. It’s more of a symbolic thing, because obviously renewable energy would be more beneficial. It’s not the solution to making the campus more sustainable, but it is one step,” McFadden said.

Moreover, the campaign will not remove all bottled water from campus after winter break. As the result of a contract, Bear Mart and the Millbrook Market in the Village House will both continue to sell bottled water until the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, when the University will phase it out entirely.

As part of the “Tap It” campaign, SU and the Congress of the South 40 (CS40) have initiated several student education efforts, primarily to demonstrate the lack of difference between bottled water and St. Louis tap water.

“The purpose of [“Tap It”] is to show that a lot of bottled water is tap water, and that there’s no difference in taste,” sophomore TJ Pepping, chair of the CS40 Sustainability Committee, said. “There’s really no point in paying $1.50 for bottled water when tap water is free, and when [bottled water] contributes more waste.”

The campaign will also highlight sustainability as one reason behind the University’s removal of bottled water.

Earlier this year, “Tap It” began sustainability activities at the Sept. 18 Take a Stand Rally on the Danforth Campus. The week after the rally, the University hosted Campus Sustainability Week, during which the campaign held a public water taste test in order to demonstrate the lack of difference between bottled water and local tap water.

“No one could tell the difference— except Chancellor Wrighton,” McFadden said.

At the start of next semester, McFadden plans to apply for a

$10,000 grant from Brita Water Filtration Systems to increase campus accessibility to drinking water. The campaign currently plans, with Kramer’s help, to install new sources for drinking water around the Danforth Campus.

Kramer noted that sustainability efforts by the administration would also include efforts to encourage students, staff and faculty to use reusable water containers, or to bring their own water containers.

“We’d love people to choose fountain drinks instead of water bottles—that would contribute to minimizing our waste strain and sustainability on campus,” said Kramer.

Today, the “Tap It” campaign will sell Nalgene water bottles in the Danforth University Center. Nalgene bottles were made available to current freshmen and sophomores during the start of their freshman year. Profits will go toward Well Worth It, a social justice campaign that aims to drill a well in Kenya and make drinking water available to locals.

Although McFadden acknowledged that some students would still bring bottled water onto campus next year, she stressed the importance of sustainability education.

“It’s not intuitive that bottled water harms the environment, so education is important,” McFadden said. “People just don’t know.”