R2Ei and IzodIndyCar Series Team up to Promote Sustainability at Scottsdale Campus

Race to Energy independence (R2Ei) is a program, created with a mission to educate the public about the benefits of understanding how energy affects each of our lives. Recently, (R2Ei) Educational Tour reached Scottsdale’s Chaparral High School to promote Sustainability at the campus.

As a part of the initiative, R2Ei brought a 70 foot, neon green, semi-trailer into the school campus. It was equipped with a multimedia video room and six technology educational kiosks. The R2Ei trailer demonstrated sustainability in action to the groups of students at the campus. The demonstration for each class lasted for 45 minutes. The demonstrations highlighted different aspects of sustainability efforts relating to the IzodIndyCar Series, North America’s premiere eco-friendly racing event and a premiere partner of R2Ei.

The demonstration was broken into several parts. First the students were given a live demonstration of how solar power works, followed by an explanation of home energy efficiency and a Q & A session to address students’ questions.

There were also mock sessions where students acted as sustainability consultants, advising IndyCar. The mock sessions involved answering software-based, critical reasoning and math questions and gave students an idea of how a large organization such as IndyCar handles the daily challenges relating to sustainability.

At the end of the day the software distilled all of the student responses into a consolidated report, which teachers will use to construct future lesson plans and discussion topics, officials with R2Ei revealed in a press release..

“The most essential goal of the program is to get people thinking about energy in a different way. Energy affects us all in different ways, but everyone has something to gain by becoming more involved with the role it plays in their lives,” program coordinator David Slipher noted in a statement.

The demonstration included highlights of the 2011 season, which provided a glimpse of the IndyCar’s sustainability efforts. The R2Ei spokeswomen discussed the race and community events they attended in the last year. Through online social media and R2Ei TV, they demonstrated that energy awareness can be fun and engaging, with something to offer everyone.

R2Ei strives to send messages of sustainability and energy management to student communities through interactive and technology-based learning assessments. The R2Ei initiative focuses on creating a fun and exciting atmosphere, combined with real-life energy examples. According to the R2Ei spokespeople, this tour is “dedicated to improving communities and schools, one event pit-stop at a time.”

The event brought the students’ attention to an important fact that it's easy to participate in any sustainability effort. One of the participants said that her awareness has been raised and she will spend more time thinking about how energy affects her daily life.

Earlier this year, IndyCar announced its collaboration with alternative energy company, GreenFuel for its IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights and Mazda Road to Indy. The initiative was designed to reduce energy consumption at each IZOD IndyCar Series event.