Mission Zero Partners with CU Boulder’s College of Media, Communication, and Information

April 20, 2022

Mission Zero to fund 8 climate action programs within CU Boulder’s CMCI 

Mission Zero is proud to announce $25,000 in funding for climate change programs in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication, and Information (CMCI). CMCI is an interdisciplinary college committed to giving today’s communicators a wider variety of knowledge, skills, and experience. This partnership demonstrates the breadth of the role that communication and media play in addressing the global climate crisis.

This partnership will fund the following CMCI programs:

  • “Meatless Monday” Campaign: An undergraduate advertising class will split into teams and then challenge each team to design and implement a “meatless Monday” campaign to encourage the CU Boulder community to abstain from meat on Mondays with a goal of reducing demand for the meat production, which has a significant carbon footprint. 
  • Climate Justice Community Input: A communication class will conduct interviews in local communities regarding climate injustices in a partnership with the Colorado Public Health Department.
  • San Luis Valley Climate Impact Experience: A critical media practices class will travel to the San Luis Valley, where low river flows and falling water tables could dry up tens of thousands of acres of irrigated land and disrupt food production and marginalized communities. 
  • Climate Section in The Bold: They will develop, design, and create a special section on climate for The Bold, a new student media platform.   

“The Mission Zero Fund at CU Boulder is excited to be supporting these climate action programs within CMCI,” says Scott King, Executive Director at Mission Zero. “The goal of Mission Zero is to make climate education a core part of the curriculum that every student at the University of Colorado experiences.”

“As soon as our faculty found out about the opportunity for funding from Mission Zero they enthusiastically put together project proposals,” said CMCI Founding Dean Lori Bergen. “This funding will support eight projects and allow over 100 students to directly work on climate change.”

In addition, these funds will partially fund the following programs:

  • Mimesis Film Festival: The best climate-related documentary will win the “Mission Zero Award” for the 3rd annual Mimesis Film Festival, which will occur this summer.
  • Research on Effect of Climate Eduction on Various Platforms: Journalism professors and graduate students will be researching the efficacy of interactive platforms (games, websites, and video) for helping the public understand key issues about climate change regardless of political orientation. 
  • Denver Museum of Nature and Science Exhibit: Funding will help expand an exhibit, which uses live Petri dishes and printed images, for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on the role of cyanobacteria in fighting climate change. 
  • Research on How Communications Impact Climate Change: A strategic communication professor will be researching how undergraduate students in advertising and PR at public universities in the South, West, and Pacific Northwest perceive the role of strategic communicators in solving climate-change-related issues.

Mission Zero is committed to empowering students to pursue climate action and will continue to support and create programs that align with that goal, with the support of donations to Mission Zero at CU. 

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