While the Cougar football team prepares to take on UW in the Apple Cup on Nov. 29, residence hall students from both schools will face off in a different way.

The One Thing Challenge is an annual competition for the title of Greenest Campus. Students change one habit for two weeks to support environmental sustainability.

The Department of Residence Life hosts the challenge each year with help from the Sustainability Committee (composed of residence hall staff members), Charlie Beckers, residential education director for Scott/Coman Hall, said.

In the last six years, WSU has won four challenges, Karen Weathermon, co-chair of the Common Reading Program, said.

The challenge is particularly fitting with “Garbology,” by Edward Humes, as the Common Reading book this year, since many of the students living in residence halls have a class that uses the book, Weathermon said.

This year, the challenge has expanded to include non-residence hall students, faculty and staff; though only res hall students will count toward the final score, Weathermon said.

“(Once this season is done), we want to meet with UW and kind of turn it into a larger, campus-wide competition,” Beckers said, adding that he hopes to see different offices and departments competing against each other.

Students from both universities sign up for the challenge via a link on the Common Reading website. Event organizers will help students sign up in the dining centers from Nov. 12 through 20.

“If they sign up in person at one of our tables they will get repurposed things for free,” Beckers said. “We have vintage t-shirts from residence halls, tote bags, sunglasses and other items we find when we clear out our storage, he said.

Weathermon will be participating in the challenge for the first time, and said she plans to purchase a compost bin for her personal use during the challenge.

“I know that that’s something I can do to reduce my footprint,” she said, adding that she’s excited to have some discussions with her colleagues about how to be greener.

Beckers’s main commitment this year is to be cognizant of the amount of plastic he uses.

“(I will be) trying not to buy things with a bunch of packaging that I’ll just end up throwing away,” he said.

The One Thing Challenge runs from Nov. 12 through 24. The winner will be announced at the Apple Cup.

Reporting by Hannah Lambert