TUCSON, Ariz. — The Hebrew phrase “tikun olam,” which translates to "repair the world" in English, is a concept one newly-formed Jewish group on the University of Arizona campus has taken to heart.

Project Green, a Hillel-affiliated group, plans to repair the Earth by affecting change at the UA in terms of environmental issues.

“We have a responsibility to repair the world as Jews, so a lot of my belief comes out of that,” said Cara Behneman, Hillel’s program director who started Project Green. “We’re a group that has the power and ability to affect change and if for no other reason a lot of us tend to be affluent. Generally that’s a reason we should put our money where it matters.”

Project Green’s president, Mitch Levine, said he does not want it to be seen as a Jewish club, instead hoping it operates on a humanitarian basis. He plans to recruit students who are not members of the Jewish community and to make Judaism a minimal element of club activities.

Instead, levine says he wants to focus on implementing change, possibly through giving away free halogen light bulbs to replace regular light bulbs, leading a continued push for recycling and speaking with UA President Robert Shelton himself about policy concerning environmental issues.

“People are very serious and want to take action but are not sure how to manifest those actions,” Levine said, “so we want to focus on education for a little bit. But I’m much more interested in lobbying the administration to try to get real change on campus this semester.”

Levine said he thinks it’s reasonable for the university to host “green buildings” that would reduce heating and cooling costs and to make solar panels more prevalent on campus.

Behneman said there will be opportunities to obtain funding from the UA Hillel and International Hillel. She added that electric companies will often partially subsidize drives such as the light bulb replacement project that the group has discussed.

Julie Levin, a co-chair for Hillel’s community service group Project S.T.A.R., joined Project Green to learn more about the environment and to potentially get the two groups involved with mutual projects that take action.

“I think we should really look around and see that the Earth isn’t going to be here for us if we don’t start helping the environment and do our part,” she said. “I think if we make some small changes in our lifestyle we can really change that and make a difference.”

When Project Green’s president Levine was asked why people should be concerned about the environment, he answered simply, “Why wouldn’t they be?”

He said he feels change can happen by making an economic argument to those in power. He used the example that the CEO of McDonald’s might not care about going green just for the sake of saving the environment, but he would listen to an argument that says he could save $50 million on electricity by spending $20 million on light bulbs.

Levine hopes to use similar arguments with leaders at the UA to spark change on campus.

“Really, I just get very frustrated at inefficiencies,” Levine said. “Green issues are just a matter of doing things that ultimately pay off in the long term and benefit everybody, including the environment.

"It used to be and it still is to some degree thought to be less expensive to be environmentally unfriendly than being environmentally friendly, but there’s just so many arguments from the economic side about why you should go green.”