In the six weeks leading up to Earth Day, more than 200 Cornell student-athletes, coaches and community members exercised not only to strengthen their bodies, but also to restore corals in the South Pacific.
The group beat teams from 28 other universities to win the EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup, which challenges teams to track their workout time between March 10 and Earth Day on April 22. At the close of the competition, the workout hours were converted to dollars that supported Coral Gardeners, a nonprofit dedicated to coral restoration and promoting ocean health. The funds come from sponsors the Ocean Conservancy and Earth Day Network.
Emily Pape
The Big Red took over first place on Day 2 of the competition and led the rest of the way. The team's 2,400 workout hours translated to 1,050 corals planted in the South Pacific. Their efforts far outpaced their competitors, accounting for more than 30% of the total corals planted across all teams.
Cornell Student-Athletes for Sustainability (CSAS) spearheaded the effort, led by women's basketball player Emily Pape '26. Pape, an environment and sustainability major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, founded CSAS in fall 2024. The group brings together student-athletes who want to learn more about sustainability and climate change and take responsibility for finding solutions in athletics and beyond.
"We drafted emails, created flyers with a QR code to make registration simple and brainstormed a lengthy list of people and organizations who might be interested in this opportunity and who could pass it to others as well," Pape said. "Then we spread the word via email, social media and word of mouth, sharing our genuine passion and contagious energy for climate action to get people just as excited as we were."
Since its founding, CSAS has hosted events that educate fans at sporting events about reducing and sorting waste, introduced sustainability announcements at home games, improved waste signage in Bartels Hall and launched a 1.5-credit Sustainability in Athletics course in fall 2025 that will feature guest speakers.
The Cornell team used that enthusiasm to fuel their win in the collegiate cup. They featured participants in weekly Instagram videos, created a large banner with Velcro team labels to hang in Bartels Hall and gave shout-outs to athletes who were contributing significant workout time, Pape said.
"It was really exciting to get over 200 participants to join Team Cornell," she said. "The work we put in has clearly paid off."
