Hook 'Em Green Newsletter

Hook 'Em Green: November 2015

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In This Issue

A survey was sent out during the month of October to 70,000 students, faculty and staff. Over 3,000 responses were received and are still being analyzed. 64% of the total responses were from students, 27% from staff and 7% from faculty. The short survey was designed to encourage as many in the campus community as possible to weigh in.

Preliminary analysis shows a significant majority (80% overall) believes that sustainability should be a high priority for the university. Broad consensus also exists around using resources wisely, investing in research and innovation, making fresh and local food more available, and teaching students to live sustainably. These priorities and others will be echoed in the drafts of the plan to be reviewed in the spring. The plan will also address topics on which there is less consensus, such as social equity, divestment from fossil fuels, and transportation options.

The full survey results, including verbatim comments, will be posted as part of the UT Sustainability Master Planning process once the final analysis is completed.

We will continue to engage stakeholders over the winter, and look forward to presenting our first drafts after classes resume in the spring.

For more information about the Sustainability Master Plan process, see our webpage!

Dates & Events

November 19
-TILTS: A Reading with T.C. Boyle
-UT Energy Symposium
-Great American Smokeout

November 20
-Texas Green Tour
-Trash to Treasure Sale
-Longhorn Lights Out

November 21
-Tree Campus USA

November 23
-Sustainable Development Goals: A Course Correction?

November 26
-Thanksgiving Game: Sustainability Squad

December 2
-Wall-E

December 4 - 16
-Trash to Treasure Donation Drive

Recurring Events

UT Microfarm
Workdays
Wed. 5:00 PM-7:30 PM
Sun. 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Concho Garden
Workdays
Tues. 5:30 PM-7:30 PM
Sat. 10:00 AM-12:00 PM

CEC General Meetings
Wed. 6:30 PM-7:30 PM

To stay up-to-date on all sustainability events on campus, see the university's sustainability portal!

Sustainability initiatives at Texas Athletics have been growing by leaps and bounds this football season. The sustainability staff have been hard at work promoting the Zero Waste 2017 goal, which aims to reach zero waste at all athletics events by 2017. To achieve this ambitious goal, Athletics recruits student volunteers to participate in the Sustainability Squad. The number of volunteers at each game has steadily increased throughout the 2015 season, with the Sustainability Squad reaching an all-time high of nearly 50 volunteers at the Nov. 7 game against Kansas!

With their distinctive green shirts, the Sustainability Squad serves as the face of Athletics’ sustainability efforts to fans on game days. The Squad members educate fans about how to recycle and compost, explain the zero waste goal, and monitor the stadium’s recycling and compost bins to make sure waste is properly sorted. With the help of the Sustainability Squad, over 15 tons of waste has been recycled so far this season!

The work of the Sustainability Squad will hopefully boost Texas’s performance in the 2015 Gameday Recycling Challenge. This competition pits university football programs across the country against one another to see who can recycle and compost the most waste in their stadium on game days. Last year, Texas placed ninth nationally and first in our conference in recycling. This year, Athletics aiming to increase its national standing and beat its own waste diversion rate from 2014. Along with the Sustainability Squad, this goal is helped by efforts to increase recycling and composting in tailgating areas and moving towards zero waste in concessions.

And the Sustainability Squad isn’t slowing down just because the football season is drawing to a close. Look for the Squad at baseball and softball games during the spring semester, where they’re planning to hold a Zero Waste Weekend! Are you interested in volunteering with the Sustainability Squad, or learning more about the sustainability initiatives at Texas Athletics? Contact the sustainability team at sustainability@athletics.utexas.edu!

The Trash to Treasure program is having its winter donation drive from December 4-16!

Trash to Treasure collects unwanted items during move out each semester and sells them back to students for $1 each in following semesters. The program diverts waste from the landfill (over 15,000 pounds thus far in 2015) and helps your wallet!

Donation bins will be located in: Carothers, Creekside, Duren, Kinsolving, Moore Hill, Jester East, Jester West, and San Jacinto.

Trash to Treasure is a program of the Campus Environmental Center student organization. To find out more, contact trashtotreasure@utenvironment.org!

The Green Labs Team is currently running their Fall 2015 "Green Labs with Green Goals" Competition. This initiative was designed to raise awareness of environmentally beneficial behavioral practices and lab equipment maintenance techniques amongst campus laboratories. The overall goal is to encourage labs to practice small changes that can have a big impact on energy and water conservation.

The competition, which kicked off last Monday (11/9), will end on Friday (12/4). It is a four week competition that will require the participating labs to complete a weekly checklist of goals. Our 27 currently certified Green Labs were invited to participate. Additionally, labs that complete the entire four weeks will receive free breakfast for ten lab members and extensive social media recognition!

The Green Labs Program is planning on inviting all labs campus-wide to participate in a spring competition, and labs can sign up at any time to become certified as Green Labs. For more information, please contact utgreenlabs@gmail.com or visit our website.

This past October, the Campus Environmental Center put on a week-long series of events deemed Campus Sustainability Week. The Center partnered with various student organizations, departments, and programs to concerned with sustainability issues and topics prevalent to campus. Even though the weather may have halted some events, it didn’t put a damper on all the smiling faces that came out to see us throughout the week!

On Monday, October 19th to Wednesday, October 21st, teams under the Campus Environmental Center, like Trash to Treasure and Microfarm, featured their respective projects, along with other organizations such as Engineers for a Sustainable World, Texas Nutrition, and Green Tours. Featured as our Zero-Waste Day event on Monday, October 19th, Trash to Treasure put on a successful sale,where students came out to buy gently used items for only $1 a piece!

Tuesday the 20th, Garden Day, spotlighted Concho Community Garden’s Open House and Engineers for a Sustainable World’s popular “Build Your Own Terrarium” event!

On Wednesday, Campus Sustainability Day was commemorated with a Tabling Fair featuring a number of programs and their respective projects and values! The UT Microfarm team also sold fresh and organic food at their Farm Stand, encouraging students to come out to their Work Day(s) out at the East Campus Farm.

Texas Nutrition’s Food Day event concluded Campus Sustainability Week, even through the suspected bad weather! Lunchtime was filled with intriguing insight on the nutritional and environmental benefits of using crickets as an alternative source of protein. Samples products were given out by respective Austin organizations focused on the delicacy of edible insect organizations.

Throughout the week, the student organization Support the UT Green Fee tabled to students passing by, expressing their efforts to renew the Green Fee, a program solely funded and primarily managed and implemented by students, before it expires Fall 2016. The Green Fee funds numerous programs, initiatives, and projects on campus that promote sustainability.

Overall, Campus Sustainability Week was a hit and the Campus Environmental Center is thankful to everyone who came out! We hope to see students at our similar spring edition, Earth Week, next semester!

Our office would like to take a moment to thank Hunter Mangrum, the sustainability specialist for UT's Division of Housing and Food Services, for all of the hard work he's done during his time here!

In his time on campus, Hunter has expanded sustainability operations and student opportunities in DHFS including the development of UT Green Corps which provides experiential educational opportunities for students to learn about food systems and sustainability. He also helped launch the Clean Plate Club, an awareness campaign aimed at reducing food waste in the dining halls and expand campus food production to include the Jester Garden.

Hunter will be the first Sustainability Coordinator for Hardie’s Fresh Foods, a fresh produce wholesaler in Texas. As Sustainability Coordinator Hunter will be responsible for implementing sustainability into Hardies’ operations and working with local producers throughout Texas to grow local food options in Hardie’s portfolio.

A huge thanks to Hunter for all his hard work in furthering campus sustainability and we look forward to see what the future brings for sustainability at DHFS!

The Office of Sustainability at The University of Texas at Austin collaborates to advance ideas and programs that transform the physical, social and educational environments of campus for the enduring benefit of society and the planet.