Make UT Green
Sustainability is something everyone can step up and get involved with, from turning off the lights when you exit a room, to unplugging unused appliances, or to recycling and not throwing away paper in the garbage can. Everyone can become a more environmentally friendly person on campus.
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville since 2007 has taken on many sustainability initiatives since the creation of The Office of Sustainability. Some of these initiatives and projects include: The Mug Project which allows UT students, faculty, and staff to bring their own mug of twenty-four ounces or less and receive $1.19 drip coffee and fountain beverages, the Power Challenge which is a month-long competition that pits UT residence halls against each other in a battle to see which hall is the greenest, and more. All of these initiatives are already being done at UT and deserved to be recognized, and publicized about as much as possible so that students, faculty, and staff can get actively involved with an initiative.
As President my milestone is to increase the awareness and participation in initiatives that the Office of Sustainability puts on, while also continuing to push student led sustainability initiatives such as The Real Food Challenge, which is a national challenge "to shift $1 billion of existing university food budgets away from industrial farms and junk food and towards local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound and humane food sources—what we call “real food”—by 2020." (Real Food Challenge) Students have the right to determine what what type of food they eat, and even though the Aramark contract has been signed until 2027, I believe we as students, Aramark, and administration can come to a compromise to appease everyone, and make sure that we are not only positively impacting our community, but the community we live in, because we are the Volunteers, and Volunteers are people who put others before themselves.
Sustainability is important not just for us, but for the future. We must grow to be a more sustainable University, and as SGA President, I want to help make UT a sustainable campus environment, where students are environmentally conscious of the decisions they make and their impact on the environment.
Contact:
abutle24@vols.utk.edu
(615)-967-7436