Hi, everyone! I’m Sarah, the new sustainability coordinator at the Office of Environmental Policy. I began working at the OEP in April, alongside Corinne Tagliarina, as the assistant sustainability coordinator. Since beginning, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work with our very talented interns on STARS, recycling updates, and the GreenMetric survey. I’m looking forward to working with them even more once the school year begins! 

I am a third year Ph.D. student in the department of Political Science. My current research focuses primarily on political psychology and elite decision-making during times of crisis, but most of my previous work investigates European Union member state challenges to implementing EU environmental and economic policy.

My interest in Europe and the environment began from an early age, since both of my parents immigrated to the United States from Germany. As a child, I would visit family and would be fascinated by how environmentally conscious Germany is, as well as the many methods Germany uses to produce clean energy. After living in Central Europe for a year during my master’s program, I quickly found out first-hand that not all countries take environmental protection seriously. Needless to say, this sparked my interest in environmental policy, and I have been working in the field ever since!

Prior to coming to UConn, I worked closely with the Sustainability Department at my alma mater, Guilford College. Now at UConn, I have had the opportunity to assist Dr. Oksan Bayulgen and Dr. Richard Parnas with their “Sustainable Energy in the 21st Century” course for the past two years.

I’m thrilled to join the OEP, and look forward to an exciting and productive school year!

This past Tuesday marked the 44^th annual Earth Day!  Despite my original nervousness due to some uncertainty concerning the weather (it was, after all, a Tuesday in Storrs), I am happy to report that April 22^nd was a gorgeous day on campus, which made UConn’s yearly Earth Day Spring Fling a fantastic success.  Sun shined down over the thousands of students, faculty, community members, and environmental exhibitors, all gathered to celebrate sustainability.

From 11am to 2pm, vendors ranging from student organizations to state departments, NGOs to sustainable stores and businesses, all set up camp on Fairfield Way.  They provided recycling games galore, scrumptious free samples, environmentally friendly products, and information on a wide variety of environmental issues and practices.

Appealing to the many music lovers out there, we were lucky enough to have Dave Wanik and Meredith Rose perform.  Their beautiful acoustic compositions set the perfect background vibe for the chatter between curious attendees and knowledgeable table hosts, as well as diners drawn in by the aromas of grilling.

The mouthwatering zero-waste barbeque, provided by our good friends from Dining Services, proved just how delicious local and sustainable foods can be.  Diners strolled down the line, choosing from hamburgers and hotdogs from Connecticut, vegan veggie burgers from New Jersey, vegetarian Italian sausage from Massachusetts, and more.  By keeping menu items to this New England crew, we shortened each food’s journey to UConn, reduced our carbon footprint, and helped promote local businesses!  Once finished with their meals, attendees headed over to our sustainable waste stations, where they learned which parts of their waste were compostable and recyclable.

Finally, thanks to the help of our intern, Andy Bilich, we were able to plant a Quercus alba (or white oak, for those of you who are like me and don’t understand Latin) next to the Student Union.  The tree stands as a tribute to Arbor Day (which is today!), as well as an informal symbol for the university.

Overall, the event was a great one.   If you didn’t get a chance to come out and celebrate with us this year, be sure to come check out Earth Day Spring Fling next year!

Once again, volunteers rallied at Green Game Day to promote recycling to Husky fans.  Student volunteers from EcoHusky (Storrs and Avery Point), EcoHouse, and the OEP’s very own interns went to the men’s game on Sunday afternoon to greet fans as they entered the stadium, help direct recycling during the game, and to collect the leftover recyclables from the stands after the game.  Volunteers collected 260 bottles from the women’s game and a whopping 820 at the men’s game, for over 1000 bottles recycled!  Members of the EcoHusky student group returned the bottles to raise money for the club’s future sustainability efforts.

 

We had a great time at the game, despite the unfortunately outcome of the game. We especially loved talking to fans about recycling, answering questions about the cost/benefit analysis of recycling, and hearing from fans who proudly always recycle!

 

 

Ignite is UConn’s second annual crowd-funding competition. It gives UConn students and young alumni the opportunity to follow, connect with, and support causes at the University of Connecticut that they are most passionate about. UConn alumnus, David Barton ’61, is helping sponsor the competition to promote philanthropy and to engage campus wide participation. This year, UConn alumnus Adam Schwartz ’97 is joining David in helping to sponsor the competition. Select groups are now competing for prizes ranging from $500 to $10,000. Participating groups in the Ignite competition can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/1cMHLoW

Who Can Benefit?

Donations to our cause go directly to the Campus Sustainability Fund. This fund supports programs and initiatives which raise environmental awareness at UConn including recycling, composting, water and energy conservation, and large environmental awareness events such as Green Game Day and Earth Day.  These events help students learn to be environmental stewards positively affect society and become our future leaders.

The Campus Sustainability Fund was established to help the Office of Environmental Policy create a more sustainable campus. Support for the fund will ensure that UConn will continue to be a leader in sustainability throughout the country. Past donations have helped UConn reach Sierra Magazine’s #1 coolest school ranking, but we need continued support to maintain our efforts.

This year, in response to a survey sent to students, faculty, and staff which identified recycling as the top environmental concern on campus, we are trying to win Ignite prize money to help improve recycling access on  campus!

How to Participate?

Groups were pre-selected to participate in the Ignite competition through an application process. The Office of Environmental Policy’s cause is to support Environmental Awareness and Initiatives at UConn through the cause “Students for Sustainability”. If you are passionate about environmental issues and would like to help your university continue its sustainability efforts, please sign up as a donor today! The winning causes will be selected based on the highest number of student and young alumni donor participants, highest number of overall donors each week, and highest number of dollars raised at the end of the competition. Every dollar counts!

You can donate directly to our page here: Students for Sustainability – Ignite Challenge

We will be tabling on March 5^th from 10 AM to 3 PM in the Student Union.

Continue to look for our cause on social media as well!

–          Chris and Meredith

Shout it from the green rooftops (like the one on Laurel Hall), UConn ranked #1 in this year’s Sierra Club “Cool Schools” survey on America’s greenest colleges and universities! Since ranking in the top 50 in 2010, UConn has gone nowhere but up, recently climbing from 16^th, to 5^th and now 1^st.  This success can be attributed to the collaborative efforts of many departments on campus, support from the state of Connecticut, individual and corporate donors to the Campus sustainability fund, as well as student involvement through groups such as EcoHusky and EcoHouse.

We are working hard to promote a culture of sustainability at UConn, so that sustainable behavior carries on into all facets of everyday life!  More than 40% of our research faculty does work that benefits the environment.  UConn offers almost 600 classes related to sustainability and has recently launched a new Environmental Studies major which will help bridge the gap between scientists and policymakers through interdisciplinary course work. Here at UConn, we not only want to make an impact on today’s world, but we also want to prepare the next generation to lead us into the future!

Future investments are important, but we also want to make an impact today.  Since 2005, UConn has reduced its water use on the main campus by 15% and has recently opened a reclaimed water facility that can repurpose water for heating and cooling.  UConn also opened a composting facility in 2010 which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and volume of waste as well as providing quality compost for the community.  A new microgrid is being installed at the depot campus and is expected to be operational by June of 2014.  This grid is not only a more sustainable power source, but will help the university and near-by communities deal with severe weather such as the super storms we have seen in the past few years.  UConn has also been very committed to green building by constructing LEED certified buildings (it’s University Policy for all new construction to be LEED Silver or better) and retro-commissioning and re-lamping many of our buildings.

My personal role as an intern at the OEP doesn’t often bring me close to these incredible technological advances or large investment projects.  My focus is the students and engaging the community in environmental awareness.  In that area, UConn has also excelled through a variety of annual and special events.  In the fall we work with ResLife to run EcoMadness, which is a month long competition in which students strive to reduce their energy and water usage by as much as possible.   We also work with the Athletics department in order to put on three Green Game Days throughout the year (one football and two basketball) where we encourage fans to recycle and try to make the games carbon neutral if possible.  In the Spring we run a sneaker collection drive where donated sneakers are shipped to needy children and teens in Africa through the student group Kicks for Africa.  Our biggest awareness event of the year is Earth Day Spring Fling where a variety of vendors come to campus and showcase how their businesses are sustainable.  Dining Services is also a huge contributor and they bring in local food for students and community members to enjoy as they check out the vendor tables.

From working on the survey myself, along with my fellow interns and sustainability coordinators, I can say that this accomplishment was no small feat.  It took hours of compiling research, fact checking previous submissions, and updating old information.  Getting the metrics for some categories was quite a chore as well, but we were determined to submit the most complete and accurate information available.  It was often difficult to balance working on the survey while still keeping up with our other tasks such as coordinating and running events.  This was especially true because the spring time is our busiest season.  All in all, it was a rough journey, but also gave us interns an opportunity to expand our knowledge of what happens here on our campus both in the public eye and behind the scenes.  Despite many challenges, our hard work paid off and we are now so proud to be #1.  Thanks especially to all of last year’s seniors who held off spring fever in order to accomplish this monumental task!  Great job UConn, keep up the awesome work!

– Katie Kelleher