Sustainability Office

Explore Sustainability at the U

Student Stipend to Offer Greater Accessibility to SCIF Grants

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The Sustainability Campus Initiative Fund (SCIF) is for everyone and anyone interested in pursuing funded sustainability projects. In an effort to live up to this statement, SCIF is introducing a student stipend that will offer financial compensation to students who aren’t able to pursue an independent project due to financial or personal barriers. While the […]

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What Goes Around Comes Around (WGACA) Pop-Up Thrift Store

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By Sydney Murray, Sustainability Office During the final weeks of spring semester, the Sustainability Office collects gently used items from students moving out of the residence halls for our annual What Goes Around Comes Around (WGACA) pop-up thrift store, which is a free on-campus program designed to meet students’ basic needs, move toward a zero-waste […]

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GCSC Seminar: Interdisciplinary Advocacy in Environmental Justice

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By Sydney Murray, Sustainability Office When it comes to practicing law, one often thinks of filing briefs, going to court, representing clients, and engaging in litigation. Ruhan Nagra, associate professor of law and founding director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, refers to such activities as […]

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GCSC Seminar: Promoting Environmentally Responsible Behavior

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By Sydney Murray, Sustainability Office Dr. Brian Eisenhauer is the Director of the Office of Environmental Sustainability, and professor of environmental sociology at Plymouth State University. Combining his personal affinity for the outdoors and his academic background in studying people and human society, his research interests center around environmental communications, sustainability, conservation, and grassroots activism. […]

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Seed library encourages patrons to connect more with their food

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By Maria Archibald, Sustainability Office. This article was first published in @theU on March 10, 2023. For hundreds of years, libraries have provided free access to knowledge, literature and ideas. But alongside the books, magazines and journals available for loan, some libraries have also begun lending seeds. Today, over 450 seed libraries exist around the […]

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GCSC Seminar: Competing Accountabilities amongst Scientists and engineers in the Mining, oil, and gas industries

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By Sydney Murray, Sustainability Office “Oftentimes we think about the mining, oil, and gas industries in black and white terms,” says Dr. Jessica M. Smith, professor in the Engineering, Design, and Society department at the Colorado School of Mines. “Especially when it comes to questions of sustainability.” However, when we broadly critique these industries, both […]

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GCSC Seminar: POLLUTION, HEALTH DISPARITIES, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

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By Sydney Murray, Sustainability Office The impacts of pollution are felt all around the world, but they are not felt equally. Low-income and minority communities are often deprived of resources and political protections, leaving them to face the brunt of environmental pollution and its health consequences including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. On Tuesday, February 14 at […]

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GCSC Seminar: Avoiding Maladaptive Outcomes in Response to Climate Change

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By Sydney Murray, Sustainability Office Respondings to climate change has entangled social, cultural, political, and environmental  implications. Often, when these implications are overlooked or disregarded, researchers, policymakers, and community members face “maladaptive outcomes,” or consequences of adaptation efforts that don’t go to plan and incur negative outcomes.  On Tuesday, Jan. 31, Dr. Amanda Bertana, assistant […]

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Heat People, Not Spaces!

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This article was originally written by Kate Whitbeck and published in @theu on Feb. 5, 2020. It was updated in 2023 by Maria Archibald. Want to stay warm this winter while reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? Consider participating in our program Heat People, Not Spaces! If you are an employee of the University of […]

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Hope in 2023: A Letter from the Chief Sustainability Officer

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For me, every January begins full of hope. A new year. A fresh start. This will be the year we accomplish our goals–the year we change the world! Then, of course, life happens. We break new year’s resolutions, we experience hardship, we endure tragedy. It gets harder to feel hopeful.   But hope is a funny […]

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