Sustainability Office

Explore Sustainability at the U

Exploring the Politics of Space

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Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Growing up in Los Angeles, Sarah Kanouse was aware of the ways Los Angeles transformed from a desert community to a bustling city by building water and power structure. Later, when Kanouse found herself in “small college communities surrounded by cornfields,” she began to realize that rural landscapes are not as […]

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Adapting Governance to Water Scarcity

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Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. River basins are complex systems—especially when they cross state boundaries. There are some general institutional arrangements over the Western United States that allow for some commonalities in management. But the social, economic, and physical characteristics of these systems makes each basin unique. The complexity of these systems and diverse interests of […]

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Using Time as Our Guide

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By Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Both urban and rural areas around the world rely heavily on groundwater to support agriculture, energy, residential, and industrial use. This demand for groundwater—from a global population of over seven and a half billion—combined with impacts of climate change places more stress on these systems. In order to sustainably manage […]

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Re-Imagining Relationships

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Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Climate change threatens everything about our social organization. But that shouldn’t immobilize us. Instead, Kari Norgaard, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon, encourages us to view climate change as an opportunity to re-envision our social, political, and economic systems. Norgaard will show how climate change […]

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Farmers Market by the Numbers

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Each Thursday during the first seven weeks of school, the University of Utah Farmers Market transforms Tanner Plaza from a sitting area to a thriving community. For anyone who has walked through the space, it is easy to see why the farmers market is a favorite fall activity for students, staff, faculty, and community members […]

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USING NATURE AS OUR GUIDE: FIVE PLANTS THAT IMPROVE INDOOR AIR QUALITY

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Katie Stevens, Sustainable Utah Blog Writing Intern. Living in Salt Lake City, we are no strangers to air pollution and its harmful effects.  Breathing in toxic air can cause a range of health concerns including increased asthmatic symptoms, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and more. It is no surprise that we often retreat into our […]

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curating global ecology through big data

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Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Ecologists seek to answer the big questions about how the world is changing, and how species and ecosystems are responding to those changes. To answer these questions, a new network of analysis is needed. Community-curated data sources can provide new insight on how systems are have changed in the past and […]

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Intentional Change

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Bianca Greeff, Graduate Assistant. Designers are agents of change. They research how our everyday actions and behaviors are conceived, planned, and acted on. By making these intangible aspects of society tangible, designers have the ability to communicate about or change these societal features. In the past, design has been leveraged as a way to create […]

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Find Fair Trade Coffee on Campus

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By: Nate Bramhall, Sustainability Ambassador. If you’re anything like me, the amount of money you’ve spent on coffee over the course of the semester is kind of astounding. Even though I save money by carrying my own coffee mug, my coffee spending comes out to more than $60 a month. But what is that money […]

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TAKING THE LEED

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Origninally posted in @theU on Oct. 23, 2017. By Shawn Wood, communications specialist, University Marketing & Communications The University of Utah announces its first Athletics building to be LEED Gold certified. The Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Basketball Facility, home to both men’s and women’s basketball, is officially a leader in sustainable design and energy […]

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