by Bryan Jones and Adrian Greer
Sustainability and conservation are hot topics in the political and social realms of the United States, and the University of West Georgia is not excluded from such discussions. As part of emphasizing the necessity to be sustainable and to conserve resources, UWG carries out this mission through various means on campus.
The faculty and staff of the school carry out initiatives to aid on-campus sustainability through two major bodies. The first is through the Sustainability Council of UWG. Through task forces, the council looks into various matters that could improve sustainability and awareness on campus.
“The task forces of the Sustainability Council are looking into issues such as improving our website, assessing the potential of solar use on campus, expanding farming and local food production, and increasing sustainability in the curriculum,” said Dr. Hannes Gerhardt, assistant professor of geography and member of the Sustainability Council.
Meetings of the Sustainability Council occur one to two times per semester and are open to students, faculty, and staff.
The second body is through Risk Management. Their primary method of cultivating sustainability is through their recycling program. Developed in the spring of 2012, the recycling program has generated savings for both the school and Auxiliary Services and is promoted heavily by them. In doing this, various functions have been attended to raise awareness for the recycling program.
“Mark Reeves has spoken on our recycling program to several faculty and staff groups on campus,” said Sherri Shelnutt, coordinator for Auxiliary Services. “I have spoken during Student Government Association, Resident Assistant and Orientation leader training as well as other student groups on various auxiliary services, including our recycling efforts.”
In addition to these main bodies, various events take place throughout the year to raise sustainability and environmental awareness to the student body as well as the community. From October 24 – November 1, UWG School of the Arts will be hosting a series of events for Environmental Awareness Week. These events include two film screenings, a visit by the “Dirty Car Artist,” a plastic bottle sculpture contest and will end with the annual Interdisciplinary Conference and Dean Randy Hendricks’ Humanities Symposium. For more information on these events visit http://www.westga.edu/assetsCOAH/shared/SOTA_poster.pdf.
UWG continues its own sustainability pursuits all the way down to what vehicles they drive. Recently, the school was given a 2015 Nissan Leaf from the Scott Evans Nissan dealership in Carrollton as part this endeavor.
Another green initiative on campus is the addition of an electric vehicle charging station. The station will be placed in the parking lot beside of the Technology-enhanced Learning Center (TLC) and is expected to be installed and functional by the beginning of the spring semester, according to Project Manager Seth Lambert.
The station will charge per hour of use and it will use the ChargePoint system for billing. While the rate hasn’t officially been set yet, Seth expects it to be around 85 cents an hour with an average charge times not exceeding four hours.
The construction of the charging station, which can support two cars, was supported in part by a matching grant from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority Charge Georgia rebate program. With the rebate, Lambert expects that the station will pay for its self in approximately 5 years, between initial costs and maintenance costs.
For more information about the UWG Sustainability Council, please visit www.westga.edu/sustainabilitycouncil or e-mail Dr. Gerhardt at hgerhardt@westga.edu. For more information on the role of Risk Management in the work of sustainability and the environment, please visit www.westga.edu/cpf/index_2105.php.
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