SustainaUnity

Why UVA Will be the Nation’s Leading Sustainable University

earthweekuva — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:48:13 +0000

http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/virginia/local-blog/why-uva-will-be-the-nations-leading-sustainable-university

2010-2011 Recap of Green Efforts at UVA

earthweekuva — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:21:30 +0000

http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/virginia/local-blog/green-efforts-growing-stronger-at-uva

Earth Week Overview

earthweekuva — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:26:04 +0000

http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/virginia/local-blog/charlottesville-and-uva-earth-week-events-calendar

Earth Week 2011!

earthweekuva — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:35:40 +0000

Wondering what events and programs are going on for UVA’s Earth Week 2011? Check out the UVA Sustainability calendar,or go to the UVA Earth Week blog to see what student organizations are planning for the big week, April 18th- 24th!

Van Jones to speak at UVA

earthweekuva — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:27:38 +0000

http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/virginia/local-blog/van-jones-to-speak-at-uva

Earth Week 2011

earthweekuva — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:28:43 +0000

Hosting an Earth Week event in the Charlottesville area? Fill out the Earth Week 2011 Form so that you get on the UVA Earth Week 2011 Calendar!

Top 10 Environmental Scholarships

earthweekuva — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:06:33 +0000

http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/stories/top-10-environmental-scholarships

Present your Project at the 2011 AASHE Conference!

earthweekuva — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:17:05 +0000

Submit your abstracts by March 16: http://conf2011.aashe.org/

This is a fantastic and fun opportunity even if you don’t present- we had 14 students, faculty and staff representing UVA at the 2010 Conference in Denver and should have more this year in Pittsburg!

Mayor Dave Norris engages with students in Flash Seminar

earthweekuva — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:22:37 +0000

Flash Seminars, an idea spearheaded by Laura Nelson, recently received international press in this February 20^th article in the Washington Post for its innovation. Flash Seminars, which began this past year seek to engage students outside of the classroom by inviting a professor, staff, or in this case, the mayor, come and lead a discussion on a particular topic of interest. Students at Boston College and UNC have already expressed interest in bringing Flash Seminars to their schools and new UVA President Teresa Sullivan rarely fails to mention them wherever she goes.

The most recent seminar I attended was entitled, “Charlottesville: The Best Place to Live in America (or Not), as told by Mayor Dave.” In order to lay the framework for the discussion, Mr. Norris assigned the students to read City Council’s Vision Statement and opened up the Flash Seminar with a brief overview of how the city operates and the the many challenges the Charlottesville faces. The discussion that ensued followed many threads, including the relationship over the years between Charlottesville and the University. An interesting observation the stemmed from the conversation was how Charlottesville, not UVA, has often been the leader in progressive policies in the area. This seems quite unusual for any college-town and sparked my curiosity to ask more about civic engagement.

Mayor Dave explained that there are at least 700 non-profits in the Charlottesville area- an impressive figure when it comes to community engagement. However, he notes that relatively few of these organizations engage in activism. I had recently researched most of the student organizations at UVA relating to sustainability (over 50) and found a similar occurrence- only one student group currently engages in activism (UVA Beyond Coal). Mayor Dave mentioned to the students at the seminar how activism on the local level can be very powerful because it’s much easier to get your voice heard. He gives a recent example of one anonymous activist who caught some sewage overflow on film, Posted it on Youtube, and resulted in the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality forcing the city to update its sewage system completely.

Mayor Dave’s message of civic engagement at the local level left students rethinking how they approach politics and how they view the Charlottesville community- another successful Flash Seminar.

Responsible Partying?

earthweekuva — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:14:33 +0000

Over the past few years, UVA students from various fraternities and sororities have tried through various organizations to promote recycling after fraternity parties. I was involved in a Student Council task force in 2009 before we realized that two other groups simultaneously attempting to solve the same problem. At last, the student organization Greek Recycling has finally succeeded in promoting recycling in the fraternity houses after parties. “We picked up around 5000 pounds last fall which we considered to be a big success for our first semester of picking up. Our goal for this semester is 8000 pounds and I think we can easily attain that,” said Robert Chapman, the 3^rd year Engineer and new Greek Recycling leader. Chapman, who was also elected on Thursday night as the new chair of the Inter-fraternity Council’s Sustainability efforts, has really worked hard to get this group up and running. “With most of the original members graduating last year, Robert quickly filled their shoes and led to the quick growth of the group,” said Peter Simasek, a 4^th year in the Commerce School and one of the founders of Greek Recycling. The organization has come far in the past few years and built great momentum.

NBC 29 story on Greek Recycling: http://www.nbc29.com/global/category.asp?c=175568&clipId=5587891&topVideoCatNo=82958&autoStart=true

“It’s a great group to be involved in and a good way to make a very real difference in our Charlottesville community and especially in this rugby road area,” says Chapman.

http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/virginia/local-blog/responsible-partying