Activities Across Campus
"Switchie Green" Tour of Campus
During September 2008, Interim Chancellor Simek launched the Switch Your Thinking campaign to reduce campus energy consumption by 10 percent during the 2008-09 school year. In support of this effort, the Switch Your Thinking mascot, "Switch Green" is touring campus to promote energy conservation. Switchie may be a gigantic light switch, but he has a heart! To see pictures of Switchie, and to learn how he conserves energy, "friend" him in Facebook and visit his Twitter page today!
RecycleMania - Put it in Your Crania!
Calling All RecycleManiacs! From January 18 to March 28, UT is competing in RecycleMania, an intercollegiate recycling competition to see which school can recycle the most while producing the least trash. Show your support for the UT Recycling program by recycling all paper, cardboard, plastic and cans. Also, reduce campus waste by removing your name from junk mail lists. For additional recycling and waste reduction tips, check out the UT Recycles website and the UT RecycleMania Facebook page.
Make Orange Green POWER Challenge
For the fourth year, UT residence halls will compete in the Make Orange Green POWER Challenge to see which hall is best at Making Orange Green! During February 2009, halls will earn "POWER" points for environmental programming ("PO"), water conservation ("W"), energy conservation ("E") and recycling ("R"). The hall with the most points at the end of the month will win a trophy and other cool prizes! For more information, visit the official webpage and Facebook page.
Green Dining
As part of its "Green Stakes" campaign, the corporate offices of ARAMARK, UT Knoxville's Dining Services provider, have committed to implementing the following sustainable practices across all of its operations by 2010:
* Implement an Energy and Water Conservation program
* Purchase only paper products made with recycled content
* Utilize daily green cleaning products at all locations
* Divert 100 percent of fryer oil waste
* Increase sustainable food offerings served by at least 5 percent per year
At UT Knoxville, ARAMARK has already adopted a number of sustainability initiatives, including:
Partnering with Facilities Services to reduce landfill waste by composting leaves and Starbucks and Java City coffee grounds collected from campus.
Shifting to trayless dining in residential restaurants (Presidential Court Café, Sophie’s, Morrill Hall and Varsity Inn) to conserve approximately 32,000 gallons of water per school year by reducing dishwashing.
Defrosting meats in refrigerators instead of with running water, saving almost 10,000 gallons of water per school year.
Minimizing waste and promoting recycling by co-sponsoring ReycleMania with Make Orange Green, and by featuring refillable condiment containers and recycled-content paper napkins at all of its dining locations.
Promoting sustainable dining by featuring organic and fair trade coffee at Starbucks and Java City locations, and by offering vegetarian options in residential restaurants.
Purchasing stationery that is produced on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper. This ensures that the forests from which the paper originates is managed in the most environmentally-friendly way possible.
Fore more information about ARAMARK's Green Stakes campaign, visit http://tinyurl.com/cucu4f.
