In Katie Bushey's Oct.17 commentary piece, "Becoming eco-friendly, one step at a time," she makes some solid points about the nature of sustainability education, but I believe that the piece was written without a complete understanding of some recent campus initiatives or a full picture of the University's current efforts around becoming more sustainable.
The importance of collective action and educating people about the small steps they can take towards living a more sustainable lifestyle was a theme throughout Bushey's piece. I couldn't agree more. However, Bushey then criticizes many campus initiatives designed specifically with this sort of education in mind. EcoMadness focuses on raising awareness around the impact of students' water and energy use and couples this awareness with easy ways for students to change their habits. Residents in every single competing building this fall decreased their energy consumption, including a 28 percent decrease in the winning building, leading me to believe that this was a challenge students were ready to take on despite Bushey's assertions that the contest was "too much." Trayless dining is another initiative designed to help students take those small steps yet it too is downplayed in Bushey's piece.
Bushey also says that UConn doesn't do enough to educate students about the natural beauty of their campus. Perhaps there is actually an issue of effective communication of efforts because several projects pop to my mind immediately. The University poured considerable resources into converting the old landfill and 64 adjacent acres into Hillside Environmental Education Park, complete with trails, interpretive signage, and scenic overlooks. The UConn Environmental Literacy Workgroup recently hosted a contest which encouraged students to submit photography and creative writing with the theme of appreciating UConn's natural surroundings. There are also a couple walking tours of campus available, including tours which highlight environmental hotspots on campus and showcase trees of special interest.
I also believe that Bushey's assertion that UConn's efforts are "haphazard" is unfair and devalues the hard work done by dozens of people across campus every day. It is important to recognize that instituting university-wide change doesn't happen with a snap of the fingers and there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make even the smallest changes.
- Jennifer Sayers,
Sustainability Coordinator,
Office of Environmental Policy
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