Sustainability Student Employees: A Year in Review Part 2

Welcome back to Sustainability Student Employees: A Year in Review! This part two of a two-part blog, so if you haven't read last week's blog post, go ahead and read it here!

Waste Minimization team

While the Service Learning team organizes some of the most publicly visible sustainability-related events at UVA, the Waste Minimization team works behind the scenes to reduce the waste footprint of our day-to-day lives. Their chief purpose is to manage the Zero Waste Ambassador program, which is responsible for post-consumer composting efforts on Grounds. In the fall semester, the Zero Waste Ambassadors had 19 students, and 22 students in the spring. They organized compost sorting shifts outside Halsey Hall nearly every weekday of every week throughout the year, in addition to providing support at Green Games, Corner Cleanups, and Garden Workdays.

This past year, the Waste Minimization also expanded UVA’s composting network across the board. In the fall, they installed compost bins outside of Runk Dining Hall, and supported paper towel composting in the bathrooms of Halsey Hall, Warner Hall, and Minor Hall. In the spring, they added a new sorting area at Treehouse Drive, which greatly helped to streamline the process of sorting through compost bins by hand to ensure we’re delivering organic materials only to our Black Bear Composting partner. Altogether, the Zero Waste Ambassadors sorted through nearly 20,000 pounds of compost over the past year!

Green Athletics team

The Green Athletics team is a group of student athlete leaders that directs its outreach and advocacy towards the UVA athletic community. Over the past year, they led a wide variety of initiatives that both reduced the environmental impact of UVA athletics and helped engage student athletes in sustainable practices, ranging from making protein-dense plant-based snacks to filming short-form Instagram videos of UVA students talking about sustainability.

Some of the ways Green Athletics helps student athletes engage with sustainability include the Plant Based Snack Series, the Mini Mic Series, JPJ Athletic Dining graphics, and the Environmental Literacy Survey. Through the Plant Based Snack Series, athletes made peanut butter protein balls, vegan chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and vegan banana bread, enjoyed by around 150 athletes. As part of the Mini Mic Series, the Green Athletics team asked student athletes various questions about sustainability, and awarded correct answers with succulents. Other interactions included asking student athletes to share ways they practice sustainability in their lives. These interactions were recorded and compiled into several reels on Instagram shared on Earth Day.

To help educate student athletes about small things they can do to be more sustainable, the Green Athletics team developed and installed graphics on the napkin dispensers at the John Paul Jones Athletic Dining Room. Some of the topics of these graphics included: how to save energy over winter break, the UVA 2030 Sustainability Goals, and recruitment to join the Green Athletics team. Green Athletics also created and installed a poster promoting water conservation in the locker rooms of all 27 varsity teams. To highlight progress on sustainability engagement, Green Athletics conducted the Environmental Literacy Survey, which assesses student athlete knowledge, values, and practices relating to sustainability.

Along with promoting awareness of sustainability in the athletic community, the Green Athletics team also took major steps towards reducing the overall environmental impact of athletics at UVA. In 2022, Green Athletics piloted Sustainable Showers with Rowing, which replaced single-use plastic shower products with bulk options, helping to save over 150 plastic bottles. In 2023, Green Athletics expanded this program to Women’s Swim & Dive. Green Athletics also continued to maintain collection bins for unusable tennis balls at the Boar’s Head Resort and at the tennis courts by Memorial Gymnasium, which allowed thousands of landfill-bound tennis balls to be recycled and repurposed.

The Green Athletic team also worked with the Student Athlete Advisory Committee to make the Hoos Choice Awards, a student athlete event that celebrates the past year’s athletic achievements, a Zero Waste event. At the Hoos Choice Awards, Green Athletics managed to fill six full Black Bear totes of compostable waste, which is roughly equal to 300 pounds.

Equity & Environment team

2023 was also the Equity & Environment team’s first year as a part of the Sustainability Student Employee program. Its main goals are to educate about environmental justice and inequities in sustainability, to advance environmentally just practices at UVA and the wider community , and to ensure that the Office for Sustainability’s operations are accessible for and inclusive of all people, needs, and identities. Although newly created, the Equity & Environment team has already begun to lay the groundwork for substantial future action on environmental justice.

One of the first programs that the Equity & Environment team implemented is Thankful Thoughts, a recurring event where attendees wrote letters in support of local environmental justice organizations. In the past year, they held five Thankful Thoughts events, each focusing on a different theme, including topics such as transportation, food justice, and housing. Cumulatively, they sent over 80 letters to 19 different organizations that are committed to creating an environmentally just Charlottesville.

In addition to providing direct support to organizations through letter writing, the Equity & Environment team also posted weekly Sunday Spotlights, which featured over 30 different organizations that were involved in environmental-justice themed, resources, and community happenings. Featured organizations included UVA-affiliated groups, student CIOs, and local Charlottesville-based organizations, such as the Environmental Justice Collective, Cultivate Charlottesville, and Livable Cville.

The Equity & Environment team also designed and launched two pilot programs: free, eco-friendly meal prep classes, and a diversity in environmental leadership program. As part of the eco-friendly meal prep program, the Equity & Environment team partnered with the UVA Sustainable Food Collaborative to host two free cooking classes using local, sustainably-grown produce. The Equity & Environment team also held an open discussion to get feedback on the diversity in environmental leadership program, and plans to move forward with developing the program using their discussion notes as guidance. These programs are still in their early stages with the Equity & Environment team laying a strong foundation to be built upon in the coming years. The team wrapped up their first year as part of the SSE program by hosting a documentary screening and discussion of Mossville: When Great Trees Fall in Newcomb Theater, in partnership with UPC, the Lorax Society, and Professor Charity Nyelele.

Across its six teams and 19 student employees, the Sustainability Student Employee program continues to expand and grow its impact. From diverting tens of thousands of pounds of waste at football games, to teaching volunteers about sustainable agriculture, to increasing awareness of environmental justice in the greater Charlottesville community, we are working towards a more sustainable UVA. We look forward to doing even more in the coming year!