Big Blue Goes Green: U of K Sustainability Showcase
posted by Niles Barnes on October 19th, 2007 Go to comments
Email This Post 
This past Wednesday AASHE participated in the first “Sustainability Showcase” at the University of Kentucky. UK, as the flagship public institution in the state is also a recent AASHE member. Organized by UK’s Facilities Management, Residence Life recycling Program, UK Student Center, the UK Bookstore, UK Tracy Center for the Environment and WRFL 88.1 the showcase was a way for students, faculty, staff and the community to learn what the university is doing in support of sustainability.
The event was comprised of an exhibits showcase where multiple organizations and departments within the university and community had displays and exhibits showcasing sustainability related efforts along with multiple workshops where attendees could learn more.
Tom Kimmerer, the Executive Director of AASHE, gave a presentation at 9am entitled Overcoming Barriers to Sustainability on University Campuses. His talk focused on the barriers that many campuses face when trying to initiate and become more sustainable. Examples include the lack of communication that sometimes occur between the operations side of a university and the academic or student side. This “landlord-tenant” relationship is seen very often. Operations at Universities like UK may be working on improving the sustainability on campus (like UK installing Interface carpet in the renovated student center) but it may not be known to students or others in the academic side. He shared examples of what other campuses such as Northern Arizona University are doing to address these barriers.
There were also workshops and presentations on Sustainable Building Design from UK architecture , Food and Sustainable agriculture, two presentations on Sustainability 101, two showings of An Inconvenient Truth, Sustainability in Appalachia, Affordable Housing and Sustainable Cities and another presentation given by Tom specifically on the American College and Universities Presidents Climate Commitment.
Personally, I was blown away by how well this showcase was organized with the amount of exhibits, and good quality panel sessions and workshops. As a recent grad of UK, I could not have envisioned such a showcase occurring even a year ago. Sustainability concepts were not on the radar of the university and it took concerted efforts by (mostly) student groups over many years to raise the awareness. After failed attempts at creating a renewable energy and energy efficiency fund paid for with student fees, it is refreshing to see the University take steps in the right direction. A full time sustainability coordinator position is expected to be created soon. It would have been nice to have seen more students at the showcase, but it was a great start. Cheers from AASHE to all the people who put in lots of hard work to make the showcase a success. Here is an article about the event from the UK press office
Below are some pictures, enjoy!
Welcome Sign Sustainable Campus internship Program
Sustainable Agriculture Display Shane Tedder, Presents Sustainability 101
Sustainable Reclamation of a Strip Mine Site Brittany, Tabling for UK Greenthumb
UK Solar Car Team Energy Bikes! Hard to pedal those incandescent’s! 
Wildcat Wheels Bike Program Grassroots campaign for Molecular Lab Plastics recycling
October 19th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
The molecular lab plastics should be used to sculpt life sized legos!
Your point about the lack of communication between operations and academia is well taken. I was very impressed with the designs being showcased for the new law school, the pharmacy building, and the addition to the med center in front af the Ag North building. I thought it was even cooler after the aspects of passive solar design, and low VOC inputs were explained. I think it is important for the University to incorporate LEED principles into its new projects, but it is also important for the University to tell its students why this is worth doing. Uk is a little greener than I thought.