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Volume 3, Issue 2

November 2010

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Meet Our Housing Sustainability Coordinator

On October 1, 2010, I began my new adventure in life by coming “home” to the Department of University Housing at UGA. Although I am taking time to reacquaint myself with the daily opera-tions of managing on-campus living fa-cilities and learning the specifics of Family and Graduate Housing, I am al-so excited about the new area with which I will be working—sustainability. As sustainability coordinator for Univer-sity Housing, I must admit that this is a new area for me, but I look forward to all I will be learning. There is a true commitment to sustainability in Univer-sity Housing and at UGA. So many good initiatives have been started, and I have been spending time getting to know the staff and students who have

generated the ideas, organized pro-grams and services, and provided the leadership for these past efforts. In the coming months, I will continue develop-ing this new role and will be working with housing’s sustainability committee to move forward with their action plan. Be on the lookout for more news from this group in future issues of Living Green. I look forward to hearing any ideas you may have about potential sustainability initiatives in the residence halls. Sincerely, Kim Ellis Assistant Director for Family and Grad-uate Housing & Housing Sustainability Coordinator kimellis@uga.edu

Film Series Spring Line Up

Tuesday; January 11, 2011 No Impact Man

Can you save the planet without driving your family crazy?

Tuesday; February 8, 2011 The Garden

Can the largest urban garden grow in the shadow of corrup on and greed?

Tuesday; March 8, 2011 Dirt!

A story with heart and soil

Tuesday; April 12, 2011 Fuel

Uncovering America’s dirty secret

Films begin at 7 p.m. and are Blue Card events

Loca on for Jan. 11 film: Rooker Fireside Lounge

Loca on for Feb. 8, March 8 and April 12 films: Creswell TV Lounge

Sponsored by the Department of University Housing

Student’s Perspective on Living Green in Building 1516

living in Building 1516, we inter-viewed Alex Boswell, current resi-dent and sophomore f rom Peachtree City majoring in Journal-ism and Fisheries and Wildlife. Boswell chose to live in Building 1516 because she wanted to be one of the first residents to experience living in a “green” residence hall with new sustainable technology not seen in the other halls. When

Building 1516 is a signature space that supports the academics and personal growth of residents, pro-vides a place where programs, classes and events can be hosted, and is a home-away-from-home for 555 students. One of the things making this new residence hall most unique is its many sustaina-ble design features. To get a student’s perspective on

Page 2 L iv ing Green

University Housing Sustainability Initiative: Gluttons

The big blue containers that are appearing around our residence halls are Rubbermaid Glutton® Recycling Stations. Constructed of 30% post consumer recycled ma-terial, they have a storage capacity of approximately 92 gallons. We currently have 69 of them around the Department of University Housing, with an eventual goal of having one on every floor of each of our buildings. Currently Gluttons have been fully installed in Boggs, Brumby, Church, Creswell and Russell Halls as well as Building 1516. The Rubbermaid Glutton® Recy-cling Stations help in effective re-cycling and sorting at a central lo-cation. It not only makes one-stop recycling a breeze, but it also re-

duces labor costs and helps im-prove the working environment for our building service workers by cre-ating a clean and hygienic way to process the recyclables. You have the ability to recycle pa-per, plastic, aluminum, steel and glass. Although there is a place for trash presently in the recycling sta-tion, this is not for your room trash. The intent here is to provide you a place to sort out any trash from your recyclables. Please con-tinue to take your room trash (less your recyclables!) to the trash chute or dumpster as appropriate. Why should we recycle? By recy-cling, we make huge contributions to protecting the environment. The benefits show up in a number of different ways. Energy Savings: Recycling reduc-es the amount of energy needed to create a new, similar product. If we didn’t recycle paper, more trees would have to be chopped down, transported and manufactured into the finished product. Energy con-servation is one of the key ingredi-ents for the fight against climate change. Reduces Pollution: Recycling re-sults in the reduction of pollution as a result of manufacturing processes

becoming more efficient. Any re-duction in CO2 or other harmful gases is not only a key ingredient for the fight against climate change, but a key ingredient for cleaning the air we breathe. If we can reduce pollution levels from the manufacturing industry by a significant level, this could have a positive impact on our health. Conservation: All man-made products incorporate raw materials to create the finished product. This involves harvesting the earth’s natural resources in order to ac-quire the raw materials. Deforesta-tion is a prime example of how harvesting natural resources is harming the environment. This could be reduced if we recycle more paper and old wooden prod-ucts. Landfill Reduction: The more we recycle, the more we can help to reduce the burden on local and national landfill sites. As popula-tion levels increase, we will need to find more landfill sites, which will harm the surrounding environ-ment and wildlife. This is another important reason why we should recycle more, in order to reduce the impact landfills have on the surrounding environment. REDUCE – REUSE - RECYCLE

asked what ways she practices sustainability, Boswell replied, “My roommate and I recycle everything we can! We have bags full of emp-ty bottles and boxes we collect and recycle.” Boswell recommends living in Building 1516 to others. “Not only are you able to enjoy a fabulous living space, you are also helping the environment!”

Volume 3, Issue 2 Page 3

Hill Community Green Cup 2010 Results

The second annual Green Cup sus-tainability competition was held this year between Hill Community residence halls. The contest began on Monday, September 15th and ended Monday, October 11th. Throughout the competition, each hall strived to reduce their electric-ity and water consumption, in-crease recycling efforts to reduce waste and have the highest at-tendance at contest events. After a hard fought battle between all halls, Hill Hall rose victorious. However, there is a lot more to this story. Although the contest helped to re-duce electricity, water and waste, it also brought the community to-gether in the cause of sustainabil-ity. Students were engaged in ac-tively turning off unnecessary lights, unplugging unused appli-ances, taking shorter showers and recycling. To accomplish this, resi-dents collaborated with their neighbors. Danny Coradazzi, a resident assis-tant from Lipscomb Hall, stated “a couple of guys formed a kind of green police and knocked on doors to have air conditioners turned off.” He explained campaigns were

mounted to have residents turn off the air conditioning in rooms, turn off corridor lighting, take shorter showers and unplug unused devices such as microwaves and cell phone chargers. Roommates made pacts to use one trash can for recycling and another for trash to better manage waste in their rooms. Coradazzi went on to say that the last week and a half brought about excitement. “Some folks jokingly said they wouldn’t shower for the last three days [of the competi-tion]”. Although this did not give them an edge on water usage, this attitude gave Lipscomb the best overall electrical savings of the competition and the lowest recy-cling content percentage during the waste audit. Silki Modi, a resident assistant from Hill Hall, witnessed similar efforts. She observed door-to-door efforts to encourage residents to attend the events. This effort paid off as Hill Hall residents had the highest attendance or next highest attend-ance at events. In addition, Hill Hall proved to be a close competitor in the water and waste categories, which helped push them through for the final win.

As staff begin the planning process for the third year of the Green Cup competition in fall 2011, communi-ty development will be an im-portant factor to consider. More activities involving teamwork among residents will be planned for the future. Anyone wishing to provide feedback to this year’s contest facilitators are encouraged to contact Matthew Deason at mdeason@uga.edu. Great job to all!

Green Cup Results

Residence Hall Electricity Water Usage Recycling Totals Waste Audit Event Attendance

(Kw-Hrs Saved) (Gallons per Student per Day)

(Pounds per student)

(% of Recyclables in Dumpster)

(% of Hall in At-tendance Averaged

Over All Events)

Boggs -653.44 31.68 (2nd) 1.00 26.79% 27.2% (1st)

Church -2096 36.69 1.316 (1st) 30.77% 6.3%

Hill -3238.08 28.91 (1st) 1.315 (2nd) 26.43% (2nd) 26.1% (2nd)

Lipscomb 2383.36 (1st) 37.28 0.84 20.71% (1st) 21.4%

Mell 2268.96 (2nd) 34.12 0.58 46.08% 6.5%

O-House -7359.36 32.58 0.69 40.92% 1.04%

• Commute home • Shop for gifts and food for

holiday feasts locally • Avoid disposable prod-

ucts—use washable nap-kins and dishware when possible

• Reuse gift wrap • Wrap items in recyclable

materials. For example, wrapping gifts in newspa-per with colorful ribbons makes for a creative and unique gift presentation

• Use electronic invitations rather than sending paper invitations

• Decorate with compostable or edible décor such as gourds, corn, pumpkins, apples, popcorn, cranber-ries, gingerbread, lemons and fall foliage

• Look into Christmas tree recycling near your home or find a tree that can be planted after the holiday season is over

• Give greener gifts. Choose gifts made from recycled materials and buy battery-free gifts. There are also many websites available to offer green gift ideas

Page 4

Sustainable Holiday Tips

L iv ing Green

Russell Hall Athens, GA 30602

The Un ivers i ty of Georg ia Div is ion of Student Af fa i rs

Univers i ty Housing

Phone: 706-542-1421 Fax: 706-542-8595

E-mail: housing@uga.edu

Living Green is a quarterly news-letter distributed to University Housing residents and staff mem-bers and is written and published by the Department of University Housing at The University of Georgia.

For information about this issue of Living Green or to submit arti-cles for future publication, please contact:

Carla Dennis, Editor cadennis@uga.edu

Contributors for this issue:

Matthew Deason

Carla Dennis

Joel Eizenstat

Martha Matlock

Kristy Walker

www.uga.edu/housing

UGA Office of Sustainability Upcoming Events . . . December 2 Student Sustainability Coffee Hour 11 a.m.; Miller Learning Center, Jittery Joe’s (2nd floor lounge) December 3 First Friday EATS 12 p.m.; Joe Frank Harris Commons, Red Clay Café (1st floor)

Housing Website Addition

The University Housing website now has a link showcasing department ini-tiatives with regards to sus-tainability. This link in-cludes resources, recycling locations and a list of up-coming programs and events. See for yourself at h t t p : / / w w w . u g a . e d u /hous ing/susta inabi l i ty/index.html.

Soon, you will be headed home for the holidays. Keep in mind the following simple tips for making this holiday season a sus-tainable one.

Did you know . . .

In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated dur-ing the holidays—4 million tons of this will be generated due to

wrapping paper and shopping bags alone.