October marks the celebration of Campus Sustainability Month, or CSM, across universities internationally. During the month, Texas A&M aims to shine light on environmental, social and economic sustainability, spreading awareness and encouraging meaningful change on campus.
This October, A&M’s Office of Sustainability & Campus Enrichment, or OSCE, is celebrating its 17th annual CSM. OSCE has organized in-person and virtual events to provide opportunities for students to explore and participate in sustainable practices on campus and across their communities.
On OSCE’s CSM website, students have access to a calendar of all organization events. During the first week of October, OSCE encouraged the use of sustainable transportation through their “Week Without Driving” challenge; it also encourages attendance at their intern CSM talks taking place throughout the month. By attending and participating in these events, students collect “code words” that they can use to enter a giveaway at the end of the month.
“This month is really about education,” Director of Sustainability in the Office of Sustainability & Campus Enrichment Kelly Wellman said. “And so when we are out here physically kind of talking about what we’re doing, we are hitting those public engagement, educational opportunity goals where we’re sharing all the things that are happening on campus.”
Since OSCE’s founding in 2008, A&M has released its Sustainability Master Plan, followed by its Evergreen Goals of promoting sustainability across campus. The department works year-round to foster these goals, but CSM allows OSCE to focus on spreading awareness and educating students through events such as Campus Sustainability Day on Oct. 15.
“[Campus Sustainability Day is] a way to bring together student organizations, campus departments and community partners who all kind of have a vested interest in sustainability,” Wellman said.
Students, organizations and faculty gathered at Rudder Plaza on Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to celebrate Campus Sustainability Day and share their sustainable missions with students.
According to OSCE’s CSM website, its aim is to“expose, educate, and empower attendees with the skills they need to be more sustainable—environmentally, socially, and economically.”
A&M’s environmental goal is often the most recognized pillar of sustainability; however, Campus Sustainability Day also emphasized the importance of social and economic sustainability. Student organizations such as the Aggie Green Fund and 12th Can were present alongside statewide groups like the Texas Conservation Alliance which actively shared information on sustainability.
One of the organizations tabling at the event aimed to touch on all of these sustainability areas. The Aggie Green Fund has donated more than $2.8 million to students in grants, allowing it to drive meaningful change itself.
“We help give away money for any student or faculty member who has a sustainable idea they want to put on campus,” political science and environmental studies junior Vienna Cheng said.
ReplayUnmuteRemaining Time -0:00Picture-in-PictureFullscreenCheng is part of the student-led Aggie Green Fund, hoping to encourage more students to get involved on campus. With the help of passionate students, Aggie Green Fund supported the transition to LED light fixtures in the Forsyth Galleries, the placement of free period product dispensers on campus via the Period Project and the addition of recycling bins and water bottle filling stations in most buildings on campus. Although these projects are important, Cheng emphasized that students can make a difference by simply showing up.
“Being around like-minded people who also are trying to promote these same goals, is really important, and it also helps you feel a lot more driven in that I’m doing something,” Cheng said.
One major area Aggie Green Fund and Wellman want to focus on is social sustainability. They hope to improve campus efforts through initiatives such as the Period Project. With assistance from A&M’s H.E.A.T. chapter and other organizations, Aggie Green Fund was able to support the project financially.
“The Period Project is trying to provide free and accessible period products to folks who need them,” Wellman said. “Because period poverty is a real thing and it can impact people’s ability to stay on campus and go to class, and/or be diverted from that.”
However, the Project is not the only attempt to make resources more accessible. Representing MOVE Texas, statistics and psychology senior Sophia Sanders emphasized the importance of voting and working to encourage students to use their voices.
“Recently, we had our National Voter Registration Day event in September,” Sanders said. “And I think that’s really important because voting is a huge part of maintaining and creating sustainable policies, because obviously the government controls a lot of sustainability policies of requirements of what residential and commercial sources are supposed to be doing.”
There are many different ways students can get involved this October, with opportunities to participate in all areas of sustainability on campus and in the community.
“Sustainability starts with yourself,” Cheng said. “You can’t help other people unless you’re in a good place yourself. Making sure that you’re in a good place, helping, making sure that other people are in a good place, that’s how we start getting real work done.”
Source: https://thebatt.com/
