Past Projects
Past projects of the SEC include:
LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
Occupancy sensors installed: in the SGA office, offices, storage closets, and bathrooms in Highsmith Union, the Student Environmental Center office, residence hall laundry rooms
DOUBLE SIDED (DUPLEX) PRINTING
The UNCA Library and the Student Environmental Center teamed up to reduce paper waste on campus. Working together we achieved double siding printing for the library printers. We also Succeeded in getting IT to agree that next year double sided printing will be default in all campus labs that have the capability. This process has involved working with faculty as well to encourage them to accept double sided assignments. We have added signage to all computers to inform the students, faculty and staff of this option and its benefits.
HOMINY CREEK CLEANUP
In February, the SEC and UNCA Outdoors teamed up with Riverlink to clean up Hominy Creek, along the French Broad River in West Asheville. Amongst the two UNCA groups, 20 people volunteered on this Valentine's Day weekend to show their love for the river. It is estimated that 30 tires were removed from the banks of the creek and a couple of truck-loads of trash.
UNCA Outdoors and the SEC have adopted this section of Hominy Creek and will continue to do trash clean-ups twice a year.
WASTE AUDIT
Carried out a waste audit Fall 2007 semester to track baseline recycling rates, amounts of recycling being thrown away currently and amount of contamination in recycling. This audit will be used to compare to a future waste audit after recycling signage is improved to determine if new system is working efficiently.
URBAN FOREST
Working to permanently protect forest on UNC Asheville campus through legislation. This project is targeting the South Campus Urban Forest and the North Campus (Chestnut Ridge). Although there are no immediate concerns involving these two tracts, we feel it would be an important time to secure their boundaries for the future. The SEC is currently distributing petitions to the students and drafting a letter for the Board Of Directors. We will submit the petition and the formal proposal to the UNC Asheville Board of Trustees by the end of the Spring semester 2008.
Update- Dr. Bill Haggard, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, met with the SEC on behalf of the Board of Trustees in the Fall of 2008 and committed to an informal guiding policy to look at all other locations before initiating any building projects in these areas. We were informed that some small projects are currently being proposed in one of these areas, but with minimal impact. Due to the land being "State Property", UNC Asheville is not allowed to permanently set aside these areas, but they are allowed to leave these areas as a last resort. We are still working towards greater protection of these areas.
GREEN LEAF AWARDS
Nominate faculty and staff members who you feel should be recognized for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability. We will present two awards: Innovation and Creativity and Environmental Leadership. Two faculty and two staff members are chosen for each award. Send nominations to environmentunca@gmail.com. The awards are made by local woodworkers and only "Treecycled" wood is utilized!
Winners for 2008 are:
Faculty winners are- Environmental Leadership Dee Eggers and Creativity and Innovation Grace Campbell
Staff winners are- Environmental Leadership Tom Baldwin and Creativity and Innovation Danny Dawkins
PAST CAMPUS EVENTS
Fall 2007:
Greenfest with SGA -organized the reading of the endangered species list
Sponsored, along with the Office of Cultural and Special Events, a talk by Michael Singer
Spring 2008:
Focus the Nation with ASHE, this event drew in over 200 community members and was well attended by students
Teamed up with UNCA Outdoors to organize a river cleanup
National Campus Energy Challenge, in which we competed with schools all across the country to cut our energy usage
Inter-dorm challenge: the winning dorm cut their energy usage by 16% compared to previous years and were awarded with a dinner party
Earth Day events on campus-giveaways included reusable grocery bags, plants and CFL bulbs. Many local environmental oragnizations tabled the event and local political candidates attended
Fall 2008
Mike Brune, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) director, spoke about his book Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil.
Spring 2009
Greenfest and Earth Day events
Fall 2009
Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, an event open to the public with documentaries about contemporary environmental issues. Co-hosted by Clean Water for NC and sponsored by local and national orginizations.
Wind Energy Forum focusing on wind potential for WNC.
Student Environmental Center | 174 Highsmith University Union | environmentunca@gmail.com | (828) 232-5143