eWaste Recycling Drive 2/14-3/13

Recycle your electronic waste!

Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! UofL’s Sustainability Council and the Cardinal eSports Team want to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! From Feb. 14th – March 13th, we have special collection points set up in the following locations:

1. BAB (1st floor lobby)
2. SAC (3rd Floor, beside W310 Student Affairs Office)
3. Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st Floor Student Study Area, SE corner)
4. HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators) (426 W. Bloom St., 1st floor central hall by vending).

• There will also be a special Drive-up Drop-off Collection on Monday 3/4 from 8am-11am on the south side of the Clinical & Translational Research Building at UofL’s downtown Health Sciences Center (505 S Hancock St.), by the elevators for the 620 Garage. The contact for the Drive-up Drop-off is Skip Hurley (502) 599-6228.
  

Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of personal electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires.

Separate bins will also be available for recycling of any type of battery, lamps/bulbs, or ink/toner cartridges.

This special collection is for your own personal items.

Departmental eWaste and lab equipment can always be recycled and picked-up for free. Here’s how to get university property picked-up for reuse/recycling:
Step 1: One of the following forms must be completed for the e-scrap item(s) to be picked up. All forms are located at the Inventory Control/Surplus Property website:
1. A pick-up request for computer hard-drives and laptop computers must be submitted using the “Computing Device Surplus Certification” form.
2. All other electronic items with a UofL Property tag bar-code must be submitted on a “TRANOVER” form (regardless of value).
3. All other electronic items valued over $1000 must be submitted on a “TRANOVER” form.
4. All other electronic items valued under $1000 should be submitted on a “TRANUND” form.
Step 2: After your form has been submitted on-line and has been reviewed by the appropriate department, Physical Plant personnel will come to your location and pick up designated items for reuse or recycling.

Wipe Your Data!

Please be sure to keep your data secure by wiping the data from all your devices prior to dropping off items for recycling. The EPA provides guidance for how to do this on all types of devices here.

Checklist for disposing your items:

1. Verify that the item is included in the Items Accepted for Electronics Recycling list
2. If the device functions and powers on, prepare the item by:
   – Backing up important or sensitive data and information
   – Removing the battery (if removable)
   – Conducting a Hard Reset or Factory Reset on the device
3. Log out of all accounts associated with the device (i.e. email accounts, cloud storage accounts, social media accounts, etc.)
4. If you have not conducted a Hard Reset or Factory Reset for the device(s), refer to the following instructions according to the device manufacturer:
   – Wipe Your Android Phone: Settings > System > Advanced > Reset Options > Erase All Data (Factory Reset)
   – Wipe your iOS [Apple] Device: Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings
   – Wipe your Windows PC: Settings > Update and Security > Recover > Reset this PC > Get Started. Select Remove All Personal Files when prompted.
   – Wipe your Chromebook or Chrome Tablet: Settings > Advanced > Powerwash
   – Wipe your iMac or MacBook: Power up or restart the device. Once the device is booting up, hold down Option + Command + R until a spinning wheel appears on the screen. Release the Option + Command + R keys then select the option ‘Reinstall macOS’ and click ‘Continue’. Follow the on-screen instructions when asked to select main hard drive to be wiped.

Batteries

All battery types are accepted for recycling, including:

1. Alkaline (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt)
2. Lithium hydride, sealed (Li)
3. Nickel-cadmium, sealed (Ni-Cad)
4. Nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH)
5. Lead-acid, wet-celled (vehicle and golf cart type)
6. Lead batteries, sealed (Pb)
7. Mercury (Hg)

Lamps/Bulbs

The lighting wastes that can be dropped off for recycling include:

1. Fluorescent light tubes
2. Compact fluorescent bulbs, including U-tube and circular
3. High-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, such as high pressure sodium and mercury vapor
4. Ultra-violet (UV) lamps
5. Halogen and xenon lamps

Ecolympics 2024

This is a special event of Ecolympics 2024 and the Campus Race To Zero Waste – January 28th to March 23rd. A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable  or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2024, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2024 will take home our grand prize basket!
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

UofL begins maple syrup harvest using campus trees

By Tony Piedmonte – February 13, 2024

Cardinals may have recently noticed buckets appear near trees across campus – all part of UofL Sustainability’s effort to harvest local maple syrup.

Earlier in February, community partner and UofL neighbor, Dave Barker led participants through a maple tapping workshop, installing taps on several trees in the center of campus. Barker instructed participants on the best practices for tree tapping without causing harm to the trees. He explained that sap flows are much more accessible to tap after temperatures swing from below freezing at night to above freezing during the day, creating an internal pressure that carries sap through the tree. After these conditions are met, sap may be seen leaking through natural scars. The only equipment then needed to harvest sap is a drill to make a one-inch hole, a tap to hammer in, tubing and a covered bucket. Once the sap is harvested, it’s then boiled down to remove the water and create syrup.

Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives says tree tapping is a sustainable way to create local maple syrup and sugary products while cutting personal emissions. Combining maple tapping with other gardening and farming practices can make an important impact in reducing individual environmental impacts.

“I think the most important thing we get out of this project is a better understanding of sustainability, which is all about tapping into the local resources right under our noses that we tend to ignore,” Mog said. “As we learned at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, what makes modern life so precarious and unsustainable is an over-reliance on extractive economies that pull in resources from all over the place. Rather than spending a bunch of money and burning a bunch of fossil fuels to ship in syrup from Vermont, I’d much rather see us make our own and reconnect with the abundance that nature provides for us right here in Louisville.”

To make a gallon of maple syrup about 30–60 gallons of sap is needed. Assuming weather conditions support the flow of sap, UofL Sustainability hopes to produce a few gallons of syrup from Belknap campus trees. While the workshop focused on tapping maple trees, several other tree species can be tapped for sap to make syrup. Birch, hickory, sycamore and other types of trees can be used to create unique syrups with different flavor profiles from maple syrup.

The annual maple tapping workshop is part of UofL’s Sustainability Garden Commons workshops. The Garden Commons is a collectively managed space open to all students, staff, faculty and community members. Participants who assist in the garden’s projects are welcome to share in the harvest and take their share of organic produce.

The Garden Commons hosts several workshops and events to get volunteers engaged in recognizing the accessible abundance of gardening and foraging. Upcoming events include workshops on orchard care, berry foraging and community gardening in abandoned urban spaces. Garden Commons intern and UofL student Savannah Dowell organized this year’s maple tapping workshop.

“I want everyone who participates in the Garden Commons to walk away with the understanding and confidence that they, too, can grow, forage or learn anything their heart desires. The world of sustainable urban agriculture can be overwhelming, but don’t become debilitated by the plethora of possibilities,” Dowell said. “Whether you start with a mass-scale maple tapping project or a windowsill herb garden – just start!”

Over the coming weeks, Cardinals can help empty sap buckets into collection barrels at the North Information Center and behind Gottschalk Hall by signing up to volunteer.  

Taste UofL’s maple syrup and honey at this year’s UofL Maple Syrup & Honey Pancake Party on Friday, April 19, from noon – 1 p.m. at the Cultural & Equity Center 176 (Belknap Village North).

View pictures on Flickr from the maple tapping workshop.

UofL breaks ground on its greenest building yet, with engineering on display

In December of 2023, UofL broke ground on a New Engineering Building at the Speed School of Engineering that is scheduled to open in fall 2025 with new classrooms, labs, offices (including the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research), and club workshops and maker-space.

The 116,000 square foot building will occupy about an acre of land that used to be a parking lot for gas-guzzling private automobiles. It will cost about $73 million to construct and about $1.4 million per year to operate.

The building is being designed to achieve at least LEED Gold and will feature many energy efficiency and renewable energy systems, including the university’s second geothermal system to provide base load heating and cooling using 160 wells drilled to 600’ deep.

A lower south flat roof is being constructed as “solar-ready” to potentially house an 80kW photovoltaic system (if sufficient funds can be raised). Fundraising is also under way to potentially add other renewable energy systems, such hydrogen fuel cells, which hold the potential to make this UofL’s first net-zero energy and LEED Platinum building!

The building is also UofL’s first to be intentionally designed to educate, providing users with real-time information about energy systems and revealing sustainability features to the public. Some building systems will be intentionally exposed to offer “engineering on display” and a large dashboard in the main atrium will include information about the sustainability features and energy production and consumption.

If funding is secured to install the solar PV array, it will be the first solar system installed at UofL that is visible (from both the ground and from inside the building).

President Schatzel signs Climate Leadership Commitment as UofL reduces carbon emissions by 56%

On February 1, 2024, the University of Louisville’s 19th President, Dr. Kim Schatzel, re-signed UofL onto the Carbon Commitment, reaffirming the university’s commitment to tackling the greatest crisis facing humanity. Read Dr. Schatzel’s Climate Leadership Commitment here.

This marks the third time in a row that a UofL President has made the pledge. UofL first became a signatory to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2008 under President James Ramsey. The ACUPCC is now known simply as the Carbon Commitment. On August 4th, 2021, UofL’s 18th President, Dr. Neeli Bendapudi, also signed the Carbon Commitment.

As a member of the Climate Leadership Network, the University of Louisville is committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest. Currently there are 444 U.S. schools who have made commitments in the Network, but only three others in Kentucky, and none that have made as much progress as UofL. Northern Kentucky University (13% reduction by 2017) and Centre College (15% increase by 2015) have made Carbon Commitments and Eastern Kentucky University (not reporting) made a Climate Commitment to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.

During the first decade of Climate Action, UofL was able to vastly exceed our goals laid out in the university’s first Climate Action Plan, which was adopted on September 15, 2010. That Plan set a goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 20% by 2020. In fact, the university was able to achieve an over 35% reduction by that year and our latest Greenhouse Gas Emissions report indicates that we had achieved a stunning 56% reduction in carbon emissions from our 2008 baseline by the end of 2022, after dipping as low as 58% below baseline in 2021.

You can find all the details about UofL’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting publicly available on the new Sustainability Indicator Management & Analysis Platform (SIMAP).

From 2008 to 2022, we estimate that UofL’s net carbon emissions have declined by 56% from 212,487 to 92,781 metric tons/year.

In 2022, we stood at a 56% reduction from the 2008 baseline. UofL decreased emissions by 119,706 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year since 2008. According to the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, this translates to:

• Taking 26,638 cars off the road, or over 306 million miles of driving, or 13.4 million gallons of gas burned;
• 41,421 tons (or 5,917 garbage trucks) of waste recycled instead of landfilled;
• Emissions from 15,087 average U.S. homes’ annual energy use;
• 660 rail cars worth of coal burned;
• 14.6 billion smartphones charged; or the
• Carbon sequestered by 142,752 acres of U.S. forests in one year (or 1.98 million tree seedlings grown for 10 years).

When we look over the long-term, UofL can be particularly proud of the fact that we have reduced our carbon emissions, even as we continue to grow in terms of physical size, campus population, and budgetary expenditures. In fact, UofL has achieved the following relative reductions in emissions over time:

	Per sq. ft. of building space	Per Capita (Students+Employees)	Per Operating Budget Dollar
Emissions Reduction 2008-2022	70%	60%	74%

To reflect the past decade of experience and set new goals, during 2021-2022, UofL’s Sustainability Council worked to produce a revised Climate Action Plan as a component of our new UofL Sustainability Plan: Pathway to Platinum. It is a comprehensive roadmap for reducing our emissions down to net zero. It was shared with the campus population for comment in January 2022 and a final draft was submitted to the administration for consideration on May 27, 2022.

From July 2022 – July 2023, this revised Climate Action Plan was integrated into the first comprehensive Campus Master Planning effort the university has conducted in 15 years. The Sustainability Council coordinates UofL’s Climate Action Planning as well as the reporting of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Win with sustainability during Ecolympics 2024!

Two fun sustainability competitions to get you engaged in saving our one green planet! Facebook Event.

Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable  or submit them through our online form to win the Grand Prize, or one of eight fabulous weekly prize baskets!

Campus Race To Zero Waste! – January 28 – March 23, 2024
A friendly annual competition among North American universities. During this 8 week period, UofL will compete to reduce waste, increase recycling & composting, and raise conservation awareness across all three campuses! Keep up with the Cards progress at the Campus Race website.

• REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE! Help the Cards to victory by avoiding disposables (bring your own mug, bottle, plate, etc.), donating useful stuff to the UofL Free Store instead of throwing it away, and fully utilizing UofL’s amazingly easy, single-stream recycling system that lets you recycle everything in the same bin, everywhere on campus: all types of plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass! Details on what you can recycle at UofL here.
• COMPOST! Turn trash into treasure just by composting your food scraps and soiled paper products in the compost bins at the Garden Commons next to the Baptist Center and the Urban & Public Affairs Garden behind Bettie Johnson Hall. Request a compost caddy for your room through our online request form! If it came from a plant, we want to compost it: fruit & vegetable wastes/peels/rinds/seeds, baked goods, grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, and all kinds of soiled paper products (tissues, towels, napkins, plates, cups, etc.). We are always collecting food wastes for composting from The Ville Grill, SAC Marketplace, and other campus dining locations and will be adding those numbers to UofL’s organics recycling totals in the Campus Race to Zero Waste.
• RECYCLE E-WASTE! Don’t send your old electronics to the landfill! We will have special collection points set up in the following locations Feb. 14 – March 13:
       BAB (1st floor lobby)
       SAC W310
       Duthie Center at Speed School of Engineering (1st floor Study Area, SE corner)
       HSC Kornhauser Library (1st floor lobby behind elevators)
  There will also be a special Drive-up Drop-off Collection on Monday 3/4 from 8am-11am outside of the Clinical & Translational Research Building at HSC (505 S Hancock St.). Stop by any time to drop off any of the following types of electronics for recycling: all computers, monitors, televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, servers, networking equipment, fax machines, telephones and cellphones, RAM/memory, hard drives, battery backups, and peripherals such as keyboards, mice, speakers, AC adapters, and mixed computer cables/wires. are partnering with UofL’s eSports Club to help you Trash the competition, not the planet! Full details here.

Residence Hall Drawdown! – February 5-25, 2024
Live on campus? Win with conservation! Inspired by Project Drawdown, UofL residence halls will compete among each other to see who can reduce electricity use the most over three weeks. The winning hall will earn a pizza party, sponsored by RHA! All you have to do is stop wasting energy! Turn off lights, fans, space heaters, TVs, game consoles, etc.; unplug anything you’re not actively using (especially empty refrigerators); skip the elevator for the stairs; close windows tightly; wait until you have a full load to do laundry & wash with cold water; dry clothes on a rack/line; take shorter showers or shower with solar power at the SRC; etc.

• Keep track of each hall’s progress with UofL’s Building Dashboard, where you can see how much electricity your hall is using and learn how you can conserve! Halls in the competition include:

1. Billy Minardi Hall
2. Community Park (real-time data!)
3. Bettie Johnson Hall
4. Kurz Hall (real-time data!)
5. Louisville Hall (real-time data!)
6. Unitas Hall (real-time data!)
7. University Tower Apartments (UTA)
8. Belknap Village North
9. Belknap Village South

Prizes:

• Weekly prizes: At the end of each of the eight weeks of Ecolympics 2024, one person who has shared their sustainable action(s) will receive a themed gift basket!
• Grand Prize: One impressive Cardinal who takes the most sustainable actions during Ecolympics 2024 will take home our grand prize basket! This year’s grand prize is provided by our zero-waste friends at Peace of the Earth Refillery on Bardstown Rd. The Grand Prize basket contains a bunch of sustainable, green goodies and refillable containers, as well as a gift card.
• Post your sustainable actions and tag @UofLSustainable or submit them through our online form throughout February & March to be entered into the competition! New winners will be picked each week! Enter as often as you can!

Cardinal Campus Connector extended through March 8th

Need to get between UofL’s downtown Health Sciences Center (HSC) and the main Belknap Campus? Driving and hunting for parking is a pain. It’s also expensive and polluting. This winter, you can leave the car where it sits and travel car-free and care-free between our campuses!

Parking & Transportation Services is extending through March 8, 2024 the Cardinal Campus Connector pilot program that launched in October 2023 to provide hourly express shuttle service between the HSC and Belknap Campuses (Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.).

Shuttle stops are on Preston Street by the Medical School and the Floyd St. Garage on Belknap Campus.

The shuttle departs HSC at the top of the hour (i.e., 1 p.m.) and returns from Belknap Campus at 10 minutes past each hour (i.e., 1:10 p.m.).

The shuttle will stage for five minutes prior to departure.

Please note that during the above times there will be no additional shuttle service on the Health Sciences Center Campus.

Those looking for additional free transit between UofL’s campuses at other times should remember that TARC Route 28 provides frequent shuttle service between UofL’s two main campuses with just 20 minutes between buses (M-F 5am-11pm; 30-minutes on Saturdays, 60-minutes on Sundays/Holidays). Route 28 also provides direct, frequent service to both UofL campuses from downtown, UPS, Jefferson Mall, and Okolona/Preston Hwy.

Like all TARC routes, it is completely free for all UofL faculty, staff, and students – just swipe your UofL ID as you board.

“I work on HSC and have taken the #28 to get to classes or meetings on Belknap, and it has been a breeze in both directions. I really appreciate having this option available, as previously I had been driving. Since the bus comes so often, I don’t even check the schedule anymore.” – Diana Pantalos, UofL Metabolic Nutritionist

For more information, contact Parking & Transportation Services, 852-7270

Benne’s bike commute to campus

By Benne Holwerda, UofL Physics Professor and Sustainable Operations Committee member

The academic year is in full swing and that means you do see cyclist commute to work and our campuses, especially UofL’s main Belknap campus. Cycling tends to be pretty seasonal in Kentucky, but judging from how many cyclist I see around town, it is gaining in popularity (I know this is not a scientifically valid study).
 
Cycling is an excellent way to get to either campus and I’m here to convince you it needs not be only done by super athletic or crunchy granola types. And it can be just as practical in the cooler months as in the warmer times.
 
Quick and cheap

Cycling is a great way to get to campus, and with the rise of electric-assist bikes, it’s a great option even if you live 12 or 15 miles away. If you live within six miles of campus, cycling is even competitive in door-to-door commuting time, especially if you have to hunt for parking or park far from your ultimate destination.

Cycling eliminates your costs for gas and parking, it builds daily exercise into your routine, and it can even save some time on the commute.
 
Let’s start with costs. For someone living 12 miles from campus and commuting daily, a faculty member at minimum pays $2,358 in mileage (2×12 miles, 5 days a week, 30 weeks a year, using the IRS 2023 mileage, which includes gas and the wear on your car). Park on campus and it costs you a minimum of $324/year in a blue lot. Conservatively, that means you’d spend at least $2,682 a year to commute.
 
Now, that’s a lot, but a bike does come with some minor expenses for maintenance and such. Having your bike serviced regularly is just as a good an idea as it is with a car. If you cannot do it yourself, call it a few hundred dollars per year. If you have an electric bike like I do, you will incur some minor expenses in recharging the battery, but it comes down to a laughable amount. Switching from a gas-powered to an electric car can save you money on fuel, but you’ll still incur considerable parking, insurance, and maintenance costs that bike commuters don’t pay. An electrical bike gets me the same mobility at a much lower starting price and operating cost [3].
 
Financially this would be a nice win, even for someone who commutes half the distance, or fewer days a year.
 
On your bike

If you want to try two-wheeled commuting, you’ll need a bike, of course. Maybe you already have one and it’s a matter of digging it out of the garage. Like most things you’re trying to make a habit of, make it easy to get started. So once you’ve dusted it off, find a spot for your bike that is easy to get to.

Or perhaps you don’t have a bike (or a good one for commuting) and it’s time to invest in a new or used bike specifically for the commute. There certainly are differences in your needs as a commuter as opposed to, say, a cycling race.

Of course I took it a step further since I planned for a regular, longer-distance commute. I bought an e-bike, which was a bigger investment, for sure, but optimized for longer-distance commuting. It makes short work of Kentucky’s hills, allows me to amp it up when I’m not feeling it (a reverse spin class), and it has built-in lighting bright enough to signal overhead planes in a pinch. I love it. An e-bike is a great compromise between an EV car and doing all the pedaling yourself.
 
For starters, you’ll want to consider how you will transport things as well as yourself on a bike. I strongly advise investing in panniers. Backpacks seem like a reasonable option but honestly overstay their welcome pretty quick. I’m not some super-fit student, and my back hurts some days because I slept weird. Panniers allow you to drop what you need in the cargo area of your bike and not think about it till you get to work. Lunch, work bag etc.
 
For parking on campus you do need a good lock. I go the Dutch route and have both a horseshoe shaped “cafe lock” through the wheel and a thick, sturdy chain to lock my bike to a rack or street furniture. In the Netherlands, that’s the minimum. Here it’s may be considered overkill, but bike theft is common on campus and e-bikes are not cheap to replace.
 
Bike helmets are not a fashion accessory and you should get one that fits well. Another key to safe cycling year-round are good bike lights, either mounted on the bike or your helmet. High-visibility clothing is also helpful. A rain jacket and pants or a rain cape and some gloves are part of the kit, as well. Rain doesn’t dampen my commute as often in Kentucky as you’d think. But when it does it really comes down and it can be best to wait out the storm, if you can. Or make that really rainy day, the day you choose to take the bus, carpool, or drive to work. Just because you routinely bike, doesn’t mean it’s mandatory.
 
Safe cycling
 
Biking into campus is pretty straightforward once you have found a safe, comfortable route. In most cases, your bike route will probably be different than your driving route. There are several busy, high-speed roads going into or past campus (such as Eastern Pkwy, I-64, etc.) and while these make sense for a car commute, they are generally not the best option on a bike. Fortunately, there are plenty of lower-traffic, calmer residential streets surrounding campus that you can make use of. If I do find myself on a busy street, I will occasionally take a sidewalk. Technically, sidewalk-riding is illegal for those over 13, but sometimes it is the safest option. Of course, this decision remains the purview of your own assessment.
 
The general theme for safety is to give yourself and those in traffic space and time. Not being overly rushed and allowing the cars go first (and out of your way) is key. I find that Kentucky drivers, by and large, are polite and considerate, if intermittent users of the turn signal. However, because there are still too few of us on the road, drivers often simply didn’t expect or see cyclists. Though it helps to make yourself easy to spot with light-colored clothing, reflectors, and lights, it is best to assume drivers won’t notice you unless you are directly in front of them.
 
I’ve already put 500 miles on this new bike, almost all of it commuting to UofL. I like it. Let’s see if I can keep this up for the rest of the year.

Read More: 280 million e-bikes are slashing oil demand far more than electric vehicles: E-bikes and scooters displace 4x as much demand for oil as all of the EVs in the world (The Conversation, Nov. 18, 2023)

Photo credit: Laura Mitchell, who says, “This looks like the cover for a book about bikes and climate change.”

UofL Sustainability student, Angela Campbell tackles the connections between greenness and mental health

To kickoff UofL’s new spring semester on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, shares with you one of the highlights from last spring’s UofL Sustainability Roundtable series! On April 18th, the UofL Sustainability Council concluded its spring Sustainability Roundtable series by featuring the work of Angela Campbell, a UofL Interdisciplinary Masters in Sustainability and Public Health student who served as a Graduate Research Assistant in Environmental Health. Listen in as Angela shares her research associated with UofL’s Green Heart Project to assess the mental health impacts of neighborhood trees and green space. Her talk was entitled “Mental Health and Residential Greenness Exposure.”

Learn more about the Green Heart Project at greenheartlouisville.com/

Learn more about UofL’s Sustainability Roundtable and watch video of past presentations at louisville.edu/sustainability/ed…research/scholars

As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW!

Sustainability Now! is hosted by UofL’s Sustainability Manager, Dr. Justin Mog, and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at forwardradio.org

LISTEN HERE: UofL Sustainability student, Angela Campbell tackles the connections between greenness and mental health (Sustainability Now!, Forward Radio 106.5fm, Jan. 8, 2024)

Meet Alana O’Bryan, UofL Dining’s new Sustainability Coordinator

Hi! I’m Alana O’Bryan, UofL Dining’s new Sustainability Coordinator, as of fall 2023.

Louisville is where I have lived my whole life and is a place I will call home forever.

I am a proud University of Louisville graduate. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability and a minor in Environmental Analysis!

I’m excited to incorporate what I’ve learned in my sustainability studies and use that knowledge to give back to the university!

I decided to go into the Sustainability field because I want to be part of the positive change the world needs today.

Sustainability is so much more than just protecting the environment; it’s about nurturing and embracing the people and communities within it.

I believe sustainability starts at a local scale, and I look forward to creating a positive impact that supports all of what sustainability works towards.