Green Gossip with Ashley Pryor

UT is buzzing about the plans for a School of Alternative and Renewable Energy based at the Scott Park Campus and about the promise of more green jobs for our graduates. Our institution is joining a growing list of universities that are preparing students for a world sorely in need of graduates with broad-based and holistic knowledge of the challenges posed by the goal of a sustainable future. But as important as our efforts toward renewable energy are, improving our College Sustainability Report Card Grade at UT will involve not just study, but local action throughout the university, from students to faculty, and from the dining halls to the board rooms.

There is nothing wrong and everything right with continuing to build UT’s reputation as a leader in the research and development in renewable energy. But an increasing number of scholars who work on issues related to sustainability recognize that we can not simply power our way out of our current economic and environmental quagmire by turning to alternative sources of energy. That’s because “sustainability” means a lot more than “sustaining consumption.” But that raises the question that we really need to ask if we are going to begin to think sustainably. What is “sustainability”?

Big question! This is the first in what will be a series of entries that address “sustainability” as a UT priority. What do we think about “sustainability” as a UT community? What are we already doing in our classrooms, corridors, dining halls and dorms to create a sustainable future for UT, and what can we do better? UT is students, families, cooks, faculty, support staff, lab techs, nurses, administrators, web designers, to name a few. Armed with my new digital recorder I am on a mission to find out how some of you would answer the question, “what is sustainability,” especially as it relates to your daily routine, but also ways it relates to a larger national and global community dedicated to thinking and acting sustainably. Stay tuned…