About the Committee
The Office of Sustainability established the Sustainability Committee in the fall of 2012. The committee is comprised of faculty, staff, and students and is therefore a representation of the campus community. Its purpose is to:
- Plan and promote sustainability initiatives on campus
- Review sustainability documents and efforts of the Office of Sustainability
- Vote on sustainability initiatives on campus
- Offer suggestions to the Office of Sustainability
- Enhance awareness and education of sustainability on campus
Membership
Committee members serve 1 year terms from September 1 - August 31. Staff and faculty volunteer to serve on the committee while students are appointed by their student government. Each student government (5 total) appoint between 1 - 3 students to serve on the committee. This ensures that each student group is represented within the committee. To see a complete list of committee members, please click here.
Budget
The committee's budget comes from the Environmental Service Fee. In March of 2010, students from the Medical Student Government Association approached the university with a recommendation to implement a fee to support recycling and energy conservation on campus. The fee proposal was discussed in an open forum in October 2010, and it went to a student vote in November of that year. Of the students eligible to vote, 87% cast ballots and of those voters, 67% voted in favor of adding the fee. In the fall of 2011, the Environmental Service Fee began to be collected as authorized in accordance with Texas Education Code Sec. 54.5041. Students pay a maximum of $30 annually for the fee, and the fee generates approximately $45,000 per year. The Office of Sustainability and Sustainability Committee use these funds in accordance with the legislation.
Subcommittees
The Sustainability Committee is starting several subcommittees in 2013. These include:
- Earth Day - plan the Earth Day event to be held in April every year
- Bylaws - draft the bylaws for the committee
- Community Garden - research, plan, and develop a UNTHSC community garden
- Campus Outreach - focus on motivating and educating our campus to be more sustainable and advertising services available to us such as public transportation
- Recycling - focus on ways to make our recycling program more efficient
- Food Vendor - develop ways to make our food services on campus more sustainable
- Energy - focus on energy conservation measures
- Budget - oversee the committee's budget
- Green Office - develop and launch a green office program
- Green Fund - develop an application and process where people on campus can apply for funds for sustainable projects
Committee Documents
Agenda
Minutes
This page last updated Mar 07, 2013
