There are just innumerable ways to get involved.
And again, not everybody can do everything, but if each person did something
it sure would be a better world.
I'm John Nolt, professor of philosophy here at UT, and president of Faculty Senate.
Also co-chair of the Committee on the Campus Environment.
I'm seeing probably the greatest interest in environmental activism and environmental careers
and getting involved and improving the campus in an environmental way,
than I've ever seen in my 30 years.
The five percent energy reduction is a substantial achievement for this campus.
We had the Make Orange Green Program, developed the Switch Your Thinking campaign
and then later in the year the Chancellor came out with an
energy policy that tightened that up a little bit,
which has resulted in a five percent savings.
We're looking for a 10 percent savings. That's the goal of the
energy policy campaign. We're not there yet, but if we do,
that will save us a million dollars or more.
Actually it's not true that the plan for energy savings was developed
only as a response to the budget cuts. I co-chair the Committee
for the Campus Environment and we were asked by Loren Crabtree,
the former Chancellor, back in 2005, to come up with an energy plan for the university.
So the plan is that old. It took us two years to put it together.
We got some help from Oak Ridge National Lab and we actually plotted out
a 25-year energy plan for the university with a whole series of recommendations.
Among which were many of those that were put into place this fall.
The energy improvements that we're seeing are funded mostly by the student facilities fee.
Students generate over $400,000 each year, from that fee, which the students
asked for themselves through a referendum. And about $180,000 of that goes to
pay for green power. And the rest of it goes for improvements in buildings
and these are often small projects that people don't recognize at the time
but things like energy sensors, or lighting sensors, improvements in equipment
for heating and cooling, updating lighting fixtures. A great variety of things.
What really got me active in the environmental movement was the birth
of my daughter in 1985. What got me thinking there was that I saw that
the world that she was growing up in was in many ways not as good
as the world I had lived in. That many things I had enjoyed
were being degraded or were no longer available. And I found myself
getting really angry about that. I thought, "I've got to do something."
Not everybody's going to be able to do everything at once.
But build habits slowly. Get in the habit of turning off any
electronic equipment that's not being used at the moment.
Get into recycling. Help to save water, reduce water usage.
Reduce vehicular transportation. I'm a great proponent of biking and of walking.
It's healthy and it's good for the environment. It's good for everything.
Everybody just needs to do their part. It benefits us all.
It benefits faculty, it benefits staff, it benefits students.
We can be lean and efficient, and that benefits the environment
which in turn benefits future generations. Everybody benefits if we do this.