Rob Jackson will present a forty-five-minute talk on “Shale Gas and Its Environmental Footprint” and then lead a group discussion at the Baker Center Interdisciplinary Group on Energy and Environmental Policy. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 3.30 pm in the Toyota Auditorium of the Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Avenue.

The Baker Center discussion forum is an opportunity for academics to share their research findings to a broad set of academics, researchers, and students from outside their own discipline but who have a common interest in environmental and energy issues. Each semester, about a half-dozen speakers from fields such as ecology, economics, urban planning, atmospheric chemistry, and sociology are invited to make presentations. For more information, visit the forum’s website: http://web.utk.edu/~jlarivi1/bcinter.html.

Jackson researches the interactions between people and the earth, including studies of the global carbon and water cycles and energy and environment issues, such as shale gas extraction. He is director of Duke’s Center on Global Change and Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. He also directs the Department of Energy-funded National Institute for Climatic Change Research for the southeastern U.S. and co-directed the Climate Change Policy Partnership, working with energy and utility corporations to find practical strategies to combat climate change. Most recently, he co-chaired the new US Carbon Cycle Science Plan, which outlines a research agenda for the coming decade.

Unconventional gas extraction from shale formations, called “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking,” is growing rapidly. Jackson will present the results of the first peer-reviewed study showing an apparent link between methane contamination in drinking water wells and hydrofracking.

UT faculty members who are part of the forum include Paul Armsworth of the College of Arts and Sciences; Jacob LaRiviere of the College of Business Administration; Becky Jacobs of the College of Law; and Chris Clark of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

C O N T A C T :

Nissa Dahlin-Brown (865-974-8681, nissa@utk.edu)

SACE's Tennessee Campus Coordinator Reggie Miller with Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

KNOXVILLE — University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is being honored again for its sustainability efforts. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) gave UT the Green Power Leadership Award for the campus’s commitment to advancing renewable energy.

Founded in 1985, SACE is a regional organization focused on developing clean energy solutions throughout the Southeast. The award was given at SACE’s second annual Summit for Campus Sustainability at Belmont University in Nashville Friday, Oct. 8.

UT Knoxville was selected due to its participation in TVA/KUB’s Green Power Switch Program in which the Student Environmental Initiatives fund purchases renewable energy for the campus. UT Knoxville is the largest purchaser of green power in the Southeast and was the first in university in the state to fund the green power through a student-approved fee.

“Thanks to the leadership of our student body and a commitment from our entire campus community, UT Knoxville is a leader in campus sustainability efforts and our plan is to build upon all of our initiatives that help us to be a good steward of the earth’s resources,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek.

Gordie Bennett, the campus’s sustainability manager, received the award for the campus at Friday’s event.

“I thank our students for their forward thinking and concern for the environment,” said Bennett. “I am truly inspired by the amount of support that students throughout Tennessee have shown for green power in our region.”

The Green Power Switch Program brings natural power generated by the wind, the sun and the earth to consumers. An equivalent amount of the kilowatt-hours purchased through the program is generated from renewable sources. This eliminates the associated emissions and also helps preserve the natural resources of the nonrenewable fuels.

This is one of several recognitions UT Knoxville has received for its green efforts. At the first annual Summit for Campus Sustainability in 2009 the campus was awarded the Energy Efficiency Leadership Award for its Switch Your Thinking campaign which encourages energy conservation.

Earlier this year, The Princeton Review listed UT Knoxville in its “Guide to 286 Green Colleges,” citing the Student Environmental Initiatives fund and recognizing the campus’s 2007 sustainable building policy. Last summer, The Princeton Review gave UT Knoxville a “green rating” of 85 in its 2010 edition of “The Best 371 Colleges.”

UT Knoxville recently adopted a Climate Action Plan as part of being a signatory to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. The plan is available at http://environment.utk.edu/CAP_feedback.html.

The campus’s sustainability efforts are part of the comprehensive Make Orange Green program that promotes and coordinates environmental stewardship activities on campus. For more information, visit http://environment.utk.edu.

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C O N T A C T:

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)

UT Knoxville is one of only five universities in Tennessee to be included in the company’s newest guidebook, “Guide to 286 Green Colleges,” and is mentioned for its “Make Orange Green” program and other initiatives.

UT Knoxville’s Make Orange Green environmental effort has been recognized across the state and nation as one of the top campus sustainability programs.

“Ensuring our campus is sustainable is a top strategic goal for UT Knoxville,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “Advancing our green initiatives is vital to our campus and the best way to prepare our students for the green economy of the 21st century.”

The Princeton Review noted the student environmental initiative fee, which funds environmental stewardship programs. The fee also funded the purchase of 3,375 blocks of green power for the university, a purchase that was equivalent to removing 732 cars from the road for a year.

UT Knoxville was the first university in the state to institute a student-initiated fee for the purchase of green power.

The Princeton Review also recognized the campus’ 2007 sustainable building policy that makes the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system the standard for all new construction and renovation projects exceeding $5 million. Two new buildings, the Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building and the Student Health Center, currently are being built to LEED standards.

UT Knoxville also was noted for being a 2009 recipient of the Energy Efficiency Leadership Award at the first annual Summit for Campus Sustainability, a conference organized by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to discuss insights on campus sustainability.

In another step toward increasing campus sustainability, UT Knoxville recently adopted a Climate Action Plan as part of being a signatory to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. The commitment lays the groundwork for the nation’s higher education community to take a leadership role in mitigating human influence on climate in day-to-day operations, curriculum and research. The plan is available online.

Last summer, The Princeton Review gave UT Knoxville a “green rating” of 85 in its 2010 edition of “The Best 371 Colleges.” Of 697 schools that received green ratings in 2009, only the 286 institutions that scored in the 80th or higher percentile are featured in the new “Guide to 286 Green Colleges.”

The Princeton Review’s green rating is a numerical score from 60 to 99 that provides a measure of a school’s performance as an environmentally aware institution as well as its efforts to provide and continually develop an environmentally beneficial student experience.

Developed by The Princeton Review in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the “Guide to 286 Green Colleges” is the first, free, comprehensive guidebook focused solely on institutions of higher education that have demonstrated an above-average commitment to sustainability in terms of campus infrastructure, activities and initiatives.

The guidebook, including criteria and methodology for the green rating, can be downloaded at http://www.usgbc.org/campus.

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C O N T A C T :

Kristi Hintz (865-974-3993, khintz@utk.edu)

Dubbed “Let’s Talk, Tennessee,” the conference call will take place on Monday, April 12 at 11 a.m. (EST) and is hosted by UT Knoxville sociology Assistant Professor Paul Gellert in partnership with the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, a division of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. The call is part of the Bard Center’s nationwide initiative, Campus2Congress, which aims to engage young people directly with their policymakers in conversations regarding climate and energy legislation.

Gellert, conference call organizer, says this is a critical time for climate and clean energy policy as legislation is now being prepared on Capitol Hill that could define the U.S. response to climate change.

“By an overwhelming consensus, scientists concur that climate change is a serious problem,” Gellert said. “In fact, there is serious concern that we may be reaching a tipping point on climate change that will be difficult to reverse. These issues are going to affect the young generation like those who attend UT.”

The call will begin with a briefing by Reagan Richmond, a senior in environmental studies at UT Knoxville, who will discuss statewide campus engagement on climate issues. Senate staffers Curtis Swager and Justin Spickard will then discuss the positions on climate issues of Senators Alexander and Corker, respectively. After these two introductory briefings they will then respond to pre-submitted student questions and concerns, moderated by UT Knoxville sociology graduate student Sara Malley.

While the call is designed to connect campus to the Senate, interested community members are welcome to send in their own questions, and join the call as well. Gellert and the Bard Center for Environmental Policy hope to involve up to 500 Tennessee students, faculty, staff and citizens in “Let’s Talk, Tennessee.”

To join the call on Monday, dial 712-432-3100 and then enter conference code 253385. To sign up and/or submit questions for the Senators, visit: http://tinyurl.com/LetsTalkRSVP

For more information, contact climate@bard.edu.

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C O N T A C T:

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)

It’s that persistent and toxic nature that has flummoxed scientists for years in the quest to find ways to mitigate the dangers posed by the buildup of mercury in its most toxic form, methylmercury.

A new discovery by scientists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, however, has shed new light on one of nature’s best mercury fighters: bacteria.

“Mercury pollution is a significant environmental problem,” said Jeremy Smith, a UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair and lead author of the new study. “That’s especially true for organisms at or near the top of the food chain, such as fish, shellfish, and ultimately, humans. But some bacteria seem to know how to break down the worst forms of it. Understanding how they do this is valuable information.”

Scientists have known that a specific enzyme, known as MerB, gives the bacteria the ability to convert methylmercury into a less-toxic form of mercury that poses substantially less environmental risk, a trait that lets them survive in mercury-rich environments. Finding out how this enzyme works potentially may be a viable way to combat methylmercury.

The UT Knoxville and ORNL researchers, working with colleagues from the University of Georgia and University of California, San Francisco, were able to determine the mechanism — at the most detailed level — of how the MerB enzyme breaks apart the dangerous methylmercury molecule.

The scientists used high-performance computers to determine how the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme uses a sort of one-two-three punch to break apart a key link in the methylmercury, between mercury and carbon atoms. Once that bond is broken, the resulting substance is on the way to becoming substantially less harmful to the environment.

Knowing the exact layout of atoms within both the methylmercury and the MerB enzyme, the researchers found out how the enzyme creates an electric field that shifts around electrons in the methylmercury, priming the toxin for deconstruction. The research is a feat that would have been impossible only a year ago. By using increasingly powerful tools, scientists are able to see much more clearly how the “puzzle pieces” of chemical reactions interact.

The next challenge researchers face will be to find a way to take this new understanding of how methylmercury can be broken down and apply it in an ecosystem at large. At least in concept, using these types of bacteria or hijacking the chemical principles they use may provide a way to combat the buildup of methylmercury.

“There’s definitely more work to be done in finding ways to build on what we’ve learned,” said Jerry Parks, an ORNL staff scientist and co-author of the study. “But, we’re optimistic that these findings can lead to a productive way to address mercury in the environment.”

The study, titled “Mechanism of Hg-C protonolysis in the organomercurial lyase MerB” was published online in the most recent Journal of the American Chemical Society. An abstract of the research can be viewed at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ja9016123.

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C O N T A C T :

Jay Mayfield, (865-974-9409, jay.mayfield@tennessee.edu)

Faculty Senate President and professor of philosophy John Nolt speaks with the UT Minute staff about UT’s efforts to create and maintain a sustainable campus.