It’s getting hot in here, so it’s time to do something about it.
The Office of Sustainability hosted the First Annual Sustainability Day Symposium Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event started with a sustainability organization fair outside Clement Hall and later proceeded to Strong Hall with a research presentation and a Climate Change Town Hall.
Leah Fontaine, the Sustainability Office’s Outreach Coordinator, organized this year’s sustainability event.
At first, the event appeared set up like UT’s past Sustainability Days. Campus, Knoxville and East Tennessee sustainability groups erected tents and tables outside Clement Hall to inform students about regional sustainability efforts.
However, Fontaine and the Office of Sustainability wanted this year to be different.
“This year we’re doing things a little differently. We’ve called it the ‘Sustainability Day Symposium,’” Fontaine said.
Instead of being a simple organization fair like the Sustainability Days of years past, the Symposium served as a combination of organization fair, research presentation and town hall discussion.
According to Fontaine, the additions were made to better educate students on the many facets and intricacies of sustainability and environmental health.
“Sustainability is hugely important, and it’s something that UT itself is really pushing,” Fontaine said. “We wanted to focus more on the educational aspect. We love having this event [and] giving students the information they need on opportunities, but we had gotten feedback that students did not have a place for research to be presented.”
Students supported this change, saying that research details provided a great amount of background information on the topic.
Sophie Siepmann, a senior sustainability student, presented research she completing while attending a program through the University of Georgia in Costa Rica. Siepmann stated that research is an important part of regional and global sustainability efforts.
“I think research provides more information to the public on how we can be more sustainable as an individual and as a whole,” Siepmann said.
An increased focus on research did not take away from the event’s display of diverse sustainability organizations.
Each organization focused on a separate facet of environmental health.
Anti-litter, carbon emission and pro-recycling organizations like Make Knoxville Beautiful and the Student Government Association Sustainability Committee made an appearance encouraging individual sustainability efforts, such as recycling materials and lowering one’s carbon footprint.
Other organizations, like the UT Grow Lab and the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont, focused on sustainability relating to food insecurity and nature mindfulness.
Shelby Wilkinson, a junior in soil science and conservation agriculture, works with the Grow Lab. She explained the unseen effort that is put into food production.
“People aren’t worried about how food grows. They don’t realize how much work and effort goes into food, and that plays a large part in sustainability as well,” Wilkinson said.
Other organizations like AmeriCorps Vista and the Office of Sustainability offered information about immersive studies in environmental and sustainability efforts via service opportunities and academic programs.
Appalachian Voices shared information about how to advertise renewable energy to rural and urban communities, while the Natural Rebels brought attention to intersectionality and minority populations in sustainability efforts.
The Office of Sustainability wanted this educational diversity to improve sustainability efforts in all facets of environmental health. Given the event’s sizable attendance, it may have succeeded.
Outside Strong Hall on Cumberland Avenue.
