In celebration of Earth Month, the Office of Sustainability and SGA teamed up with Make Orange Green to spread the word on sustainability and recycling around campus.

The groups promoted their Earth Month kick-off event “Big Green Friday” today on Pedestrian Walkway, in which they encouraged students to wear green and show their support for keeping UT green.

Since 2007, Make Orange Green, a program affiliated with the Office of Sustainability, has been a driving force for recycling efforts and environmental outreach here on campus. This year, Make Orange Green is wanting to further engage with students by encouraging recycling and hosting more outreach events.

“All throughout the month, our office has a lot of events to get people more involved in ways they can live more sustainably,” Outreach Coordinator for the Office of Sustainability Carolyn Brown said.

According to Brown, her office is also offering meet-and-greet activities in which students can, “interact with environmental groups and hopefully get involved with internships or volunteer opportunities.”

Students passing by were greeted with free stickers, information about sustainability, a survey to win prizes, cake and reusable cups to promote the Mug Project. With the Mug Project, students can take refillable mugs to any food establishment on campus, except for Chick-Fil-A, and get 15 percent off specialty beverages and $1.29 off of soft drinks.”

“We really hope to reach our peers about the different ways they are able to engage with campus to make it more environmentally friendly,” Co-Director of the Health and Wellness Committee of SGA Caitlin Lloyd said. “We only have one planet, so we want to make sure that this space is livable and hospitable, especially on our campus.”

With UT taking big steps in sustainability ahead of other universities in the SEC, Make Orange Green, SGA, and the Office of Sustainability are living up to their mission statement.

“We have UT Recycling here who is doing a recycling game to show people what they can and can’t recycle. We also have SGA doing surveys about food on campus,” Brown said. “We host ‘Big Green Friday’ every first Friday of April and we just have everybody wear green for the earth and get involved in all of our events.”

The members running the tables today were all excited and seemed truly enthused by spreading the word of sustainability to their fellow students.

“This is something I will continue to be passionate about,” Lloyd said. “That’s what is really awesome about the environmental sustainability committee and SGA, Make Orange Green and all the different organizations on campus. We are all coming together to fight this front.”