The student organization of the MTSU students for environmental measures for environmental measures for increased environmental measures on campus and the university administration is urging you to invest more money in reducing the school's CO2 footprint with some recent success.
A CO2 footprint is a structure of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, which are released into the atmosphere by daily energy-airized activities. Universities use significant amounts of energy for things such as construction, heating, supply companies and transport. This energy comes from burning fossil fuels such as gas, coal and oil that release greenhouse gases and make climate change in worsening.
Thomas Smith and Ian Wilson, President and Vice President of MTSU Sea, are devoted to awareness of the role of MTSU in greenhouse gas emissions and are committed to a more environmentally friendly campus.
“Our goal is to educate people about the environment, to carry out service projects and to participate in activism in order to improve the environment in our local communities,” said Smith.
Another goal is to increase the sustainable campus fee of the university.
In 2006, MTSU introduced his program for sustainable campus fees to finance renewable forms of energy on campus. The program enables students and faculties to submit suggestions for sustainable projects that they would see on the campus. The program receives its funds by collecting $ 8 per student per semester.
“Last year we did this campaign to increase the fee,” said Smith. “We tried to increase it because it has not grew up since 2006, and it has been written off by inflation since then.”
From 2019 to 2021, the University hired sustainable projects such as tree planting and solar panel over 500,000 US dollars. While this financing contributed to reducing CO2 footprint of the university, the proposals from students and faculties for sustainable projects during this time were required to 1,654,674 – according to the Approved project list for MTSU SCF 2006-current year.
Despite the efforts of SEA, the fee and the signatures they earned, the university is not cooperative, said Smith.
“We teamed up with a senator to say goodbye to the law,” said Smith. “And then the former Vice President for Student Affairs actually lodged a veto. You have lodged the fee increase for which the students voted in favor of one of the students who did not choose the students. I think that's a kind of indication of where your priorities are. “
The group was completely blind, said Wilson.
Todd Moore, chairman and professor of geosciences at the MTSU, said that the MTSU took some initiatives for advanced climate measures, but much more what they can do.
“What mtsu could do is research into solar energy, wind energy, more recycling and reduction in waste,” said Moore. “Mtsu does something of it [but] We could do it better. “
One thing for which Moore recommends the university is the farmer's market restaurant and its role in creating food. By offering food from the region, which is necessary for production, packaging and transportation, the market lowers the energy and materials.
“The food industry creates an enormous amount of greenhouse gases from growth to processing and transportation,” said Moore. “The fact that we have that [Farmer’s Market] is neat. I was at three universities now, and they never had that with one of them. “
These initiatives together with the university recycling program, which has been available since the 1970s, and the introduction of water refill stations in 2019 present positive steps. However, students like Smith and Wilson want to take more urgent measures.
“We were really ahead of the curve when we implemented our recycling program and the Center for Energy Efficiency in 2006,” said Smith. “But that was 19 years ago. Since then, things have changed a lot and something has to happen. “
Increasing the sustainable energy fee and the formation of a committed personnel office, the full -time job of which is steps to ensure that MTSU is environmentally friendly, according to Smith.
“Sustainability must have a consistent priority when it comes to planning the future of this campus,” said Smith. “And at the moment they just don't see it from the administration.”
The answer according to Moore? Organization and fundraising campaign.
Finding alumes, partners and citizens who are willing to donate to environmental changes is the key to financing larger sustainable projects and to reduce CO2 footprint from the university. However, this can only be made possible by collective actions.
“People have to speak,” said Moore. “We take care of so many things, but we are so often silent about so many things, from the social reform to the energy reform to all these things. We all take care of these problems very much, but when the time comes, we are not loud. Let your leaders know on campus. “
Sea took this initiative by continuing campaigning, petition and awareness of environmental measures at the MTSU. The growing commitment on the lake proves every semester how passionate the students create with sustainable change.
Smith and Ian Wilson want the students to know that even if they don't believe they can do something, every action that they take.
“Changes don't have to be huge or drastic, they can be small changes,” said Wilson. “If you feel that every action has to tackle the entire problem … This is not the case because problems are not solved. We can't change everything in one semester. It requires consistent, small actions. So start on site … concentrate on where you are. Your campus, wherever, wherever. “
Recent studies from the A program environment and the Harvard Business Review On the environmental impact of AI due to the immense energy consumption of AI calculus centers that release greenhouse gases and use enormous amounts of water to supply their cooling systems with electricity.
In October 2024, the MTSU provost's plans to integrate new AI resources for faculties and students announced in the coming years, which could possibly cause concerns about the environmental safety of technology.
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