KENNESAW, Ga. | Sep 15, 2023

As we come to an end of the 2022-2023 academic school year, the time to reflect on the Office of Sustainability and our efforts over the past months has arrived.

The Office of Sustainability has been hard at work, collaborating with students, faculty, and staff to promote sustainability on campus and reduce our carbon footprint. Here are some event highlights from the past year:

 1. VISTA AmeriCorps Members: The Office is proud to have had Angelise Rivera and Dajawn Williams working with us this year. “As a Vista member, I have loved working with the team, the programming and the intention of this office. Being trusted to help grow this department through my skills has allowed me to gain further confidence as an Environmental Educator. I have been engaged in updating a full tree inventory for both campuses as well as tabling and spreading information about sustainable practices and events happening on campus. I’ve served as lead volunteer supervisor for events that we hold at our KSU Food Forest. I have built a plethora of relations, which led me to decide that I will be returning next academic year to further grow with the team!” – Dajawn Williams

 2. Re-Launched the Bike Rescue Program: This year, VISTA member Angelise Rivera, Director of Sustainability María del Mar Ceballos and Outdoor Adventures partnered to identify, tag and collect derelict bikes from campus. These bikes are restored and made available through the CARES program to students in need of transportation. Currently, we have a fleet of long-term rental bikes ready for use and have donated two bikes to CARES. We hope to increase our donations as the need arises!

 3. Competed Sustainability Opportunity Inventory: Last summer, the Office of Sustainability partnered with Tyler Reinagel from the Office of Research, students from the geography department and faculty members Uli Ingram, Dr. Jun Tu, Dr. Pegah Zamani and Dr. Allen Roberts. The inventory identified KSU’s greatest opportunities and vulnerabilities in dealing with the frequent extreme weather events impacting our region. Key areas include managing the Urban Heat Island effect, commuting alternatives and expanding sustainable offerings in our curriculum.

 
4. Launched Learning, Living, Lab (LLL) Projects: Created to support Owl Swap and the Food Forest, this program promotes collaboration between research and operations. In the works this year are LLLs for a Native Plant Nursery, a campus-wide Waste Characterization Study, and a collaboration with Electrical Engineering to improve data collection, the weather station, sensors and radon detection at the Office of Research’s Field Station.

5. KSU Became a Host-Site with Campus Climate Action Corps (CCAC): The Office of Sustainability joined other institutions of higher education as a host for the AmeriCorps CCAC program. Sydney McMahon served as our first member, collaborating with the local non-profit My Green Earth to provide salad grow kits to youth at the South Cobb Boys & Girls Club. Students learned to grow lettuce, understand soil health and were provided with peppers and parsley plants from our own Food Forest.

 

 

 6. Director of Sustainability María del Mar Ceballos Taught Two Honors Discovery Courses: Sustainability Survey at the Kennesaw Campus in Fall 2023 and Sustainable Design Survey at the Marietta Campus in Spring 2024.

7. Completed Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Plan (GGMP): The GGMP outlines a path for KSU to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The consultant team engaged staff, faculty and students through workshops and open forums throughout the year.

 8. Water Bottle Rescue Program: Lost and found is often overrun with lost or abandoned water bottles. Rather than sentencing them to the landfill, our office worked with KSU’s dining halls to sanitize them and get them back into students’ hands and into their new forever homes.

 9. Added a Glass Recycling Location: Got glass? KSU now recycles it! Look for a purple container at the 3305 Surplus parking lot, where KSU and the surrounding community can recycle used glass.

 10. Co-Hosted RCE Futures Fellowship: For the second year in a row, KSU partnered with 10 other universities in the Atlanta area to host the RCE Futures Fellowship. This United Nations-recognized program paired 19 students with local non-profits to identify and carry out community-based projects around the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

11. Re-Launched the Green Ambassador Program: We hosted new Green Ambassador training courses, provided volunteer opportunities to students interested in working with our office and held info sessions to create conversations about environmental issues.

12. Participated in Keep Cobb Beautiful's Inaugural Sustainability Symposium and Forum: This free event was held for people working and living in Cobb County to attend sessions, demonstrations, interactive exhibits and hear guest speakers on local sustainability initiatives.

 

13. First Green Game: The Office provided receptacles and education to attendees of a KSU baseball game to promote recycling, composting and reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill.

14. Co-Hosted Sustainability Career Panel During Equinox Week: Equinox Week is hosted annually by the Research Center for Sustainable Communities. The week’s events highlight the UN Sustainable Development Goals in education. This year, the Office of Sustainability co-hosted the SDG Futures Fellowship panel with the Department for Global Education, a career panel and a GGMP workshop.

 15. Earth Week: This year, we celebrated our second annual Earth Week with fairs, volunteer opportunities, campus nature walks, a drum circle and the last clothing swap of the semester. Events were held on both campuses for students to explore sustainable RSOs, offices on campus and local organizations. Students walked away with free KSU merchandise that would have gone to the landfill, plants from KSU’s Food Forest and information and experiences on how we can become more sustainable.

 

Thank you to everyone in this community; your participation and support have been invaluable. We are so proud of the progress we have made this year as our Office learns and grows alongside KSU toward a more sustainable future!

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