Sustainable New(ish) Year Resolutions

1. Join an RSO

There are dozens of environmentally-focused Registered Student Organizations on campus, including Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) — the University’s oldest and largest environmental group. They meet at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday at the University YMCA, and new members are always welcome.

You can check out more environmental RSOs to join here.

2. Take an Environmental Class

iSEE offers the Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Fellows Program (SEE FP) — an undergraduate minor open to students in any major — which focuses on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability. If a minor isn’t what you’re looking for, there are still hundreds of courses that involve environmentalism.

You can find a list of Spring 2020 sustainability courses here.

3. Support Local Food

From June to October, the Sustainable Student Farm sells produce on the Quad on Thursdays. You can meet the SSF student volunteers out on the Quad, volunteer or intern with them, and also participate in their current program, Get Fresh! This program gives students and faculty access to fresh, local fruits and vegetables. For a small fee, you can pick up your seasonal produce at the ARC every Tuesday, Feb. 4 to March 10.

You can find more information here.

4. Celebrate Earth Month

Events all over campus are held during April to celebrate Earth Day – or rather, Earth Month.

This year, we are looking forward to hosting a “Zero Carbon” Keeling Lecture presented by Katharine Hayhoe, Director of the Climate Center at Texas Tech University, as well as an iSEE-sponsored lecture by Somini Sengupta, a New York Times Foreign Correspondent who has reported on climate change and glaciers.

We’ll be updating our Sustainability Calendar as more events come rolling in (and we will have an all-in-one Earth Month page), so keep an eye out for other fun events in April 2020.

5. Get Creative!

Sustainability comes in all different shapes and forms — and it isn’t confined to campus. You can make all sorts of small changes here and there, like purchasing a bar of shampoo instead of a plastic bottle, or checking out Tentree, a clothing brand that only uses sustainable materials and hopes to plant 1 billion trees by 2030 with its profits. Check out this long list of green habits from iSEE or this motivational piece from Tentree.