Our own Graduate Students Association has gone green, and is being rewarded for it. UCSB’s The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) Grant Making Committee has announced its grant recipients for the 2011-12 funding cycle, and GSA’s Bagel Hour is among those projects awarded a grant.
TGIF’s award of $742 will fund reusable plates, mugs, utensils, and 100% post-consumer recycled napkins for the GSA’s Bagel Hour. Previously, this event produced the equivalent of 40 pounds of trash each week.
The TGIF committee, which includes primarily undergraduate and graduate students, received 18 applications for campus sustainability projects from students, staff, and faculty. Thirteen projects, including the GSA Bagel Hour sustainability initiative, were selected to receive awards totaling $172,932. The projects are expected to produce big energy and water use savings.
"These TGIF grants reflect the values of our students and our entire campus community in promoting a more sustainable future for our university and our planet," UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang said in an Office of Public Affairs press release. "We are very proud of the leadership and commitment of our students, staff, and faculty who are working together to make our campus a 'living laboratory' for the research, teaching, and practice of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability."
Other TGIF-funded projects include an energy retrofit of the Student Health Building and 22 new campus hydration stations. For more information and a complete list of winning projects, read the Office of Public Affairs press release. For more information about TGIF, visit http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/tgif. Congratulations to the "Greening GSA"!