UGA’s Office of Sustainability awarded grants to campus sustainability projects created by two Terry College of Business students as part of its annual Campus Sustainability Grants Program.
The program, funded by student green fees, provides financial resources to implement projects that further the university’s sustainability initiatives. This year seven students from UGA received grants.
Kareem Mahmoud was awarded $3,000 for “Bulldog Bikes Automated Bike Sharing System.”
Mahmoud will be collaborating with a team of UGA College of Engineering students to develop an automated locking and tracking system for campus bicycles. He hopes to use the tracking system to enhance a pilot bike-sharing program at UGA.
Tyler Faby, a finance major, was awarded $3,800 for “Assessing UGA’s Current and Future Energy Infrastructure.”
Faby and fellow student Allie Brown will develop a roadmap of recommendations for meeting the university’s 2020 Strategic Plan goals of reducing energy consumption by 25 percent and increasing the use of renewable energy by 10 percent.
The Campus Sustainability Grants Program has helped foster several initiatives, including water bottle refilling stations in the Miller Learning Center, “Dawgs Ditch the Dumpster” residence hall move-out donation program, the Tanyard Creek Chew Crew prescribed grazing project for invasive plant removal and Material Reuse Program, which uses salvaged items to construct school and community gardens.
To date, the Office of Sustainability has awarded a total of $59,000 to fund 17 student-initiated sustainability projects at UGA.
“The Campus Sustainability Grants Program is an opportunity to learn by doing,” said Kevin Kirsche, director of the Office of Sustainability. “It is a pleasure to work with such bright UGA students from diverse academic backgrounds and to help them take their innovative ideas from concept to completion.”
For more information on Campus Sustainability Grants and other initiatives of the UGA Office of Sustainability, see http://sustainability.uga.edu/.