University of Texas at Austin
EN-3: Student Life

The Campus Environmental Center empowers the University of Texas at Austin community to pursue a genuine culture of environmental sustainability through constructive and dynamic means.

Engineers for a Sustainable World mobilizes engineers and non-engineers through education, training, and action. We build collaborative partnerships to meet the needs of current and future generations.

Food Recovery Network recovers food that would be thrown away on campus or in Austin area restaurants and takes it to places where underprivileged individuals need help.

Students Fighting Climate Change provides a platform for members to learn about, politically engage in and become an activist for climate change.

Net Impact (Graduate) provides a form for members of the Graduate School of Business to discuss issues of social sustainability and social responsibility.

Additional sustainability-focused student organizations are listed here: https://sustainability.utexas.edu/getinvolved/students#Student%20Organizations

The University of Texas at Austin has a number of gardens and farms on campus. University Housing and Dining maintains two gardens on campus which supply food to the campus dining halls and a regular on-campus farm stand. These gardens are maintained by both staff, students interns, and volunteers through the Housing and Dining's Farm Stand program. The UT Microfarm, a project of the Campus Environmental Center, is UT’s first student-run farm. The farm, located on-campus, supplies food to an on-campus food pantry. It offers valuable student experience in the form of paid student leaders, volunteer team members, and weekly volunteer opportunities. The Microfarm also has a community garden which allows students, staff, and faculty an opportunity to rent plots and learn to grow their own food. The Microfarm is run as a sustainable, organic food system.

UT Farm Stand's mission is to promote local organic produce for students, faculty, and staff of UT Austin. They also focus on education of sustainability, health, accessibility, and affordability. UT Farm Stand is a student-led and managed on-campus farm stand.

BEEVO Beekeeping Society, a registered student organization, maintains on-campus hives and sells the honey. They seek to reinvest beekeeping to individuals because if more people keep bees, there's more pollination, and more environmental sustainability. They strive to teach students the art of beekeeping. They periodically sell their honey on campus.

The Texas Sustainability Investment Group educates undergraduate students on sustainable investing practices and provides hands on experience through fund management and company evaluation based on environmental, social, and governance – or ESG – investing factors in a variety of industries.

The annual Sustainability Symposium, hosted by the Office of Sustainability, highlights the collaborative sustainability research and work that UT students, staff and faculty perform every day on campus. The Symposium typically features a keynote from the University President or another campus leader.

The UT Energy Symposium, hosted by the Energy Institute, is a weekly guest lecture series aiming to provide a multi-disciplinary platform for UT faculty and students to interact on the most pressing energy issues facing our world.

The Social Innovation Initiative's Impact Chat series host speakers and panel discussion on topics related to social entrepreneurship, corporate social innovation, impact/ESG investing, and sustainability.

Waller Creek Monster Habitat: The Department of Theater and Dance designed the Waller Creek Monster Habitat, an interactive, theatrical experience that told the story of the Waller Creek revitalization and transformation. The Waller Creek Monster Habitat was designed and built by UT students with mentorship from UT faculty from multiple departments, and the installation was a gateway into the Waller Creek Conservancy Creek Show in November 2019 and was re-installed on-campus during Spring 2021. https://sustainability.utexas.edu/news/creating-creek-monster-habitat

Fashion Anonymous art exhibit: A graduate student in the College of Education, created five exhibits on campus that informed students about the social and environmental impact of apparel production. By taking viewers from Texas cotton farms to overseas where the cotton is transformed into apparel and then shipped back to Texas for purchase and, later, discarding, the exhibits sought to increase student knowledge of the environmental and social justice issues in the apparel supply chain and determine if there is a resulting behavior change after viewing the exhibits. https://thedailytexan.com/2019/09/27/student-organization-tackles-fast-fashion-through-art-exhibits/

The Plastic Bag Store: Texas Performing Arts presented Brooklyn-based, award-winning puppet artist, director, and filmmaker Robin Frohardt’s art installation and immersive film experience The Plastic Bag Store at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar from April 2-17, 2022. The work brings humor, craft, and a critical lens to our culture of consumption and convenience—specifically, the enduring effects of our single-use plastics. Inside The Plastic Bag Store installation deli meats, fresh produce, multi-layered cakes, sushi rolls, frozen foods, boxed cereal, and more have been meticulously sculpted by hand, made from discarded plastics. During each one-hour show, performers transform the store into a micro-cinema where hidden worlds and inventive puppetry tell a cautionary tale in a 45-minute three-act film. The story explores the notion of artifact, misplaced nostalgia and how what we value least may become our most lasting cultural legacy. https://texasperformingarts.org/plasticbagstore

Through the Adventure Trip Program, UT Austin offers a variety of outdoor recreation programs. Leave No Trace is practiced on these trips.

All first-year students at UT must participate in a Freshman Interest Group (FIG). FIGS take 2-4 classes together during their first fall semester and attend a weekly seminar led by a peer mentor and a staff facilitator. Students can opt into a Sustainability & Society interdisciplinary FIG as well as several other FIGs that either focus or touch on sustainability.

University Housing and Dining offers a Sustainability Living Learning Community. The Sustainability LLC broadly explores the connection between environmentalism, social justice, and economic longevity, commonly considered the three major components of sustainability – planet, people, and profit. This LLC encourages people curious OR skeptical about any aspect of sustainability to join the community. The year-long program includes opportunities to study the impact of personal and social activities on the environment and vulnerable populations, understand the social and natural ecosystems of Austin and the university, and go “hyperlocal” with sustainability by designing, within the community, ways to make this LLC sustainable and enriching for all participants.

There are a number of sustainability-focused student employment opportunities on campus.

University Housing & Dining (UHD) employs students in their Farm Stand Garden and Market programs. Students spend their time tending the UHD campus gardens, conducting sustainability outreach, and managing an on-campus mini farmer's market.

The Office of Sustainability employs student interns to manage the Office of Sustainability communications channels and to support the Green Fund. The Campus Environmental Center student organization employs student leaders for their programs (Green Greeks, Green Events, Trash to Treasure, Microfarm, and Environmental Justice Collective) as well as for more general education/outreach leadership roles.

Resource Recovery employs student interns who utilize campus as a living lab to further the work being done to achieve zero waste on campus and develop valuable job skillsets in the process.

The Green Fund is a competitive grant program funded by UT Austin tuition fees. Students, faculty, and staff are able to apply to Green Fund to fund a sustainability project on campus or sustainability-related research. Many of these projects are led by students and some include student employment. Such projects include: UT Microfarm, BEEVO Beekeeping Society, Aquaponics, and more. Green Fund decisions are made by a student majority committee - participation in this committee is another way students can get involved in sustainability on campus.