bulldog bike share

#InternSpotlight: Say hello to Masato Webb, a management information systems major with a sustainability certificate.
"I am working with the ACC Solid Waste Department, through the UGA Office of Sustainability, as their food waste reduction information systems intern. My role pertains primarily to collecting, organizing and analyzing all data around food waste and organics in both Athens-Clarke County and UGA. Moreover, I am working to increase our level of collaboration with other Georgia universities including Emory and Georgia Tech to ensure that we align our long term goals and share best practices with one another. My favorite part of working at the ACC Solid Waste Department is definitely when I get to venture out to local middle schools to discuss sustainability and waste with the students who show a level of enthusiasm which is truly inspiring." ...

#InternSpotlight: Meet Matt Melatti, a recent graduate from the University of Georgia College of Public Health and current AmeriCorps VISTA in UGA's Office of Sustainability.
"The key responsibility of my VISTA position includes coordinating the day-to-day logistics of the new #Foodshed UGA initiative. This initiative aims to engage the campus and community in sustainability and innovation through the food that we eat. Foodshed is an interdisciplinary program that is engaging the campus as a living laboratory, and supports experiential learning, research, and public service and outreach to promote food security and sustainable food systems at UGA and in the communities we serve. Foodshed is accomplishing these goals by looking at challenges in our local food system and approaching them from a supportive role. This means Foodshed is focusing on building relationships with university faculty and staff as well as with community leaders in Athens-Clarke County. Working with this amazing group of partners has been, by far, my favorite part of the experience. Athens has an inspiring group of ambitious community members who are all making positive change, and it has been humbling to learn about their efforts. Supporting their work has been exciting and I see great potential for the future of Foodshed. If anyone would like to learn how they can get involved, I would love to sit down and discuss anything food-related!"
Hear from Matt and other Office of Sustainability presenters at our Fall Semester in Review on Thursday, Dec. 5 at Tate Grand Hall. ...

Bike tuneups today from 10-2 at Tate. Thanks to our friends at @bikeathens for making it happen at #operationsafedrive! ...

#InternSpotlight: Say hello to Ian Van Giesen, a fifth-year majoring in mechanical engineering and German.
"As the reclamation intern for the Office of Sustainability, I design and create functional products out of scrap materials from the UGA waste stream. I also work to improve current waste-streams and their end-use diversion processes at the university. My projects usually depend on a combination of what I can find and what function I intend for this product. It’s a balancing act, but sometimes challenges can be avenues to interesting solutions! Right now I am creating a small cabinet out of a stop sign and some scrap wood. I have an idea of what the inside will look like, but that will ultimately depend on what I can pick from the waste stream. I’m also working to help establish a process for recycling Tyvek (a packaging plastic for large shipments) from a building on campus. My favorite part of the job is getting to meet and interact with all the cool people at FMD (Facilities Management Division) at UGA. They’re extremely talented and have been a great source of knowledge and expertise for all of the projects I’ve been working on." ...

#InternSpotlight: Meet Nick Slagel, the graduate research assistant for UGA's SNAP-Ed and a PhD candidate for nutrition with an interdisciplinary qualitative studies certificate.
"The Food As Real Medicine Prescription (FARM Rx) Program is a unique university-community-clinic partnership that provides food-insecure families produce prescriptions for free and fresh local produce, nutrition education, and health screenings. The partnership currently includes UGA SNAP-Ed and Cooperative Extension (nutrition education), the Athens Farmers Market (local produce), Athens Nurses Clinic and St. Mary’s Hospital (health care support). As an intern, I support the planning, recruitment, coordination, and evaluation processes of the program. We are also constantly trying to find ways to make our program self-sustained to be able to continuously provide food as medicine to food insecure Athenians. My favorite part of this work is seeing the community building and social interaction our participants have while attending the nutrition education classes and the Athens Farmers Market. It’s great to see people connect or reconnect with their community around local food." ...

Do you want to work at the Office of Sustainability?
Become a part of our amazing team of interns, working on all aspects of sustainability on campus and in the community. Interns will collaborate with other interns and office staff to spend 10 hours per week working on a specified project or topical area and assisting the Office of Sustainability staff as needed.
The following internship positions are available for Spring 2020: campus composting, electric transportation policy and strategic communications. Apply now at https://sustainability.uga.edu/student-programs/internships/ ...

Office of Sustainability interns went hiking this weekend at Rabun Bald, enjoying a beautiful fall morning. Are you interested in being a part of our group of interns and getting to do fun activities while working to make our campus more sustainable? Apply for one of our spring 2020 internship positions at sustainability.uga.edu/internships ...

Mike McCord, a 2015 UGA grad and a former intern at the Office of Sustainability, is the food forest ranger for Trees Atlanta. He oversees the Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill, a 7-acre park in the city of Atlanta that incorporates edible plants and produce into the design. The community food forest is the first of its kind in Georgia and the largest in the U.S. The area where the forest is located was once considered a food desert, according to the Urban Food Forest website, but now a variety of native and well-known nuts, fruits, mushrooms, vegetables, and other produce will be available. Photo courtesy @treesatlanta ...

#InternSpotlight: Meet Lauren Towe, a third-year ecology major with a certificate in sustainability.
"As the grants and outreach intern, I work with our communications team to promote sustainability initiatives on campus and in the community. I speak to classes to introduce students to the sustainability certificate and the Office of Sustainability internship program. I also inform students of the Campus Sustainability Grants program to encourage them to pursue their own ideas that will advance the sustainability of our campus. I provide feedback on draft submissions for grant proposals and will soon be collaborating with the grant selection committee to decide on the grant winners. Final sustainability grant proposals are due on Nov. 11 and grants will be awarded on Dec. 5 at the Semester in Review.
At the Office of Sustainability, I am inspired daily. We are actively working to create a positive impact, connecting people with their environment and community." ...

Did you know that the @universityofga campus is an arboretum? The entire campus is a botanical garden featuring a wide variety of tree species. From stately American Elms to classic Red Maples, there's beauty all around campus.

Kendall Busher is our campus arboretum intern, tasked with updating the campus arboretum map and sharing knowledge of our trees. "The UGA community is really lucky because we have a lot of really beautiful and old trees on campus," Busher said. "It encourages people to cherish trees and take care of them. Maybe they'll be inspired to plant different trees in their yard that help with natural processes, make them happy or just make the world prettier in some way." Find more stories like this in our weekly (RENEWS)LETTER. Sign up now at sustainability.uga.edu/newsletter. ...

This week's (RENEWS)LETTER contains tips for how to have a sustainable Halloween season, advice on how to cut back on waste while tailgating and some upcoming events to get involved in. Sign up for the newsletter at sustainability.uga.edu/newsletter to get the inside scoop on sustainability at UGA. ...

#InternSpotlight: Say hi to Kasey Stevens, a senior food industry marketing and administration major with a minor in agribusiness and management.
"I work for the UGArden as the public relations intern. The UGArden is UGA’s student community farm located on Milledge Avenue. My job entails planning, developing, and implementing marketing and PR strategies for UGArden events. I also manage UGArden social media accounts, send out a monthly newsletter, and work to improve our website. I am currently working on a promotional campaign for our UGArden Herb 3rd Annual Holiday Market, which will take place at the garden on Dec. 5 from 4 – 7 p.m. My favorite part about my job is having the opportunity to flex my creativity muscles and promote my favorite place in Athens!" ...

#InternSpotlight: Meet Thomas Spoerer, a fourth-year environmental engineering and biology major with a Spanish minor.
"I work as the Creature Comforts Sustainable Metrics Intern. In my position, I work with Creature Comforts to collect, analyze, and utilize data regarding all the resources they use throughout their beverage manufacturing process. The purpose of compiling all these sustainability metrics is to devise solutions for the brewery to make their processes more efficient and less environmentally taxing. One of our main goals has been getting a clearer picture of Creature Comfort’s aggregate carbon emissions at all their locations stemming from brewing practices, electricity use, fossil fuel combustion, and purchased carbon dioxide. Secondly, after analyzing their water used for cleaning procedures at their downtown location, I designed a system that allows them to reuse water during a standard sanitization process the brewers need to complete after every brew, hopefully saving them around 200 gallons of water per batch of beer they make.
My favorite part of the job has been being able to act as a problem-solver for the brewery. After collecting all the sustainable metrics we could, my supervisor and I found particular places within the brewery where efficiencies could be increased and loops could be closed. This is where we get to come up with creative solutions to save the brewery water, energy, carbon emissions, and therefore, money – proving that sometimes efforts towards making wasteful processes more sustainable can actually save money rather than costing money." ...

On Sunday, Office of Sustainability interns and employees gathered at the office to create up-cycled reusable silverware pockets out of old vinyl signs. Our artist-in-residence, Kylie Anderson, plans to bring the kits to the @georgiamuseum Spotlight on the Arts in November to have students create cloth napkins to complete the kits. ...

#InternSpotlight: Meet Anjali Sindhuvalli, a third-year majoring in finance and international business with a French minor and a certificate in workforce diversity. "I'm the curriculum intern, which means that I work with faculty to incorporate sustainability into course curriculums across all departments. My internship so far has exceeded my expectations - I've been working on projects like UGA's Bee Campus certification and faculty development workshops highlighting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I'm currently partnering with the UGA MBA program to work with an impact investing firm that's getting B-corp certified. I'm a business major, so I've loved learning about the importance of corporate social responsibility and how it intertwines with sustainable practices in companies. I'm so glad I decided to apply to be an intern because it's definitely been a gem of an experience so far, and my co-workers are some of the coolest people I've met at UGA!" ...

#InternSpotlight: Meet Samantha Siragusa, a first-year master's student getting a degree in natural resources.
"I absolutely love my job at the Office of Sustainability. I am the UGA Chew Crew intern. My job is to run the logistics of the Chew Crew which is a student-led effort to restore neglected green spaces on UGA's campus. This means I promote the value of urban streams and woodlands, engage the community in ecological restoration practices, and conduct invasive plant species removal and prescribed grazing. Right now I am working on bringing sheep to our Driftmier site! My favorite part of the job is talking to the community about this initiative and using my creativity to come up with new ideas to promote Chew Crew!" 🐑 ...