Thinking Green

"The mission of Austin College Thinking Green is to facilitate attitudes, behaviors, policies, and technologies that promote environmental responsibility, reduce resource consumption, and minimize waste production."

Austin College Thinking Green serves as an umbrella for all campus greening initiatives, including our annual residence hall energy conservation competition, our annual GreenServe event, student-initiated greening proposals (more than two dozen of which have been adopted by the college), our involvement in the Second Nature Carbon Commitment, and all other efforts by staff, students, faculty, and contractors to "green" the campus.

Dr. Mari Elise Ewing, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of Thinking Green Campus Awareness (TGCA), works with a committee of students to identify, organize, and publicize greening activities that lend themselves to broad participation.  Student leaders of the Thinking Green Campus Awareness Student Committee for the 2022 - 2023 academic year are Shruti Raghavan (President), Senior, and Roshni Khosla (Vice President), Junior.

Austin College was once again selected to be part of Princeton Review's 2021 Guide to Green Colleges list!

See the Campus Sustainability Plan for more on Austin College greening initiatives.

Second Nature Carbon Commitment 

Dr. Peter Schulze, Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, and Director of the Center for Environmental Studies, is responsible for implementation of our obligations as a signatory of the Second Nature Carbon Commitment.  Completed greenhouse gas emissions inventories and the AC climate action plan are available to view or download on the college's Climate Action Plan & Greenhouse Gas Reports page or on the SIMAP website.  The college has set a carbon neutrality target date of 2035 and achieved 100% wind-generated electricity in 2015.

All of these efforts depend critically on the Coordinator of the Center for Environmental Studies, Rebecca Jones, and the Executive Director of Facilities, David Turk.

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Student Sustainability Fund

Austin College students voted to create the Student Sustainability Fund (SSF) in 2011. Each student contributes $5 to the fund annually. Campus greening proposals may be submitted by any member of the campus community for consideration by the Student Sustainability Fund Committee. If you would like to submit a campus greening proposal, please complete the SSF Project Proposal Application. Please send completed applications and inquiries to sustainability@austincollege.edu.