Why the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse needs a sustainability coordinator
I first want to discuss what a sustainability coordinator is and does before going into reasons why I believe the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse should have a sustainability coordinator. A sustainability coordinator according to EnvironmentalScience.org is, "A sustainability program coordinator implements plans of actions based on policy to improve an organization's sustainability" (EnvironmentalScience.org, 2020). A sustainability coordinator does a lot of different things but here are a few important things they do, they "facilitate communication to the University community through website publication, event planning and outreach as well as support programs around campus such as recycling" (https://sustainability.umw.edu/programs/sustainability-coordinator/, 2020). One reason why I believe University of Wisconsin-La Crosse needs a sustainability coordinator is due to University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire a UW-System college similar in size having one and even going a step further they have an entire student office for sustainability. At UW-Eau Claire students, faculty, staff and administration collaborate and work together to implement different environmental projects, programs and events, which I think is a great way to best see positive change within the campus environment. I think when groups of people work together cohesively it almost always leads to the change many people want to see. I think there are a lot of people on the U-W-L campus who do not want to see this campus lag behind similar sized colleges like Eau Claire in sustainability practices. To learn more about UW-Eau Claire's sustainability program and what they do with their program visit this link below.
Link to UW-Eau Claire Sustainability page: https://www.uwec.edu/sos/
Link to EnvironmentalScience.org page: https://www.environmentalscience.org/career/sustainability-program-coordinator
Link to University of Mary Washington Office of sustainability page: https://sustainability.umw.edu/programs/sustainability-coordinator/
A second reason for why I think U-W-L needs a sustainability coordinator is due to strong student and faculty interest in the topic of sustainability on this campus and U-W-L already has a joint committee on environmental sustainability (JCES), a students for sustainability club on campus and a green fund program on campus. On the U-W-L sustainability webpage, I liked how they defined sustainability as, "We, the University of Wisconsin La Crosse community, define sustainability as being both a local and global interaction between economy, environment, and society" (uwlax.edu/sustainability/, 2020). I think understanding what sustainability is and why it is important is a starting point in moving towards seeing a sustainability coordinator being a job on the U-W-L campus. To learn more about sustainability at U-W-L visit the link below to learn more.
Link to UW-La Crosse Sustainability page: https://www.uwlax.edu/sustainability/
A final reason I believe U-W-L should have a sustainability coordinator is the improvement I believe that would be seen on campus with structure and organization of getting projects, events and programs implemented the best that they can be. A sustainability coordinator would be in charge of things like Green Fund grants, recycling programs, reusable plates and cups on campus, implementing renewable energies like solar power and LED lights among many other things. By having a sustainability coordinator in charge of these things I believe there would be pressure and anxiety taken away from students who are putting so much work into making the Green Fund what it is at U-W-L and sustainable practices on the U-W-L campus the way they are. It is amazing some of the work and commitment students at U-W-L have put into sustainable practices and having someone to take away some of the time and commitment to these sustainable practices I believe would be a great thing.
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