Go green and save the Earth

Zero hunger, climate action, gender equality and quality of education are among the 17 sustainable development goals the Office for Sustainability has for the future.

To create awareness and inform students about ways they can improve the planet and environment, the office celebrated “Earth Fest” last Tuesday on the Brownsville campus and last Thursday on the Edinburg campus.

“One of our goals is to educate students on why it is important to leave our mark,” said Diana Lara, a graduate student who works in the Office for Sustainability. “One of the main goals of the Office for Sustainability is to inform students why these goals are important and try to contribute to at least one of them.”

The 17 goals include no poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals.

“Now that UTRGV has sustainability and strategic plans, we need to share with students its mission, so they can know what it is,” said Karen Villarreal, a graduate student who works at the Office for Sustainability. “There are a lot of facts out there saying just how bad the shape of the planet is in, so, the more we can educate students on how important this is, the more they’ll start to [take] on as their own cause, too.”

Yessenia Rodriguez, a graduate student, said it is very important to have these types of events on campus, so students can have awareness about how important nature is.

“People are talking about the beauty in this [Brownsville] campus, and the beauty comes from nature,” she said. “Like, the plants, the air, the flowers, all of that, that is all earth. We don’t want to destroy that. We do have a lot of beauty here in the [Rio Grande] Valley.” 

Other informative tables at the event included carbon footprint, plastic straw pollution, Oyster Reefs: Why Should We Care? and the College of Sciences and the Engineering Club.

“We worked on two types of wind turbines: one is a vertical and another one is a horizontal,” Aaron Mendoza, an engineering technology junior, said while pointing at the white, almost 10-foot-long turbines. “They generate energy, so, at the bottom, we have a lamp that it turns on, which is kind of cool.”

As reported by The Rider on March 18, Parwinder Grewal, UTRGV executive vice president for Research, Graduate Studies and New Program Development, said one of the main goals at the Office for Sustainability is to encourage students to get involved in research projects.

“We have an Office [for] Sustainability that tries to engage students in sustainability-type projects,” he said. “I wanted to enhance their activities by engaging students and providing funding to the students to dedicate their time to engage in sustainability projects.”

Asked what the definition of sustainability is, he replied, “We describe sustainability as the use of planet resources in a way to support the current human generation and the future generations.”