The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Texas Athletics wins College Sports Sustainability Makeover Contest
07.01.2016 | Texas Athletics, Bleed Orange. Live Green.
Contest highlights college athletics’ powerful impact on community sustainability.
Texas Athletics was announced as an inaugural winner of the College Sports Sustainability Makeover Contest. The award was presented Thursday during the Green Sports Alliance Summit in Houston.
The contest is designed to highlight college athletics' unique and powerful impact on community sustainability; to influence fans' sustainability behaviors where they live, work, and play; and to boost college sports' sustainability capacity.
As a winner in the large campus category, Texas will receive 10 customized waste and recycling bins from Max-R, a supply of compostable foodware from Eco-Products, and onsite assessments from University of Colorado Boulder sports sustainability staff.
Texas Athletics' implementation of sustainability across many sports, not just marquee programs, keyed its win by showing that even the biggest college athletics programs can implement comprehensive, large-scale sustainability efforts. Texas Athletics makes sustainability a priority in all endeavors and encourages fans to do their part to create a clean and sustainable gameday environment. The goal is to "Bleed Orange, Live Green," by creating a zero waste environment at all events. The campus-wide goal is to reach zero waste by 2020.
Texas Athletics' sustainability goals and actions also align with those of the campus and the City of Austin. That ongoing excellence and the transparency of campus' and athletics' sustainability efforts are disclosed in UT Austin's STARS report and are committed to in the Campus Sustainability Master Plan.
Together, this leadership model demonstrates how a very large, research-intensive university can integrate sustainability across all facets of campus life including athletics and then leverage the power of college sports to expose the Longhorns' many fans to the benefits of sustainability principles and practices.
"The makeover contest was an overwhelming success as proven by the number of high quality submissions, and the outstanding leadership of the two winning campuses," said Scott Jenkins, chair of the Green Sports Alliance Board of Directors. "College sports has distinguished itself as a sustainability leader capable of using its cultural and market influence to promote healthy, sustainable communities. We all win in that game."
Contest sponsors Max-R, Greendrop Recycling, Eco-Products, EcoSafe Zero Waste, and the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center provided prizes and support packages valued at over $50,000 for each winning campus. Contest partners included the Green Sports Alliance and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Huston-Tillotson University also received an award in the small campus category.
About the College Sports Sustainability Contest
Winning campuses were chosen on the basis of need, suitability, leverage, and likelihood of success. Contest entries were received from 48 campuses in 24 states, including all campus types and athletics' affiliations. This first of its kind contest ran from March to June 2016.
Contest sponsors and partners include Max-R, GreenDrop Recycling, Eco-Products, EcoSafe Zero Waste, the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center, the Green Sports Alliance, and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
About the Green Sports Alliance
The Green Sports Alliance leverages the cultural and market influence of sports to promote healthy, sustainable communities where we live and play. The nonprofit does so by inspiring sports leagues, teams, venues, their partners, and millions of fans to embrace renewable energy, healthy food, recycling, water efficiency, species preservation, safer chemicals, and other environmentally preferable practices. Alliance members represent more than 370 sports teams and venues from 20 different sports leagues and 14 countries. Visit greensportsalliance.org for more information.
