Tennessee Tech Office of Sustainability holds Bi-Annual Think Tank

Yesterday Tennessee Tech Office of Sustainability held its bi-annual Think Tank. This event allows for students to meet with the different committee members and share their ideas on how to make Tennessee Tech a greener campus.

DeLayne Miller manages sustainability at Tennessee Tech.

“We try to improve all the programs that we have. We get some good ideas, good feedback from the Think Tanks,” Miller said. “It’s just an opportunity for students to share their ideas and talk about how we can improve. And we always try to take that back and then make those changes as we can.”

This semester the Think Tank focused on how the committee can increase recycle availability around campus. Many attendees said the recycle bins should have better signs showing students and faculty where the bins are located.

The Office of Sustainability was awarded a TDEC grant for recycling education. Miller said this is the first time Tennessee Tech has received a TDEC grant.

“It’s for thirty-nine thousand dollars. And we are trying to come up with a new campaign for recycling education,” Miller said. “We plan to roll it out fall semester to help educate the campus community.”

The new recycling campaign adds signage for recycling areas, as well as new bins for Centennial Plaza.

Miller said recycling not only helps the campus environment but also affects the campus’s budget.

“We offset approximately 12 percent of all of our waste. So we save about 10,000 dollars in landfill cost by what we recycle right now,” Miller said. “So we hope to increase that percentage as people learn how to recycle and we make it more available on campus.”

Along with recycling, the committee addressed expanding the free bike rental program, adding energy-efficient shuttle systems, and planting more trees.

Think Tank took place as part of a week-long Earth Day celebration at Tennessee Tech.