The annual Sustainability Showcase was presented by the Office of Sustainability, The President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment, and the Office of Undergraduate Research.
The initiatives featured at the Showcase fall into four general categories:
- The Student Sustainability Poster Competition sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research
- Sustainability Challenge Grant projects
- Projects funded by the Student Sustainability Council
- Campus Partners that are leading ongoing sustainability-related work
UK Sustainability and the Office of Undergraduate Research partnered to offer an opportunity for students in all majors to submit their sustainability-related research as a poster for a general audience. Judges with relevant expertise have reviewed these posters and selected 1st and 2nd place winners for both undergraduate and graduate categories, along with the audience selection of two People’s Choice winners.
Undergraduate
1st Place: Keegyn Fields
2nd Place: Safiyah Sadek
People’s Choice: Aria Watson
Graduate
1st Place: Savanah Tucker
2nd Place: Victoria Stanton
People’s Choice: Zachary Owen
The Sustainability Challenge Grant (SCG) program, now in its 10th year, is designed to engage multidisciplinary teams from the University community to foster scholarly and creative research projects that promote sustainability and advance fields of study, while simultaneously advancing economic vitality, ecological integrity, and social equity.
The program is funded by a partnership between the EVPFA, the Provost, the Vice President for Research, and the Student Sustainability Council. Since the program’s inception nine years ago, 61 projects have been awarded a total of $1.75 million to pursue a wide range of sustainability-driven projects on campus and beyond. This year, thanks to program sponsors, $200,000 has been awarded to five new teams.
Art Walk in a Prairie Grassland
- Tracey Miller, Assistant Professor, CAFE
- Jordan Phemister, Senior Lecturer, CAFE
- S.K. O’Brien, Assistant Professor, College of Design
- Garry Bibbs, Professor, College of Fine Arts
- Chad Eby, Assistant Professor, College of Fine Arts
- Jerry Hart, Superintendent of Grounds, UK Facilities Management
Sustainable Color for Kentucky’s Future
- Crystal Gregory, Associate Professor, College of Fine Arts.
- Shari Dutton, Horticulturalist, CAFE
- A-F. Miller, Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
Campus Woods Utilization 3.0
- Sophia Thomas, Fabrication Lab Manager, College of Design
- Bruce Swetnam, Associate Professor, College of Design
- Chad Niman, Agriculture Research Specialist, CAFE
- Jill Leckner, Senior Lecturer, College of Design
- Paul Masterson, Facilities Supervisor, College of Fine Arts
- Pooya Mohaghegh, Lecturer, College of Design
Moving Polymer Clay Towards a Greener Art Material
- Malgorzata Chwatko, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering
- Jaleesa Wells, Assistant Professor, College of Fine Arts
Can Urban Reforestation Contribute to Climate Mitigation
- Kenton Sena, Senior Lecturer, Lewis Honors College
- Ernie Osburn, Assistant Professor, CAFE
- Zachary Hackworth, Research Forester, CAFE
- Jan Frouz, Director, Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University
- Lucie Hublova, Ph.D. Student, Charlies University
- Heather Wilson, Urban and Community Forestry Program Manager, LFUCG
The Staff Sustainability Champion Award program, now in its fourth year, celebrates UK staff members who have made significant contributions to sustainability at the University of Kentucky in recent years.
The Champion awards are medallions cut from the branch of a redbud that lived its life at UK’s Engineering Quad. The Legacy awards are medallions cut from the branch of a slippery elm that lives its life at UK’s Administration Drive. UK’s Arborist team cut the medallions and students from UK Product Design Program milled and engraved them. The back of each medallion memorializes the campus tree where it came from.
Sustainability Champion Award – Intended to honor faculty and staff who have made significant contributions to UK’s Sustainability Initiatives within the past 3 years.
The first award was awarded to Sumati Kapoor, UK HealthCare Sustainability Steering Committee.
Sumati led the UK HealthCare Sustainability Steering Committee for several years. Her leadership provided this advisory group with much needed passion and professionalism. During her tenure, healthcare leadership from many areas of the organization actively participated in regular meetings and established multiple work groups including ones focused on clinical operations and greenspaces that continue to make an impact today.
The second award was awarded to Bob Kjelland, UK President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee
Bob served on the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee for many years. While serving in that capacity Bob also spearheaded an effort to ensure that sustainability efforts were appropriately aligned with Environmental Management guidelines and regulations. He also helped create a nation-wide group of EM professionals who met regularly to discuss the opportunities and challenges involved with aligning and coordinating EM and Sustainability Initiatives.
Yanarella Levine Legacy Award – Intended to honor current or former faculty and staff members who have contributed a tremendous body of work supporting a legacy of sustainability at the University of Kentucky and beyond.
In late 2007, President Lee Todd established the University’s Sustainability Advisory Committee and appointed the initial membership for the group. Dr. Mark Williams, then an associate professor in the department of horticulture, was one of those appointed and he was selected to serve as one of the two inaugural co-chairs for this group. Over the next three years, Mark steadily led the work of getting UK’s first Sustainability Policy adopted. He was also a tireless champion for the creation of a University-wide sustainability coordinator position. These acts of service and leadership solidified the foundation that many of the efforts showcased here today are built upon. At that same time, Mark was also spearheading the University’s work in Sustainable agriculture…
In addition to being the driving force in the creation of the UK Sustainable Agriculture undergraduate degree program, teaching a majority of courses in the program, and being the primary program administrator, Mark was also busy building what has become one of the leading teaching farms for organic vegetable production in Land Grant University system. This was a very grassroots affair in the early years, especially, where side by side with students and a very committed staff, they created the UK Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, to provide students an opportunity to learn, hands-on how to grow nutritious, sustainably produced food. This came at a time when many headlines about Kentucky focused on our high rates of diet related diseases. Unique partnerships with other colleges such as the College of Design, helped transform the back of the University of Kentucky Horticulture Research Farm into a small compound of repurposed farm buildings to serve as classroom kitchens where students learn to cook the food they grow, a working farm shop, and a packing shed. Over the past 20 years, the farm has grown to house the 30 acre UK Organic Farming Unit. The CSA has grown to over 10 acres of production that serves over 200 UK families, has taught hundreds of students, trained some of Kentucky’s leading vegetable farmers, and serves as a model for not only academic instruction, but also Extension programming. The Sustainable Agriculture program has grown from a small pilot program to a formal degree program in the Martin Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and leverages partnerships and participation from departments across the college and beyond.
Thank you to all the staff, students and administrators for collaborating and making the 2024 Sustainability Showcase a success!