The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists to host an educational booth at the Aquarena Earth Day Celebration to help people be more eco-friendly with their laundry. AATCC to pass our baggies with the proper amount of detergent in them with a note attached that gives eco-friendly tips for washing clothes. The booth will display various garments such as t-shirts and jeans and a poster board filled with interesting facts such as how much water/detergent is used per load, which detergents are most eco-friendly, etc.

To distribute aluminum water bottles at Paws Preview the fall 2010 semester to kick off the Common Experience on Sustainability program, publicize the Environmental Services Committee, and to promoste recycling and reuse.

Texas State American Marketing Association to develop a marketing campaign for the Environmental Services Committee.

Bike to School Day (April 22, 2010) is an informative and interactive event for Texas State and San Marcos community. The goal is to garner attention for alternative, sustainable forms of transportation and improve community knowledge of the various resources available to cyclists through a marketing campaign to include fliers, signs, and a visual display in the Quad.

The main objective of this proposal is to install a rainwater collection system at the Biology Greenhouse. The rainwater collection system will irrigate plants that are used for teaching, research and landscaping. The rainwater collection system will help the university save money on water usage costs, and promoste and reflect efficient use of a valuable renewable resource to students, the community and other universities. Environmentally, collecting rainwater reduces flow to storm water drains, reduced non-point source pollution, and reduces the amount of water that needs to go to water treatments plants. Plants irrigated with rainwater are overall healthier than plants receiving tap water, which translates in to less money spent on replacing plants used for teaching each semester.

The Department of Agriculture developed a student education and composting operation called Bobcat Blend. The composting project will allow students to source separate their waste into designated waste stations that will be marked as organic waste, bottles, cans, and trash. The organic waste from the university cafeterias along with cardboard, food packaging paper products, and invasive river plant species gathered from the San Marcos River will be mixed together and composted at the Texas State composting site. This program will educate students on compost production and make them more aware of their own use and production of waste products. The final output from the waste will be a nutrient rich soil amendment that will be placed back on the campus landscape.

YNN Austin 

You Tube

The Department of Campus Recreation retrofitted thirty elliptical machines with technology, ReCardi, using the kinetic motion of aerobic exercise to convert heart energy produced by gym equipment into renewable electricity. a typical thirty minute workout will produce approximately fifty watt hours of clean electricitiy.

Members of NRHH, RHA and residence hall occupants to meet on April 10th, 2010 for a two hour Campus Cleanup. Teams will receive bags designated for trash, glass, paper, and aluminum so that materials can be sorted as they clean. Trash will be discarded and recyclable materials taken to Recycling. Breakfast will be provided to participants at the end of the cleanup.

Project request to acquire 10-10'x10' tents for the Aquarena Center 4th Annual Earth Day Celebration. The event is free to the public and includes recreational activities, educational booths, local food and vendor booths, live musical performances and key note addresses from national, state, and local political representatives.

Recycle Now, Electronic Waste Collection Event hosted by Texas State, PSC Environmental and the City of San Marcos to be held Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the Bobcat Stadium parking lot. Faculty, staff, students, and the community can bring TVs and monitors, computers, laptops, cell phones, computer peripherals, fax machines, scanners, electronic toys, gaming systems, CD/DVD players, cords and cables to be recycled in a safe and secure manner. 

The Food 4 Thought project is a fusion of ideas centered on wholesome, farm-fresh food for students at Texas State. The main objective of this project is to continue development of a horticulture teaching garden as part of the campus arboretum and Master Plan concept in support of the horticulture program in the Department of Agriculture with the goal of the projects being independently sustainable in terms of maintenance. Students will oversee the garden and volunteers under the direction of Dr. Tina Marie Cade. The hillside area will be cleared and terraced and will be planted with fruit crops (grapes, olives, citrus, peach, fig, loquat, persimmon, pear, etc.). The flat area will be designed to include raised beds for square-goot begetable gardening plots.

This project will further expand the Texas State Living Library as a sustainable habitat by incorporating elements that attract wildlife and pollinators. The students will gather knowledge of nature's biological cycles by allowing visible interaction between pants, insects, and wildlife. The Living Library is in a position to become a certified National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat and a certified Monarch Waystation. A beehive will be added to the project to pollinate the Organic Garden plants.

Pack It Up and Pass It On, the university's end-of-the-semester recycling program, benefits more that 1,000 San Marcos needy people, who "shop" for free among seven tons of items mainly donated by students living in residence halls and on-campus apartments. This project would expand the program toan off-campus apartment complex on a pilot basis and improve the efficeincy of the program by utilizing student worker positions. A storage POD will be placed at an off-campus apartment complex so that more students have the opportunity to donate unwatned items instead of throwing them away. The storage pod will be manned by the apartment complex management or resident assembly organization and all items collected will be in the distributions.

Gamma Sigma Sigma planting a tree in Sewell Park to enhance the beauty of the campus and the park in order to bring more awareness to community of the environment and a greater sense of respect for nature and to promote going green and being more active in the fight to save the planet.

This video production project emphasized sustainability and a low carbon diet. Featured in the video are students talking about their research and first-hand experience with solar drying-one example of living green. One student will speak on missing the smell of line dried laundry, another will continue with information based on 350.org and reducing carbon footprints, another will focus on solar drying and its inherent saving of the fabric content of clothes, andother will restate her request for a holiday gift of a clothesline, and several other students will introduce facts on a low carbon diet with other background information. Highlighting choices, this video will show how individuals can make a positive impact on the planet. This student-driven project addresses the social issues of sustainability while illustrating the power of students to help change the campus and the world.

To create an oncampus vermicomposting location for the processing of food waste to soil amendment. Using an on campus shed that is already planned for vermicomposting to grow worms and produce worm castings. Project cost will include purchase of 10 pounds of composting worms, installing a small A/C unit, insulating the shed, running power to it, and purchase of containers needed to grow worms, Once the shed is cooled a student worker or volunteer could manage the project (around 10 hours a week).