The SGA Sustainability Committee is a student group that aims to be the sustainability voice for all students on campus. We pass bills and hold events to educate the campus community, to push the university administration, and to advocate for meaningful climate and environmental action on local and state levels. Last year, we encouraged President Pines’ decision to commit to making our on campus power plant fossil fuel free by 2035, influenced the University to pause development on Guilford Woods, provided testimony to the Prince George’s County CAP, testified on MGA bills, established a stipend program for people in sustainability internships and so much more!
This year, some of our current work includes planning to replace current UMD shuttles with electric buses, running environmental justice events, launching a Sustainability Conference, organizing clothing swaps on campus, mapping potential sites for solar panels on campus. Our projects are all student-proposed and driven! Come join us to get involved in these projects or to start your own project, all majors are wanted!
We're also a social group! In past years, we've done day hikes and game nights. We also run a mini-grant program, where members of our committee analyze grant requests for up to $2,000. Mini-grant participants get experience critiquing, assessing, and evaluating student, staff, and faculty proposed sustainability projects.
We meet on Thursdays at 7:00pm in the SGA Office (in the Student Organization Resource Center (SORC) in the STAMP Student Union - take a right when you enter SORC and go down the hallway until you see the SGA logo). Please email sgasustainability@umd.edu with any questions and to get on our listserv so you can get the agendas and announcements. Hope to see you at our next meeting!