2011 Sustainability Leadership Awards
The City of Oxford and the University of Mississippi community celebrated the 2011 nominees and the winners of the Sustainability Leadership Awards and the Green Cup on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Despite the impending thunderstorms, a large crowd gathered at Off Square Books for the Green Week Keynote Address delivered by Mayor Patterson and Dean of Students Sparky Reardon and then the announcement of the 2011 award winners.
Congratulations to the 2011 SLA Winners
University of Mississippi
UM Student: Honorable Mention - Sarah Wood, President of Ole Miss Students for a Green Campus
Sarah has involved not only the University community in SGC’s effort to increase sustainability awareness, but Lafayette county as well; through SGC’s Green Field Days at Leap Frog and various elementary schools in the area she has involved younger generations in the sustainability movement to encourage education and awareness.
UM Student: Winner (Tie) - Elliott Warren, Gameday Recycling Coordinator
Elliott has been an inspiration. He has shown others that good stewardship of our environment is not a partisan issue. He also sees that individual steps to change attitudes are important, but only in a context of stimulating a culture that has largely ignored waste concerns. Elliott worked with the Office of Campus Sustainability and in particular on the Gameday Recycling Program. He hoped to be of help in decreasing the use of landfills, increasing the practice of recycling, and raising cultural awareness about sustainability, all with regard to the biggest events on campus: game-day tailgating. Elliott was successful leading a campaign that successfully diverted nearly 3 tons of plastic and aluminum from the landfill during the 2009 football season and over 10 tons during the 2010 football season.
UM Student: Winner (Tie) - Diarria Williams, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Diarria Williams has led the Nu Upsilon chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at the University of Mississippi on a Green mission this entire year. Diarria Williams motivated his fraternity brothers to start off by adopting highway cleanup off Hwy 6 at the beginning of the year. Each quarter of the year, he and his fraternity go clean up the highway and have encourage several others to participate with them. Next he got his fraternity actively involved with grove clean during the football season. After each home game, his fraternity picked up and recycled trash in the grove and circle on campus. Not to mention, he has hosted a semester informational sponsored by his fraternity for green awareness. He truly had made this initiative a part of his entire fraternity’s Greek life experience.
UM Faculty: Honorable Mention - Milly West, University of Mississippi
Milly has worked tirelessly to not only engage and educate the students in her Eco-literacy class, but constantly works within both the University and the community to actively promote sustainability.
UM Faculty: Winner - David Case, Law School
In addition to teaching Environmental Law, Environmental Torts, and Administrative Law, Prof. Case coached a team of law students to win the 2011 Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition. The University of Mississippi School of Law emerged as the winner out of 73 competing law schools from across the nation. This is one of the largest moot court competitions in the country. He was instrumental in coordinating the Environmental Justice Symposium of American Bar Association section of Environment, Energy and Resources that will be hosted at the law school. He has also worked with law students to submit papers to its writing competition.
UM Staff: Honorable Mention - Nancy Jones, Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management
Since coming to Ole Miss in 2006, Nancy has served as co-chair of the University’s Sustainability Task Force. The mission of the Task Force on Sustainability is to serve as the foundation for successful integration of the principles of sustainability across all areas of the university. In addition, she served as the university representative to the AIA Sustainability Design Assessment Team conference planning and development sub-committee. She was an instrumental part of the small team of individuals who worked with the AIA to make the conference happen; by all accounts, this conference was a huge success.
UM Staff: Winner - Ian Banner, Facilities Planning
Ian Banner is committed to creating a greener, healthier, beautiful campus for The University of Mississippi. He is passionate about his work at University Architect and makes great efforts to ensure that the campus participates and initiates green projects. The University of Mississippi currently has six LEED building projects underway on the Oxford campus.
UM Organization/Department: Honorable Mention - Lindsey Ethridge, Environmental Law Society
The Environmental Law Society has been instrumental in bringing greater awareness of Environmental issues to student body and Ole Miss community in general through the many events and activities is has hosted, including a webinar class that addressed issues from the BP Oil Spill, a screening of “Crude Justice”, which documented the difficulties people are facing in receiving fair compensation for the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and a career panel of attorneys who practice environmental law discuss career opportunities.
UM Organization/Department: Winner - Vicky Clark, Willie Price University Nursery School
WPUNS used to use more than 2000 pieces of styrofoam a week. They have within the past year installed dish washing capability, and now use washable plates, etc. They have also started a recycling program and are working to plant a garden. Now, not only do they teach kids about being green and protecting the earth, they also practice these sustainable habits as well.
City of Oxford
Oxford/Lafayette County Resident: Honorable Mention - Dr. Charles Eagles, Oxford/Lafayette County Resident & University Professor
He is the most reliable volunteer the city Recycling Department has. He seems to truly enjoy helping and brings a great attitude to his volunteer service. The staff at the Recycling Center look forward to seeing him each week. His efforts make a great contribution to the city’s recycling program, as the department depends on volunteers to make efficient use of their time and resources. He has truly made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Oxford area.
Oxford/Lafayette County Resident: Winner - Dustin Bass, Yates Construction and UM MBA Student
Dustin’s passion for sustainable development is palpable and infectious, and uses every chance he gets to talk about the benefits of sustainable construction and sustainability in general. He was a leader in the process of making the new Oxford High School LEED certified. Along with his master’s degree in sustainability, Dustin is going the extra mile to acquire an MBA to further his future in sustainability and related work.
Oxford/Lafayette County K-12 Educator: Honorable Mention - Margaret Boyd, Principal Lafayette County Lower Elementary
Margaret Boyd has brought remarkable energy, enthusiasm and intelligence to her school as the principal of Lafayette Lower Elementary and encouraged, in both small and large ways, all of her teachers and students to be more environmentally and socially aware while engaging them in innovative and exciting projects geared towards sustainable practices in their daily living.
Oxford/Lafayette County K-12 Educator: Winner - Renee Whiteaker, Lafayette County Schools
Renee Whiteaker has established and supported school-based recycling in the school district. She has arranged for collection by cooperating with the hign school beta club and elementary gifted classes. She has participated in the energy conservation and green schools program for our district. She presented conservation education programs to all the classrooms at Lafayette Elementary. This has resulted in decreased consumption and money savings for the school.
Oxford/Lafayette County Nonprofit/Government Agency: Winner - Christy Grice and Dicki King, Boys & Girls Club/Barksdale Clubhouse of the LOU Community
Both Dicki King and Christy Grice of the Oxford-Lafayette County United Way Boys and Girls Club have been instrumental in the original conception of a children’s garden at the Club and critical in the continuation of it over the past few years as a place where the children can connect with the land and have fun in the garden while being incredibly productive.
Oxford/Lafayette County Business - Joel Miller, Ravine
Ravine’s slogan is “eat your locals” and Joel has become a vital economic link between the community and locally owned family farms in addition to his outstanding ecological practices. His successful implementation of sustainable practices is an example for Oxford’s entire business community, and his support of area farmers has significantly strengthened sustainable agriculture practices in our area.