Greening UM
The University of Montana
Greening UM
The University of Montana
For Earth Week News & Events please see: Earth Week | Press Release & PSA | Conservation Calendar
The University of Montana will hold an open house on Tuesday, June 23, to bring people together to share ideas on how to reduce UM’s greenhouse gases and include sustainability in the University’s academic mission.
The public is welcome to attend the event, which will run from noon to 2 p.m. at the University Center Theater.
UM is creating a Climate Action Plan to develop ways to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The University’s first Greenhouse Gas Inventory was completed last year, identifying three primary sources of emissions. They are purchased electricity, the on-campus steam plant and transportation associated with University activities.
The Climate Action Plan, scheduled to be completed in November, will prioritize strategies and set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and operations, transportation, and solid waste. It also will identify opportunities to include sustainability in education, research and community outreach.
Join other members of the campus community in helping to green our campus. Sign the sustainability pledge and commit to reducing your own environmental footprint!
To sign the pledge visit: The Pledge
Each summer a group of energetic University of Montana students and instructors bicycle across the state for four weeks as they explore regional energy choices and the impacts of climate change -- all while earning college credit.
The course, Cycle the Rockies: Energy and Climate Change in Montana, takes six students and two instructors on a 700-mile journey from Billings to Whitefish. It is offered by UM and the Missoula-based Wild Rockies Field Institute.
Read more at UM Stories
Meet new ASUM Sustainability Coordinator, Erica Bloom. Erica is a graduate student in Environmental Studies focusing in writing and environmental justice. Erica brings great experience and enthusiasm to the position. She won Outstanding Presentation Award at the Graduate Student Research Conference in April for her presentation on “Safe and Effective Cleaning Products: Establishing a Base for Institutional Change at The University of Montana” and she is interning with Women’s Voices for the Earth.
Contact Erica at ASUM Sustainablity
or call 406-243-4865
The optional $4 fee the Revolving Energy Loan Fund (RELF) passed with flying colors: 1,574–493. The fee will start a campus-wide fund to help pay for energy saving and waste reduction projects.
Read more at the The University of Montana Kaimin
Learn more about RELF
The Earth Week extravaganza continued Thursday afternoon in the University Center with a short presentation made by Gov. Brian Schweitzer advocating battery technologies and local food economies.
“We need to produce an energy system and a food system that is sustainable,” Schweitzer said. “It’s not going to be easy.”
Schweitzer said the nation is addicted to oil for, among other reasons, use in food production. Oil is used in operating farm equipment as well as in transporting, processing and delivering food.
Read more at the The University of Montana Kaimin
On Friday, March 20th the Montana Board of Regents approved the creation of one of the nation’s first undergraduate degree programs devoted to the challenges and opportunities global climate change presents.
The new minor in climate change studies will combine rigorous training in sciences with course work in ethics and policy to offer students a unique, multidisciplinary understanding of climate change. Students will examine the scientific and social dimensions of global climate change, as well as explore potential solutions.
Read the entire Press Release
The first major round of energy audits at UM is complete. Audits of this type have not been done on UM’s campus for 15 years, and the projected energy saving potentials are enormous. To learn more about the audits, visit UM’s Energy Blog
The Office of Sustainability
UM Facilities Services PP 110
32 Campus Dr MS 9288
Missoula MT, 59812
