Georgia Southern announces first Green Eagles and new Sustainability Projects

April 29, 2015

During a ceremony at the Zach S. Henderson Library, Lissa Leege, director of the Center, presented two students, two faculty members and two staff members with the first-ever Green Eagle Awards, and also announced the grant winners of new Sustainability Projects for the coming year. “Georgia Southern’s impressive sustainability accomplishments are due, in good part, to a committed group of sustainability leaders on our campus,” said Leege. “This new Green Eagle award recognizes these agents of change and commends them for furthering our sustainability goals.” This year’s Green Eagle Award winners are: Students: Christina Beslin, graduate assistant, Center for Sustainability Mary Samar, community liaison, After School Garden Program Staff: Brent Tharp, Ph.D., director, Georgia Southern Museum Jeffrey Yawn, executive director, Eagle Dining Services Faculty: Rebecca Larson,  MS, RD, Clinical Instructor of Nutrition and Food Science Subhrajit Saha, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology Recipients received Green Eagle trophies, and their names will be placed on a plaque in the Biological Sciences Building where the Center for Sustainability is located. In addition, the Center announced the Sustainability Fee Committee has allocated $220,466 in funding for 14 sustainability projects at Georgia Southern in its third grant cycle. Nearly 30 proposal submissions were received from nine academic departments and five additional campus units. This round of grants funds an Electric Vehicle Charger station, bottle-filling stations in multiple campus locations, a unique fashion merchandising grant that encourages the campus community to bring in their worn apparel for repair, solar patio table chargers, a baseline map of vertebrates in campus habitats and much more. For a comprehensive list of the grants, click here. The $10 Student Sustainability Fee was approved in fall 2012 by a 75 percent student majority vote, and approved by the Board of Regents in April 2013. The fee was collected for the first time in August 2013. This brings the total allocated toward campus sustainability improvements to nearly $660,000 since 2014. [pb_slideshow group="6"]