McDonald Observatory
Printable PDF of 2017-2018 Green Fee Awards*
* Green Fee is now named Green Fund (change in 2018-19)
Project | Description | Award Amount |
| Carbon Roadshow | A previous Green Fee grant to the School of Architecture funded the development of a calculation tool that allows each UT department to calculate their carbon footprint. The current grant supports the associated costs of field testing the calculation tool with the Jackson School of Geosciences and for the verification of the directions and methodology. | $2,500 |
| Waller Creek Working Group | Building on the success of a previous Green Fee grant, the Waller Creek Working Group will continue to foster collaborative research efforts with UT faculty and staff, City of Austin and local nonprofits. The group will continue to archive historic and modern documents, data, images and other information related to Waller Creek for ready public access. | $26,893 |
| Blooms for Bats | The Campus Environmental Center will host a pilot student project designed to educate UT students about the environmental and agricultural benefits of bats through handson activities and citizen-science programs. | $7,000 |
| Green Materials Lab | The School of Architecture's Green Materials Lab will conduct a campus-wide workshop series open to students, staff, and faculty focusing on sustainable issues and technologies. | $10,950 |
| Solar Powered Smoothie Cart | Engineers for a Sustainable World will replace the tires on their Solar Powered Smoothie Cart which will allow the student group to move the cart to various locations on campus and serve more students. | $150 |
| Student Hydration Stations | Student Government and University Health Services are partnering on a project to install water bottle filling stations in five buildings on campus. The project will promote the importance of proper hydration while also encouraging students to utilize reusable water bottles. | $12,587 |
| UT Farm Stand at Brackenridge Apartments | The Division of Housing and Food Service (now Housing and Dining) received Green Fee funds to expand the successful Green Fee funded UT Farm Stand to graduate students and their families living in Brackenridge Apartments student housing. The goal is to provide easy access to nutritional, fresh produce to the predominantly international graduate student population while also increasing awareness of the local produce available in Austin. | $6,192 |
| Living Wall | The School of Architecture, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, UT Landscape Services and the Department of Integrative Biology will continue their collaborative effort to collect and analyze environmental and biological data collected from the Goldsmith Hall Living Wall. Researchers will also assess the structural effectiveness of the Living Wall which was constructed with Green Fee funds in 2016. Featured by UT News | $25,000 |
| Occupant Centered Lighting Control | Graduate students in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering will conduct research on the lighting preferences of individuals in an office setting. Occupant centered lighting controls can be used to establish lighting "set-points" resulting in less energy use and more comfortable working conditions. | $17,900 |
| Designing an Analytical Framework for UT Shuttle Service Evaluation | The Urban Information Lab (School of Architecture) will work with UT Parking and Transportation Services to conduct research on the current state of the UT shuttle system resulting in a performance evaluation framework and a service improvement plan for campus shuttle services. | $25,656 |
| UT Lands Analysis | Graduate students in the School of Architecture's Community and Regional Planning program and the Jackson School of Geoscience's Earth and Energy Resources program will conduct research into the physical and economic conditions of UT lands. Students will attempt to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of current activities on those lands and investigate potential carbon offsetting and sequestering opportunities. | $39,553 |
| BIM-based Construction Waste Estimation & Disposal Planning Tool | Graduate and undergraduate students in the department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering will develop a software tool that will leverage Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology for the quantification of waste generated from construction projects, as well as the disposal planning of the generated waste. | $24,590 |
| Framework Plan and Landscape Guidelines for the McDonald Observatory | Graduate students in the Graduate Program of School of Architecture's Landscape Architecture will synthesize findings from a graduate level, landscape architecture design studio into a framework plan and landscape management guidelines for the McDonald Observatory. The project will also provide design studios with a template for disseminating design research to a broader | $25,500 |
| When Green Goes Bad: Boomerang Effects and Moral Licensing among Undergraduates | Researchers in the Moody College of Communication will utilize social labeling theory to test the prevalence of moral licensing among UT's green consumers taking into account political ideology and to determine if moral licensing effects can be mitigated. | $12,387 |
| The Early Bird Kills the Worm | Graduate students in the Moody College of Communication will conduct a study on the optimal communication strategy when running a green campaign, i.e. the Horns Up Sash Down campaign. Researchers hope the study results can be applied to sustainability campaigns intending to influence behavioral change in the UT community. | $3,740 |
| Spokesanimal Wanted! | Graduate students in the Moody College of Communication will work with Division of Housing and Food Service (now Housing and Dining) staff to implement a three phase, student focused communication strategy promoting food waste reduction. Researchers will measure food waste volume in DHFS dining halls before and after the implementation of the communication campaign. | $4,000 |
| You've Got a Green Friend in Me | Graduate students in the Moody College of Communication will conduct a study on the effects of a communication campaign promoting the benefits of recycling. The study will measure change in attitudes, knowledge and behaviors as a result of a communication campaign intervention that will occur between baseline and follow-up surveys | $4,000 |
| Regrow Project in SWEAT Lab | Undergraduate students in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Webber Energy Group SWEAT (Solar, Water, Energy and Thermal) Lab will compare the water, energy and carbon emissions of re-growing select vegetables from common kitchen food scraps to the calculated water and energy consumption of traditionally grown vegetables. The calculation will include the imbedded water, energy, and carbon footprint of their supply chain. | $2,206 |
| Effects of UT Shuttle Exhaust Exposure on Student Health | With Parking and Transportation Service approval, graduate and undergraduate students in the in the Department of Chemical Engineering will utilize personal exposure monitoring systems to record particulate matter exposure in the UT shuttle microenvironment. | $5,000 |
| Green Labs | Building on the success of prior Green Fee grant awards, the current grant allows the collaborative effort of the Office of Sustainability, Environmental Health and Safety, Resource Recovery, and the Energy and Water Conservation Program to continue. Student staff will facilitate the laboratory waste recycling initiatives, conduct laboratory certifications and promote sustainable lab practices. | $21,250 |
| Lighting Retrofit | Green Fee funds have supported a number of successful lighting retrofit projects conducted by the Energy Management and Optimization Team. The current grant award will fund student positions and rebates to participating partners. Students will conduct field audits and calculate potential energy savings to identify buildings that qualify for the energy conservation program. | $16,874 |
| Texas Athletics Sustainability and Sort Squads | Funds awarded to Texas Athletics will continue Green Fee support of game day stadium recycling initiatives. The current Green Fee grant allows Texas Athletics to significantly expand their recycling operations by supporting the newly created student Sustainability Sort Squad. Featured by Texas Sustainability | $86,750 |
| Material Exchange Across Campus | Impressed with the success of the previously funded Material Exchange in the School of Architecture, the Green Fee is supporting the expansion of the Material Exchange to include the Department of Art and Art History. The grant also supports the creation of a best practices guide on how to establish and maintain a program that converts waste generated in studio courses into a source of free materials for future student projects. | $15,340 |
| Expansion of Sustainable Waste Models to Urgent Care and Sports Medicine Clinics | The grant to the University Health Services expands the highly successful clinical waste reduction efforts previously funded by Green Fee to include Sports Medicine and Urgent Care Clinics. Students and staff will conduct waste audits and implement a waste reduction plan for the two clinics. | $19,500 |
| Paper Towel Composting | The Resource Recovery unit in Facilities Services received funds to implement a pilot paper towel composting program in four campus buildings. The project supports the University effort to be a Zero Waste campus by 2020. | $13,375 |
| Waste Audit Cargo Bike | These funds support the purchase of a hybrid human-electric powered cargo bike to facilitate waste audits conducted by Resource Recovery student employees. | $10,000 |
| Zero Waste Building | In support of the Zero Waste campus goal, Resource Recovery received funds to develop and implement the Zero Waste Building effort. Funds support educational programming, outreach materials, waste audits and recycling/composting supplies. | $9,110 |
| UAV to Reduce Water Use | The Irrigation and Water Conservation team in Facilities Services received funding to purchase an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to conduct assessments of grass health on the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Lawn. The data collected by the UAV will be used to create an efficient, site specific irrigation plan for the project site thus reducing water waste. | $10,566 |
| Aquaponics | Engineers for a Sustainable World received a grant to renovate the small Painter greenhouse to provide additional space for highly popular student aquaponics projects | $17,000 |
| Microfarm | The Campus Environmental Center received funds to assist with the relocation of the student-run organic farm from its current location to the Berry M. Whitaker Sports Complex. | $14,467 |