As UT Austin commemorates the lasting impact of President Bill Powers on many corners of the campus, the Office of Sustainability would also like to celebrate how he established an enduring presence for sustainability.
In 2007, President Powers formed the President’s Task Force on Sustainability, which then drafted the first campus sustainability policy for the university, adopted by Powers in 2008. The Task Force was since re-chartered as the President’s Sustainability Steering Committee, which continues to meet and is currently working on the latest update to the campus policy.
In 2008, President Powers also approved UT Austin signing on as a charter member for the pilot phase of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), which has become the leading sustainability benchmarking tool for higher education. UT Austin continues to participate in STARS.
President Powers understood the importance of student involvement in sustainability at the university. He advocated for the initial establishment of the Green Fund to the Board of Regents following a 71 percent favorable vote by the student body in spring of 2010. The Green Fund proved so popular with students that after it expired in 2015, President Fenves advocated to the Board of Regents to keep it in place.
Recognizing that sustainability is about ethical planning and development as well as pursuit of common ideals, during the 2012 Campus Master Plan update process President Powers worked to build relationships with the Blackland Neighborhood Association adjacent to the eastern edge of the campus. He championed creation of the East Campus Master Plan to formalize a new optimistic chapter in the troubled relationship between the university and this neighborhood, which had stretched back to the 1970s.
“President Powers understood that sustainability was becoming a core interest at UT Austin not only for students, but also staff and faculty,” says Jim Walker, director of Sustainability. “He was very encouraging, on a personal level, of the student and staff leaders who wanted to see the university not only bring sustainability into the classroom, but across the physical campus and beyond as well.”
