UNT will be 100 percent powered by renewable energy for one year
Gary Cocke, UNT sustainability coordinator and We Mean Green Fund advisor. Amber Nasser
The Mean Green fund purchased enough credits through the Denton Municipal Electric’s Green Sense Renewable Energy Program to allow UNT to have 100 percent renewable energy for a year through both wind and solar power.
The fund is able to buy these credits through a tuition service fee of $5, which allows any student or faculty to submit proposals to help make UNT more environmentally friendly.
“There are so many people that care about the environment,” UNT sustainability coordinator Gary Cocke said. “We all know we are dependent on a healthy Earth in order for our existence, but to very few people will that effect meaningful change.”
Adam Briggle and UNT students lead the 100 percent renewable energy program to its one-year renewable energy goal. Cocke is the advisor of the We Mean Green Fund that picked up the project.
“The student-majority committee consists of ten students and three faculty members which are the evaluative body,” Cocke said. “It is students that brought this idea to reality.”
About 8,000 residences are enrolled in the Green Sense program today, but Cocke said the enrollment used to be only about 165 to 170 residence homes.
Kinesiology junior Tyler Gallegos said it’s important that we look into not leaving a carbon footprint; someone has to start the initiative so others may follow. Computer science graduate student Samuel Cumings wants to focus on fossil fuel dependency and global warming.
Renewable energy, Cumings said, is important to reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and prevent the serious issues climate change could bring.
“Global warming is a real thing,”recreational sports junior Ivan Castaneda said. “We don’t want to add to that.”
Castaneda said that the Mean Green fund that does projects like the 100 percent renewable energy project is worth investing $5 fee in.
“Students seem to understand the importance to reduce climate change,” Cocke said “Addressing how we get clean energy and addressing water are of immediacy.”
The project is allowing UNT to have 100 percent renewable energy right now, Cocke said. It is something he would suggest to other colleagues.
“We hope to be a leader in our community,” Cocke said. “And hope to enroll more.”
Cocke wants students to know that the Mean Green fund that helped this project is here for everyone at UNT. The next thing Cocke would like to address is food waste at UNT.
“So the proposal has been approved with a one-year time frame,” he said. “They will present at the end of one year what they find and propose it be extended for four more.”
Cocke said he feels students get an opportunity to have an impact at UNT when they work through the We Mean Green Fund. He said it helps them understand how they can have an impact on the environment.
“With project leadership,” Cocke said. “Sustainability like anything else we need to be able to demonstrate our successes and our value and why we need to continue to have these projects and have more of them.”
Cocke said the Green Sense program is making it possible for the project to continue and perhaps get more enrollments.
“We need to think more about the future than what we want now,” Gallegos said. “I think it is important for UNT to do it [100 percent renewable energy project] because we are a college and our slogan is we mean green.”
Featured Image: Gary Cocke, UNT sustainability coordinator and We Mean Green Fund advisor. Amber Nasser
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