Knoxville going Green

Today at the Presidential Court from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m., the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, celebrated Make Orange Green. The Court was filled up with different little stations set up showing the UT body what the UT campus and local organizations are doing to reduce waste, save energy, and promote environmental leadership to people of the school and of Knoxville. From promoting bicycling, to recycling, to electric cars, everything had to do with trying to sustain the world. One of the first things that were encouraged to everyone at the celebration was to make a pledge towards promoting green. Much of this was just trying to get people aware of the little things that can be done. For example, I picked up a magnet promoting the event that had little reminders on it like turning off computers and game consoles when not in use, using natural lights and turning off lights when not in the room, and unplugging appliances like cell phone chargers when not in use. While I thought the rock music in the background and the free ice cream was cool, it was the little exhibits that I found very interesting. I was able to talk to a woman from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where she told me about how it all started back with the Manhattan Project, and now its goal is to find ways through clean energy to sustain the world. She also briefly told me about how Oak Ridge is extending their hand to the community by helping in community projects. An example could be a project trying to clean the river water or a project to help sustain the quality of the Smokey Mountains. Just being able to look at a ford focus electric car, learn more about the automated electric bicycle, and see the passion of the people who put this together, gave me a bigger motivation to try to help sustain/make Knoxville more environmentally friendly. The message is always the same; doing little things right can make a big difference.