Reduce, reuse, recycle – it’s the motto local sustainability advocates encourage the University to adopt.

Panelists at the event discussed topics including ways students can improve on being eco-friendly and acknowledging what students are doing to make the campus “greener.”

The campaign, entitled “It’s So Easy Being Green,” concluded Earth Day activities on campus. The campaign, sponsored by students in Professor Lynne Sallot’s public relations campaign course, included a panel with various backgrounds in sustainability.

The goal of the campaign is to “cover all ground on sustainability and show how easy it is to go green,” said Monica Padman, a senior from Duluth.

Padman spearheaded the idea for a sustainability campaign with the Go Green Alliance. Padman said the campaign comes after the referendum passed in the Student Government Association election.

“Because of the Green Initiative Fund, we made stickers and put them on Jittery Joe coffee cups holders, and we wanted to shed light on going green and sustainability at UGA and how it is affecting the school,” Padman said.

Andrew Lentini, recycling coordinator for the University, spoke on the University’s recycling goals.

“We’ve done a lot, but still have a long way to go with recycling,” he said. “We are working with architects to have paper recycling bins next to The Red & Black bins within the next 60 days.”

The use of paper recycling bins will cut down on people wasting paper at bus stops, Lentini said. Of the trash thrown away, 50 percent is recyclable, he said.

The University also plans on replacing all 750 trash cans located around campus with recycling bins or “just not replace them,” and get rid of the dependency on trash cans, Lentini said.

“The University has a history of being a trash dumping campus,” he said. “It is more efficient to work with a compounder.”

The University will save more than $4,000 per month by not using trash services, Lentini said.

“The return on the investment is well over a year,” he said.

Laurie Fowler, director of public service and special programs for the School of Ecology, touched on what students at the University are doing to make the campus more sustainable.

“Athens-Clarke County is a leader in sustainability and that has been a part of student’s involvement,” she said.

University students were instrumental in having residents receive a tax for landfill dumping on their water bills and establishing the use of a 75-foot stream buffer to prevent erosion, Fowler said.

“Students at the University helped write op-ed pieces on the issues and started a public education campaign,” she said. “When students think, ‘What can I, as a student, do?’, they must know that they have a tremendous impact while in school.”

Mayor Heidi Davison discusses what the Athens-Clarke County community has been doing to become more sustainable and was impressed with the University’s efforts to become more sustainable.

“I think it is a significant thing that you all voted for the support of a sustainability coordinator,” she said. “I think it is good that you all are so immersed in how you can be better citizens of the planet.”

Davison encouraged these same practices in government and the community.

In 2004, a proposal was passed that requires government buildings to be LEED certified, Davison said.

There are four buildings that are LEED certified and nine buildings are in the process of becoming certified, she said.

“We hope that by setting this standard the private sector will follow suit,” Davison said.

The same sustainability efforts are being applied to the transit system in Athens.

“We were running buses on bio-diesel, unfortunately due to budget cuts we had to scale back,” Davison said.

Davison also said that the government was working on an energy plan to show that it can be a good steward of sustainability.

“We don’t want to say one thing and do something else,” she said.

Davison encouraged others to unplug “anything you can think of and think about what you are eating and how it is grown” to obtain a sustainable lifestyle.

“I believe it is intentional to recycle and it has to be a habit,” she said. “Do get involved. You are the next generation that will tell us what to do to make the planet safer.”