We’d like to introduce you to our next two Sustainability Champions: Brian Burns and Annette Lucksinger! Every two weeks, we will be revealing two more champions, so please visit the page and keep your eyes out in Horizon for the newest pair. Help us give a big thanks to these eco-friendly folks! And let them inspire you to become more sustainable.
Brian Burns, Director of Facilities Operations: Your collaboration with Bon Appetit to select the perfect recycling vendor allowed for St. Edward’s to team up with Break It Down to offer composting services in all campus dining halls. With your help, St. Edward’s community members can take charge and make a sustainable difference.
Annette Lucksinger, Freshman Studies: You’re spreading your sustainable ways both in and out of Austin’s city limits. You bike to work frequently from your Hyde Park home and have even walked the journey a few times. You and your family compost and use the results to feed the small gardens around your home. Top that off with reusable water bottles, a reel push mower, and acting as the parent lead for the garden program at your children’s elementary school. Summertime means you’re out at Camp Longhorn in the hill country, where you’ve convinced the staff to buy paper cups instead of Styrofoam for the 1,000 cups used daily by campers (with hopes to introduce reusable cups soon). You also convinced them to start recycling and have taken it upon yourself to collect and recycle paper, cardboard, mail, and used batteries. You’re also helping to influence future generations to be more environmentally-conscious with the publication of your book, Exploring Austin with Kids, which encourages outdoor play. Academia is yet another arena you’ve influenced, with the publication of “Ecopedagogy: Cultivating Environmental Consciousness through Sense of Place in Literature” in Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture by Duke University Press (more information here). Thanks for your hard work and we’re excited to see what you come up with next!