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HT Receives Another Sustainability Award. College Sports Recognized.

Huston-Tillotson University

Co-Chair Darrien Jones talks about Green is the New Black campus awareness.

(AUSTIN, TX) 7.1.16 — Huston-Tillotson University was named the winner in the small-campus category of the College Sports Sustainability Makeover Contest at the Green Sports Alliance Summit held recently in Houston.

The contest is designed to highlight college athletics’ unique and powerful impact on community sustainability; to influence fans’ sustainability behaviors where they live, work, and play; and to boost college sports’ sustainability capacity.

Contest sponsors Max-R, Greendrop Recycling, Eco-Products, EcoSafe Zero Waste, and the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center provided prizes and support packages valued at over $50,000 for each winning campus. The University of Texas at Austin (UT) won in the large-campus category

 “The Makeover Contest was an overwhelming success as proven by the number of high quality submissions—and the outstanding leadership of the two winning campuses,” said Scott Jenkins, Chair of the Green Sports Alliance Board of Directors. “College sports has distinguished itself as a sustainability leader capable of using its cultural and market influence to promote healthy, sustainable communities. We all win in that game.”

Huston-Tillotson University will receive ten new custom recycling and compost collection cabinets from Greendrop Recycling, a supply of compostable foodware from Eco-Products, a supply of compostable compost bags from EcoSafe Zero Waste, and on-site sustainability assistance from University of Colorado Boulder technical experts.

HT set itself apart from a strong field of 48 campus entries with is robust commitment to sustainability in operations and curriculum as influenced by the HT Center for Sustainability and Environmental Justice and HT’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2048. Additionally, HT’s  active student-led group, Green is the New Black™, seeks to promote understanding and action of sustainability issues as they impact minority stakeholders. HT also seeks to engage its students in all aspects of sustainability by linking understanding of resource stewardship across all of its academic and athletics activities.

As a historically black institution located in Austin, Texas, Huston-Tillotson University’s mission is to nurture a legacy of leadership and excellence in education, connecting knowledge, power, passion, and values. The University offers associate and master’s degrees in addition to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in more than 19 areas of study. Men compete in basketball, baseball, soccer, and track and field and women compete in basketball, soccer, softball, and track and field in the Red River Athletic Conference and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.  Discover HT at www.htu.edu.

The Green Sports Alliance leverages the cultural and market influence of sports to promote healthy, sustainable communities where we live and play. The nonprofit does so by inspiring sports leagues, teams, venues, their partners, and millions of fans to embrace renewable energy, healthy food, recycling, water efficiency, species preservation, safer chemicals, and other environmentally preferable practices. Alliance members represent more than 370 sports teams and venues from 20 different sports leagues and 14 countries. Visit greensportsalliance.org for more information.