Sustainability Organizations at UK

UK students working on sustainability have several routes in, and they are not all the same kind of commitment. Most of the groups below recruit members and meet through the semester. One funds student projects rather than recruiting. One is a scholarly community built around research. The category headings tell you what joining involves; read them before the entries.

In this page:

• Advocacy and Campus Policy.
• Service and Community Outreach.
• Applied and Field-Based.
• Student Programs through the UK Office of Sustainability.
• Research and Scholarly Community.
• Defunct (Advocacy).

Advocacy and Campus Policy

Greenthumb Environmental Club

Founded in 1993, Greenthumb is the oldest student-run environmental organization in the Commonwealth. Members pursue environmental activism on campus and beyond, much of it aimed at making UK more sustainable. Greenthumb has placed members in student government, the President's Sustainability Advisory Committee, the Student Sustainability Council and other university bodies. Contact: greenthumbroots@outlook.com.

Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition

The coalition is a statewide network of student environmental organizers working, in its own words, toward an environmentally sustainable, socially just and economically vibrant Kentucky. The coalition connects campus groups across the Commonwealth, runs statewide campaigns, recruits student delegates each fall and hosts Catalyst, its summer camp in community organizing. Students from the University of Kentucky are among its campus affiliates. Contact: Contact page; Website.

United Students Against Sweatshops

United Students Against Sweatshops is a social justice organization focused on labor conditions in the supply chains universities buy from. UK members work with the surrounding community to keep the university clear of sweatshop-linked vendors and have previously pressed the UK Bookstore and the Board of Trustees to cut ties with corporations tied to sweatshops abroad. Contact: ukyagainstsweatshops@yahoo.com; Facebook; Action Network.

Service and Community Outreach

The Campus Kitchen at UK

Established in 2014 with faculty support from the Department of Dietetics & Human Nutrition, the Campus Kitchen is a student service organization and an affiliate of the national Campus Kitchens Project. Members recover food that would otherwise be wasted on campus and turn it into meals for people in Lexington facing hunger. Contact: campuskitchenatuk@gmail.com; Website.

Applied and Field-Based

Horticulture Club

The UK Horticulture Club brings together students from any background to work with plants and with the people who study them. Members gain hands-on experience alongside faculty at the university farm and greenhouses, focusing on indoor tropicals, native plants for restoration projects and fresh produce grown at the research farm. Contact: hortclub@gmail.com; Facebook; BBNvolved.

Natural Resources and Environmental Science Club

The Natural Resources and Environmental Science Club connects students to the field through volunteer and professional development opportunities at local and state levels; workshops and seminars on environmental sustainability; and social events for students who share these interests. The club also collaborates with local organizations and other UK clubs. BBNvolved.

UK Solar Car Team

Formed in 1999, the UK Solar Car Team is an independent, student-led organization operating through the College of Engineering and one of the largest student engineering groups on campus. Members design and build solar vehicles, use them in STEM outreach and race them in national competitions including the Formula Sun Grand Prix and the American Solar Challenge. Contact: uksolarcar@gmail.com; Website; BBNvolved.

Student Programs through the UK Office of Sustainability

Sustainability Internship Program

The Sustainability Internship Program places undergraduates in paid, year-long internships with sustainability-related units across campus: Recycling, Dining, Transportation Services, Utilities and Energy Management, the Tracy Farmer Institute and others — as well as with local partner organizations. Interns work 8–10 hours weekly from August through spring, roughly 300 hours, develop an independent project and meet biweekly as a cohort. Applications open in the spring. Contact: carlie.laughlin@uky.edu; Website.

Sustainability Summer Research Fellowships

Administered by the Office of Undergraduate Research and funded by the Environmental Stewardship Fee, these fellowships pay a $5,000 stipend for 300–350 hours of mentored summer research on a sustainability topic. Applicants need a faculty mentor, a 3.0 grade point average and at least one prior semester of research. Environmental and Sustainability Studies majors have won these repeatedly. Contact: ugresearch@uky.edu; Website.

Summer Experiences in Sustainability

A clearing house for summer placements outside the internship program. Current listings include AppalachiaCorps, which pairs students with host organizations in eastern Kentucky through the UK Appalachian Center, and two internships at The Arboretum covering native plant collections and horticultural gardens: plant identification, propagation, invasive species management and arboriculture. Website.

Tracy Farmer Scholars Program

Tracy Farmer Scholars receive stipends of up to $6,000 for environment and sustainability research: $3,000 to $6,000 for undergraduates during the academic year and $2,000 to $6,000 for graduate and professional students over the summer. The Tracy Farmer Institute defines research broadly, explicitly inviting work in the arts, humanities and law. Scholars must secure a UK faculty or staff mentor. Contact: tfise@uky.edu; Website.

Student Sustainability Council

The Student Sustainability Council distributes the Environmental Stewardship Fee to projects that advance sustainability at UK. This is not a club you join; it is funding you apply for. Any member of the UK community may submit a proposal. If you have an idea for a project that would strengthen sustainability on campus, submit it. Contact: ukstudentsustainabilitycouncil@gmail.com; Apply for Funding; Website.

Student Organizations Index

The Office of Sustainability maintains its own index of sustainability-related student organizations at UK. It overlaps with the groups listed above but is compiled separately and may carry groups this page does not. Website.

Research and Scholarly Community

Political Ecology Working Group

The Political Ecology Working Group is an interdisciplinary community of scholars studying the theory and practice of political ecology, providing an environment for critical discussion of nature, environment, societies, economies and cultures. It hosts public lectures featuring researchers from around the world and runs the annual Dimensions of Political Ecology conference. Contact: ukpewg@gmail.com; DOPE Website.

Advocacy 

SSTOP Hunger: Sustainable Solutions to Overcome Poverty

SSTOP Hunger coordinates anti-hunger work at UK, uniting the campus chapters of Universities Fighting World Hunger and Presidents United to Solve Hunger. The group connects hunger-related organizations across campus and engages faculty, staff and students in awareness campaigns, fundraising, advocacy and academic work in teaching, research and outreach. BBNvolved.

Lexington Environmental Youth Outreach

LEYO works to close the gap between environmental education and environmental experience. UK undergraduates serve as Sustainability Mentors, running biweekly activities for fourth- and fifth-graders at William Wells Brown Elementary School and leading one excursion trip each semester, building the skills Lexington youth need to address environmental injustice. Contact: leyoutreach@gmail.com.