UTRGV Sustainability Initiatives targeting multiple issues faced locally and globally


  Wednesday, April 22, 2020
  Research, Science & Technology, Community

By News and Internal Communications

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – Prior to the COVID-19 global epidemic, the United Nations created 17 sustainable development goals to combat worldwide problems. The Rio Grande Valley is unique in facing each of the issues highlighted.

For UTRGV Chief Sustainability Officer Marianella Franklin that can be a positive thing.

“There's no one better to resolve those issues than the individuals who understand the issues,” she said.

Franklin said the UN has taken a close look at the region, “because if we come up with the solutions – the sustainable solutions – these solutions can be replicated globally.”

UTRGV has been working on sustainability initiatives in several aspects of the university’s operations and academics. Dr. Amy Hay, a UTRGV associate professor of history, said, "I think a really powerful thing is there's the idea of hope that's embedded in sustainability."

More information about UTRGV’s sustainability initiatives can be found at https://www.utrgv.edu/sustainability/index.htm.



ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.