Campus Sustainability Projects

Recycling and Composting

In partnership with the City of Arlington, UT Arlington is an award-winning leader in recycling and composting. In 2007 alone, the University was recognized by the Texas and Greater DFW Recycling Alliances and the North Texas Corporate Recycling Alliance for environmental vision and programming.
Much more >

You are what you wear?
See how Brazos Hall residents took Recyclemania 2009 to the red, that is, Green Carpet.

Get involved
Join a Green Team or learn more about on and off campus resources.

Energy Conservation

From an operational perspective, sustainability makes sense and sustainability makes cents. Therefore, energy conservation at UT Arlington has been a priority for decades, not only from an environmental perspective but cost-savings as well. Since 1973, UT Arlington has had an aggressive energy conservation program dedicated to staying ahead of increasing fuel and utility costs and in doing so, keep down the impact on tuition and wages.

One recently completed energy conservation project, for example, will save over $2,250,000 annually in utility and operations costs with simple payback of only eight years. This will yield a total saving of $18,000,000.

In order to better understand current levels of environmental impact and provide benchmarking for goal-setting, UT Arlington completed a Carbon Footprint Analysis in 2008. Led by Jeff Howard, assistant professor in the School of Urban and Public Affairs, the analysis took months of research conducted by graduate students and facilities personnel alike. With the completion of the project, UT Arlington became the second of only two Texas universities to complete such an analysis. The results indicated that over 85% of the carbon generated by the University currently comes from energy use in buildings.

Since then, UT Arlington has procured long-term utility contracts in partnership with several other universities that helped contain building-related costs. Additionally, the University has worked with Siemens Building Technologies (Siemens) to perform energy and infrastructure analysis of the campus facilities. The analysis identified 18 opportunities for “Energy Cost Reduction Measures (ECRMs),” which are facility improvements with the most potential for energy and operations savings while improving overall occupant comfort. Some of these ECRMs will include the addition of a new 4,000 ton satellite chilled water plant, transformer upgrades, comprehensive lighting retrofits, occupancy sensors, air handling unit replacement, high efficiency motor upgrades, and HVAC improvements to several buildings on campus (including the Arlington Regional Data Center, NanoFab lab building, Swift Center, Maverick Stadium and the Wetsel building).

Additional programs for energy conservation have been made possible through external partnerships. The City of Arlington and TXU, for example, each donated one hundred trees which have been planted throughout the campus. UT Arlington is working with several energy service companies, the State Energy Conservation Office and the APPA Lone Star Program to pursue grants and loans for additional energy conservation. The ECRMs will continue to provide excellent simple paybacks, and several will qualify for the Texas and TXU Rebate Program Guidelines. Through these efforts and others, UT Arlington saves critical resources and operates with environmental, ethical and fiscal responsibility.

Master Plan

Environmental sustainability is one of the guiding principles found in UT Arlington’s Master Plan. The University respects and is informed by the existing natural regional systems in the use of native plant materials, climate responsive outdoor spaces, and good stewardship of water. View the campus master plan >

Taking the LEED

As a part of the University’s commitment to sustainability as outlined in the campus Master Plan, the new Engineering Research Building and the Special Events Center will include many sustainability elements — such as energy management systems, daylight harvesting, capturing rainwater for irrigation, and more — in an effort to achieve, at minimum, LEED Silver certification.

Empowering Individual Commitment to Sustainability

Learn about the many ways UT Arlington students, faculty and staff are working together to create opportunities to live and work a little greener every day.

Topics include:
What I Can Do – Dining Services – Facebook – Facilities Maintenance Requests – Information Technology and Green Computing – Maverick Office Green Team – Online and Virtual Meeting Tools – Parking and Shuttles – Printing – Purchasing Green – Recycling and Composting – Green Student Organizations – and a directory of Community, State and National Expertise