Spotlight On: Green Buckeyes
October is Campus Sustainability Month! We sat down with Tom Reeves and Carlos Lugo of Student Life’s Energy Management and Sustainability to hear about what their department does to make Ohio State a more sustainable campus.
What does Student Life Energy Management and Sustainability do?
Tom Reeves: Our office oversees all energy and sustainability-related initiatives for the Office of Student Life. We get a lot of direction from the university as it relates to Ohio State’s sustainability goals, but then we work with students and student organizations to bring sustainability to the students and meet them on their level.
Carlos Lugo: We are here as a resource for students. No matter what their background is — their major, their student organizations — there is an opportunity for them related to sustainability. We work to connect them to those opportunities.
How do you make all of this happen?
Tom: Two ways — educational programming and building infrastructure improvements. We look for ways to make our buildings more energy efficient and ways to make things very visual for students to understand the impacts of the decisions that they are making.
Carlos: Throughout the year, there are opportunities throughout residence halls and other Student Life buildings where we bring educational programs and recycling information events. We support students through Campus Sustainability Month in October and during Time for Change Week in April. We try to help students from all across the university get involved with a sustainability initiative on campus.
What do you love most about your work?
Carlos: Our students. We work with many of them from the time they’re a freshman here at Ohio State. We see them develop — they participate in conferences, get involved in various student organizations and implement projects on campus. To me that’s the most exciting part of this job — watching students grow and discover that they can make a difference here on campus.
Tom: I would have to echo Carlos — it’s our students that are so amazing here at Ohio State. I’m a teacher by trade, a teacher at heart, and I love that I get involved in teaching students outside of the classroom, helping them understand how the real world works outside of their majors. I cherish the conversations we have with students about life and advice. We get to see our students grow here on campus, and then see the successes they’re realizing after they graduate. It’s just an amazing feeling.
Thanks to Tom and Carlos for giving us the opportunity to share their extraordinary work with Energy Management and Sustainability!
