Keep’n It Green Award winners announced

Radford University honored three individuals for their commitment to campus sustainability with the 2018-19 Staff Senate Keep’n It Green awards.
The 2019 Keep’n It Green awards winners are (from left) Karla Colina, Rick Van Noy and Virginia Tinsley.

Radford University honored three individuals for their commitment to campus sustainability with the 2018-19 Staff Senate Keep’n It Green awards.

The University’s Staff Senate sponsors the awards each year to recognize a student, faculty member and staff member who display leadership and dedication in promoting sustainability on campus.

Awards were given to individuals who “go above and beyond the pursuit of these goals,” Sustainability Manager Josh Nease said at the awards presentation held April 24 on Heth Lawn as part of campus Earth Week festivities.

Nease presented the Keep’n It Green awards to:

  • Karla Colina, student award;
  • Rick Van Noy, faculty award; and
  • Virginia Tinsley, staff award.

Colina is a senior a recreational therapy major from Winchester, Virginia. She has served as the Student Government Association (SGA) secretary for sustainability for the past two years. She is a coordinator for the Sustainability Internship Team and leads the Food Recovery Network chapter on campus. Colina directs the SGA’s Bags to Benches program, which collects unwanted plastic grocery bags to recycle into a park bench. The University’s first recycled bench from the program was unveiled April 22.

“Karla has played a vital role with in the Student Government Association around sustainability education,” Nease said.

Van Noy is an English professor at Radford and is an active member of the University’s Sustainability Steering Committee. He has a led a campus-wide effort to develop a Green Leaf sustainability designation for all qualifying courses.

Van Noy recently published his third book, “Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate Changed South,” which features stories of people and places adapting to the impacts of a warmer climate in the southeastern United States. The book “serves as a call to action to mitigate current trends in our environmental degradation,” Nease noted.

Tinsley works as a housekeeper on the third floor of Kyle Hall, home the Davis College of Business and Economics.

“Virginia goes above and beyond in her housekeeping duties in general, but especially with regard to recycling,” Nease said. “For example, she placed and labeled a separate recycling bin into the photocopier room to ensure printing mistakes can be recycled quickly and easily. She is proactive in fixing things to prevent unnecessary expense.”

In addition, Tinsley created fairy gardens, which are constructed from recycled, reused and natural materials and are on display in the marketing/management suite in Kyle Hall.

Staff Senate presented its first Keep’n It Green award in 2011. Criteria is based on one or more of the following: energy and water conservation; waste reduction/recycling; behavior change and/or awareness and economic impact.

The Keep’n It Green award committee accepted online nominations over a four-week period in March and April and “received an enthusiastic response from the campus community,” Nease said.

Each award winner received a certificate framed with recycled California redwood taken from the old Dedmon Center swimming pool. Facilities Management employees Marshall Page and John Graham built the frames, and Jeff Bolin made the plaques.

May 3, 2019
Chad Osborne
540-831-7761
caosborne@radford.edu