RCE North Texas is creating a forum for young adults to discuss sustainability issues. Courtesy of Storyblocks.

July 15, 2022

A year before the pandemic started, a new hub for North Texas sustainability leaders was launched.

It’s called The Regional Center of Expertise North Texas and includes higher education institutions, local businesses and nonprofits as well as municipal, state and federal agencies.

Spearheaded by Meghna Tare, Chief Sustainability Officer for UTA, the group held its inaugural summit virtually last year.

Now organizers want to add a component for local youth, to encourage collaboration on environmental issues.

UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM

The Regional Center of Expertise North Texas is one of 170 centers working on advancing sustainability efforts worldwide. Eleven are located in the United States.

The centers are based on a United Nations University program, designed to bring together regional sustainability experts to reinforce common goals and share best practices.

The program aims to increase education around sustainable development goals developed by the UN.

Local stakeholders narrowed the North Texas group’s focus to a few of the 17 goals, including sustainable communities and climate action.

YOUTH COMPONENT

Now RCE North Texas hopes to connect local young people interested in environmental issues.

Bhargavi Karumuri Jeyarajah, sustainability coordinator for UTA’s Office of Sustainability, will lead the project.

The target age is university students, but organizers will also encourage high schoolers to 30-somethings to participate.

“So the reason why we're interested in creating this Youth Network is we've noticed that just from the two institutions that we work with — UTA and UTD  — we see a lot of student led movements at each of our campuses,” said Jeyarajah. “We also see a lot of overlap and we could really see how students can benefit from networking and getting to know other youth in the North Texas area.”

Their first goal is to create a contact list of youth organizers. There are also plans to launch a newsletter and a social media page so that participants can share information, events and collaborate.

“It's meant to be a little more informal,” said Jeyarajah.

Interested teens and young adults should email Bhargavi.jeyarajah@uta.edu. Include your affiliation with any sustainability organization or club.

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