The University of Georgia enrolled over 6,200 first-year students in 2025. The growing freshman classes are exciting, but there may be substantial implications in the sustainability world. The Eco-reps sustainability program has recognized this as an opportunity to educate students on the importance of being environmentally friendly. 

Sadie Eubanks, a second-year Eco-rep, joined the program her freshman year and has made an effort to encourage her peers to learn these habits now. 

“This is, in a way, the last bottleneck before people go out into the world, into all sorts of different careers and lifestyles.” said Eubanks, “I think that if people can learn about sustainability while they're here and then take what they've learned with them, we can get a much farther reach.” 

This education on sustainability is achieved in a multitude of ways: from tabling to student events, the Eco-reps have a full calendar of programming. Arwen Coy, University Housing Sustainability Coordinator, is the organizer of it all. 

“I really love the program,” said Coy, “I think it's great for a first year because it is entry level, and you can get into it if you have a passion. That’s all you need.”

While Eco-reps does accept all levels of students, Coy and Eubanks emphasize the need to start building environmentally friendly habits and educating others as early as possible, and showing peers how to do the same. 

“The Eco reps are green minded student leaders that advocate for sustainable change in their residence halls,” said Coy, “We want them to spread it around campus.”

An initiative that Eco-reps prioritizes is the “Commit to the bin” challenge, where resident halls compete to see which dormitory can recycle the most using the recycling bins provided to each room at move-in. Creating this competitive initiative gives residents an incentive to recycle. 

“A lot of people coming to Georgia don't know how to recycle, don't know what to recycle, don't know the benefits of recycling,” said Eubanks. 

Eco-reps promotes learning how to build healthy habits as a college student so that University of Georgia graduates can enter the work force and encourage sustainability in their adult lives. 

“I think that creating habits when people that are relatively young, is really important,” said Eubanks, “It’s really important to build those habits before people leave and go off on their own.”