Green Gator of the Month: Kole Ade-Odutola
February 2025
Written by Sustainable UF Intern Jessica Cohen
Each month, the Office of Sustainability will feature members of the University of Florida community who are making a sustainable impact daily. Keep reading to meet our featured student for February!
Meet Kole Ade-Odutola
Dr. Kole Ade-Odutola is a Senior Lecturer at UF in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He has a deep passion for sustainability, culture, and art.
Dr. Ade-Odutola is committed to promoting sustainability in his life at UF and in his day-to-day habits!
Is There Culture in Architecture?
Have you seen Dr. Ade-Odutola walking on campus with a group of students?
Chances are, he’s giving his special version of a campus tour.
Dr. Ade-Odutola shows his students real-life, on-campus examples that sustainability is not only essential but everywhere.
In the classroom, he teaches students how to recognize environmental features within the built environment and how to examine accessibility in his Quest course, Is There Culture in Architecture? (IDS 2935).
Dr. Ade-Odutola guides students to look beyond the physical aspects of buildings or design and instead recognize the sustainability, history, and identity behind them.
Because of this, UF students of all disciplines are learning to apply sustainability in unique new ways!
Choosing Green Habits
Outside of work, Dr. Ade-Odutola implements eco-friendly practices in his day-to-day life. His core green habits are:
- Use the Gainesville RTS bus system daily
- Conserve natural resources and energy
- Live alongside nature
- Carpool with colleagues to minimize carbon emissions.
By focusing on these philosophies every day, Dr. Ade-Odutola believes he is simply holding up his end of a necessary relationship.
He shares, “I believe that if we are kind to nature, it will be kind to us in return.”
His philosophy extends to conservation as well. For example, when you conserve natural resources and do not overconsume goods, you can lower your carbon footprint and increase the availability of resources for others.
Dr. Ade-Odutola hopes to spread the importance of interconnectedness and sustainability and is happy to connect with anyone interested in learning more!
Submit your recommendation for a student, faculty, or staff member to be featured in a future Green Gator of the Month article!
