Sustainability 101–A Campus Climate Commitment
CMC Alpine Campus Recycling Program
By Dai Kato,
Research Fellow, University of Colorado at Boulder
Former Asst Sustainability Specialist at CMC.
How can a college teach recycling without recycling its own garbage? How can a school teach sustainability without actually practicing sustainability on campus? Colorado Mountain College is developing sustainability programs not only in the classroom but also through sustainable practices on campus.
The CMC Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs has been diligently participating in Waste Management's single-stream recycling program. Setting up new recycle bins, collecting recyclable resources, and promoting more recycling has become a cultural movement at the campus. The Green Team, Students for Sustainability Club, and work-study students are in charge of campus sustainability activity, which includes recycling, student sustainability trips, a sustainability pledge, and developing eco-focused classes. Coming next year, students are planning to participate in an international campus recycling competition called Recycle Mania.
Last year, the Alpine campus purchased a light bulb recycle machine and all light bulbs are now crushed into pieces in order to filter out the harmful mercury and are sent to Arizona where the manufacturer of this machine has a recycling plant. Furthermore, scrap metals and batteries are currently collected by the Physical Plant staff for recycling.
Did you know CMC's diesel loaders are run on recycled waste vegetable oil? Physical Plant staff collect the waste oil from the CMC cafeteria and local restaurants and recycle it into biofuel at the campus. While this has proven effective in the race to sustainability, the cost of such a process remains an economical challenge.
CMC Alpine cafeteria eliminated serving trays to save wash water. It required a small cultural change for people who have been accustomed to using them, but according to a report released by Aramark Higher Education Food Services, a dining company serving about five-hundred schools nationwide, students waste twenty-five to thirty percent less food when they aren't carrying a tray, and dining halls on average save a third to a half-gallon of wash water per tray. The University of Maine at Farmington went trayless in February 2007, reporting an overall reduction in food waste of 65,000 pounds and conservation of 288,288 gallons of water. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech - which implemented a no-tray program in response to the drought of 2007 - estimated that the university saved 3,000 gallons of water per day by giving up the trays. (TIME, Aug 25, 2008)
Last year, Prof. Terry Hunter at the Alpine campus initiated the first Sustainable Lunch at the cafeteria using only local beef and vegetables farmed from within two-hundred miles of Steamboat Springs. The cafeteria's next project is to compost their food waste on campus.
On the education front, Alpine campus has been developing eco-focused classes since 2008. Currently, they offer over fifty eco-focused classes year around. Eco-focused classes are mostly general study classes that have a sustainability twist. For example, English composition classes require students to read materials related to sustainability or ecological topics, thus providing an interesting integration between teaching subject and material in order to add special ecological value to general study classes.
CMC is working to establish an “Office of Sustainability” at the Glenwood Central Service office in order to maintain and develop campus sustainability activities across all seven CMC campuses. To further the success of sustainability programs, CMC is welcoming collaboration with local organizations and community members. Please feel free to communicate with CMC staff, teachers and students to talk about and practice sustainability programs.
Features
The Recycling Issue
Recycling Mythbusters
Sorting and Collecting 101
Conservation-wise Construction
Departments
Decor & Style
Money & Finances