As you may have heard, Lawrence has achieved a silver ranking from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). You can see the full report here. This ranking is a reflection of engagement in sustainability efforts across all campus departments. The Sustainability Steering Committee strives to further improve Lawrence’s performance in the next 5 years as detailed in the sustainability strategic plan for operations.
Shortly after the committee was created in 2017, one identified area of weakness was our waste minimization and diversion efforts. We’ve been working towards improvement in the past few years by establishing centralized collection areas using durable, clearly marked containers in each campus building. Last fall recycling bins were added to all student rooms. This year we replaced a dozen dumpsters with two large compactors to handle waste for parts of the campus east of Lawe street. These containers are emptied every few weeks rather than every day, saving wear and tear on campus roads, fuel, and money. A student group, the Lawrence University Environmental Organization, has taken the lead in establishing compost collecting in the major residence halls and many other campus spaces. SLUG and the Food Recovery Network help divert tons of kitchen waste and unserved food from the landfill as well. That said, we still have work to do.
This year we’ve embarked on a campaign to reduce printing of posters, flyers, brochures, and similar items on campus. Each administrative department has been asked to reduce their printing through the print shop by 5%. This effort has most noticeably been led by the conservatory, which has moved to digital programs for most performances. We can build on this success by taking up the challenge of reducing our office printing. Across campus we consume more than 2.5 million pages of copy paper a year. Most of this printing takes place in the academic realm. We therefore ask each instructor to think of ways to reduce printing in their courses by 5%. To help with this goal, Moodle guru Arno Damerow has prepared a short video on how to use Moodle to collect, grade, and return students’ work (it will open as a download in your internet browser). Our colleagues at the library have indicated that we are posting more readings online rather than on reserve, which has resulted in more student printing. We realize that some readings do need to be printed, so we suggest indicating on the syllabus or verbally which readings should be printed for use in class and which readings can be read online. Since the students now have a free-print quota of 1000 double-sided copies a year, efforts on the instructor side to reduce printing will help students stay within their limit and avoid incurring extra expense.
Once again we’d like to reiterate our thanks to the entire campus community in helping with our sustainability efforts. Stay tuned for updates on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day celebration.