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By UNT News Service, North Texas e-News, Dec. 17, 2009
DENTON (UNT), Texas — Commencement ceremonies honoring the accomplishments of about 2,800 students will be held Dec. 18 and 19 (Friday and Saturday) on the University of North Texas campus. This fall, 2,256 undergraduate students applied for December graduation, in addition to 478 master's students and 59 doctoral students.
While the students walking across the stage this December may look similar to students from previous years, there will be one notable difference: some of this year’s students will be wearing biodegradable gowns.
Offered through the UNT Bookstore, the Jostens Elements Collection graduation gowns will decompose in soil in one year. The acetate fabric fiber of the gowns is made from natural wood sourced from renewable forests. In addition, the zipper is made from fully recycled polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic typically used for consumer goods like soft drink bottles. The packaging of the gowns also contains materials from ECM BioFilms, which makes it easier for the bag to decompose.
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Going green for graduation: UNT students wear biodegradable gowns
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Western Washington wins green cleaning award
By DAVE GALLAGHER, THE BELLINGHAM HERALD, Dec. 1, 2009
Western Washington University has won the 2009 Green Cleaning Grand Award for Schools and Universities from American School and University magazine, the top award given in the category nationally.
"We're honored to receive this prestigious award and to be recognized as the national leader in green cleaning. We work hard every year to make our cleaning practices more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and are always seeking ways to improve - and I think that shows in awards such as these," said Tim Wynn, WWU's director of Facilities Management in a press release. "The hard work of our cleaning staff has really paid off."
The award is sponsored by American School and University magazine, The Green Cleaning Network, and Healthy Schools Campaign.
WWU's Academic Custodial Services has been a "green" department for the last six years and has been on the nationally recognized leading edge in the green-cleaning movement for the past nine years. The department has divested itself of petrochemical cleaning products and has begun using compostable trash liners with a goal of reducing the university's waste stream to zero in a few years.
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Uw-Stout takes initiative on 'green' food packaging
Move will save energy, reduce carbon dioxide
By Pamela Powers, Leader-Telegram, Nov. 30, 2009
MENOMONIE - UW-Stout's University Dining Services started the semester working toward going more "green."
The service switched to commercially compostable packaging for all food and beverages served in disposable containers.
All of the products used in the university's residence dining halls for take-out food are compostable.
In the university's nine dining retail operations, more than 80 percent of the packaging has been replaced with materials that are compostable.
This includes cutlery, hot and cold cups and lids, plates, hot and cold bowls, straws and clamshell-style hinged containers.
Some packaging is made from corn starch or a material reclaimed from sugar cane, said Ann Thies, director of dining services.
It costs about 60 cents total for a hinged container, a cup and cover, and cutlery, about twice the cost of Styrofoam and plastic, Thies said.
The extra cost is passed on to the people buying take-out food in the cafeteria. In the dining retail areas, the extra expense also is built into pricing.
While the compostable products cost more, their production uses less energy and produces less carbon dioxide compared with the traditional Styrofoam and plastic.
Using a program developed by Eco-Products of Colorado, the primary supplier of compostable packaging, UW-Stout has estimated it will save 2,755 gallons of gasoline and 27,146 pounds of greenhouse gases this school year by not using petroleum-based products.
"From my perspective, it is an important first step," said Sarah Rykal, UW-Stout environmental sustainability coordinator.
The next step will be to find a commercial compost site, which the university hopes to accomplish by January, Thies said. University officials met last month with a waste hauler about the project.
Currently the compostable items are going to a landfill, where they will not turn into compost.
When composting begins, the materials can be reused as ground cover for soil.
Powers can be reached at 715-556-9018 or pamela.powers@ecpc.com.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
A Surge of Student Involvement
Those involved with the Associated Students of the University of Arizona have initiated a composting program, and are involved in a range of other efforts on campus to promote sustinability efforts.
By Lew Serviss, UANews.org, Nov. 23, 2009
On Veterans Day, when classes were adjourned and many buildings were dark, three environmentally conscious students gathered shortly after 2 p.m. in an aromatic corner of the Student Union Memorial Center basement to weigh kitchen garbage.
Lesley Ash, sustainability director for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, found their quarry: a garbage can whose lid bore the warning: ASUA Compost, Do Not Touch. Inside were assorted kitchen scraps with a dusting of coffee grounds.
Alex Harris, a sophomore chemical engineering student, hoisted the can onto a scale and Jennifer Tobin, a senior chemical engineering student, read it off: 109 pounds.
The exercise, "a waste audit," was repeated at 9 p.m. After about three weeks of weighing the offerings, the students will have an idea of the amount of compost volume and the capacity of the composter they'll need to buy to begin a student-run composting program. Ash said the projection was that the various Student Union kitchens would produce two tons of compostable food waste a day. This day was especially light because of the holiday.
"We would divert several hundred tons of waste annually," said Ash, a veterinary science senior. She said estimates were that the program could save the University almost $80,000 a year in tipping fees. A small percentage of the compost will be used on campus and the rest will be sold in bulk for bioremediation purposes at the mines or to consumers, she said.
The composting program is just one of eight groups working under the banner of sustainability for the ASUA. Participation has soared from a year ago, Ash said. Her composting group has grown to eight students, each working fours hours a week, from largely just herself a year ago.
This year, more than 50 students have joined the sustainability program as interns – receiving some sort of academic credit – compared to 15 active volunteers a year ago, she said. In fact, there's a waiting list.
The response has been gratifying. "Part of it is to make a measurable difference on campus," Ash said, "but what really drives me is to see students who didn't know about environmental sustainability at the end of the day say, ‘Oh my gosh, I really can make a difference.' It's really cool to see that switch in a student."
In addition to the composting project, the ASUA sustainability program has seven other teams: General Sustainability, Sage Fund, Education/Outreach, Athletics, Garden in the Desert, Solar Dorm Initiative and Earth Day.
The Solar Dorm group is working to install a cogeneration, solar and hot water system on the roof of Posada San Pedro. "We hope to set up live energy monitoring so it would be a good comparative study," Ash said. "From a practical standpoint, we're hoping to save students money" in lower dorm costs.
The Garden in the Desert group was expected to break ground in November for a demonstration and productive garden of native plants at Udall Plaza, Ash said. "The idea is to expand to a larger productive garden where the produce grown would be sold to the Student Union, which would in turn generate compost in a closed-loop cycle," she said.
The General Sustainability group has taken "this really interesting direction," she said. One of their projects is to develop a multilayer interactive map of sustainability elements on campus. "We could give input to campus planners." Students tracked bicycle thefts, mapped high-theft areas and recommended changes to combat theft. "People will ride bikes, hopefully, if there's less of a probability that they will be stolen," Ash said.
The General Sustainability group will also map water flow from campus roofs to identify sites for water harvesting.
The Sage Fund is staffed by interns, Ash explained, but provides seed money to campus sustainability programs independent of the ASUA. The fund was set up that way so that it would not be impeded by a less sustainability-minded ASUA administration, she said.
"Ideally the purpose is the grant cycle, where not just students but faculty can apply for a grant or loan that involved sustainability." The money comes from fundraising, teamed up with the alumni foundation and UA Cares. They're seeking other partnerships as well. "We're seeing where this leads."
The Athletics team has taken on the challenge of trying to establish the carbon footprint of the athletics program.
Education/Outreach is working with elementary and junior high schools near the campus to develop a sustainability curriculum. The group has produced sustainable fashion shows called "Project Greenway," which feature recycled and used clothing to demonstrate "you can be sustainable and be fashionable at the same time," Ash said. "Actually, some of the recycled clothing looked pretty cool."
Ash said she hopes the increasing student involvement signals a change in culture. "It's bringing to a peak in recognition that this is important," she said, "and that ideally it won't regress but it will become second nature." She said a significant number of freshmen have become involved. "They have very original ideas."
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Students participate in composting programs
BY MARCY MIRANDA, coloradoan.com, Nov. 16, 2009
Students at Lesher IB World Middle School are learning a lesson in waste and recycling: If it was ever alive, it's compostable.
Lesher is one of two Poudre School District schools participating in composting pilot programs, said John Holcombe, the district's environmental and safety coordinator.
Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School has also been trying to reduce its impact on landfills by sorting its waste into compostable material.
"Composting is more sustainable," Holcombe said.
Lesher began its program in September and Kinard in October. Both average between 60 and 90 pounds of compost per day, Holcombe said.
Many everyday items that are not recyclable are compostable, said Annie Carey, marketing director for Clean Air Compost, which is working with Lesher.
Students have been learning items such as egg shells, vegetable peelings, paper towels and coffee grinds can be broken down instead of dumped in a landfill, she said.
Larger composting facilities that use heat to break down materials are also able to break down items not typically recommended for home composting, such as toilet paper rolls, corn-based containers, cups, disposable silverware and meat bones, Carey said.
Her company is also working with several restaurants in town, collecting their compost in an attempt to reduce waste.
"If you think of the volume of food waste, leftovers, cardboard boxes, they can significantly reduce their trash volumes and reduce their trash bill, their cost of compost," she said.
Holcombe was approached by Clean Air Compost, which asked about the possibility of setting up a composting program with the school district. Before taking it districtwide, Holcombe randomly chose Lesher as a pilot site. After getting approval from the principal, the cafeteria added a third waste bin to collect compost.
Students separate their lunch waste into recycling, composting and trash. The compost bin is equipped with a rack and a vent to separate and air out the water from the material, Carey said.
Each day, a different student serves as compost monitor, said Wiley Cate, a counselor at Lesher. Monitors help keep trash, recyclable and compostable material separate and educate their fellow classmates about composting.
"We've been having kids learn about composting and how it really lessens the amount of trash we put into the dump," Cate said. "I know our custodian said it's been cut significantly."
Carey said 18,000 pounds of compost have been picked up from Lesher since September.
At Kinard, the school's environmental group has a worm compost to help reduce the amount of garbage they created, Holcombe said. The success of the worm composting program was so great, the group realized it had more compost than it could feed the worms.
The school approached Holcombe to see if they could also participate in a composting program.
"We are trying all kinds of different things to try and divert the food from landfills," he said.
Holcombe hopes to add a third school to the composting program in January.
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