A new garden providing fresh produce to Dining Services.

Further reductions in the amount of food scraps and other waste, including an eye-popping amount of paper towels, that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ sends to the landfill.

More efficient water usage in Merrill Gym — and easier access to drinking water in Carnegie Science Hall.

Proposed by students, staff, and faculty, these are some of the sustainability projects that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ Green Innovation Grant program is supporting this year. Eight awards, some as large as $2,000, were approved late last semester to fund the campus initiatives.

“We want to reward folks for being innovative and impactful. Those are the criteria that we’re most looking for,” says Tom Twist, GIG administrator and the college’s sustainability manager.

Vetted by the steering committee of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ Committee on Environmental Responsibility, the grants not only boost green practices on campus, but, as Twist says, “help students in particular, but also staff and faculty, feel ownership of sustainability on campus.”

Jake O’Hara ’21 of Milford, Conn., is one of a team of students who received a Green Innovation Grant to recycle gloves used in science labs. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Now in its second year, the GIG program came barreling out of the gate in 2016–17 with proposals that included a reusable mug program that has eliminated the 750,000 disposable paper cups that used to pass through Commons every year.

Among the current crop of GIG projects, the proposal from Nell Houde ’18 of Meriden, N.H., for a new vegetable garden may be the most uplifting. Houde, who is partnering with Dining Services, received a $1,885 GIG that will pay for tools, seeds, and other startup supplies. (Dining Services has run an herb garden adjacent to Commons for some years.)

Occupying about a quarter-acre of a plot near campus, the garden will present “a sustainable model of food production,” albeit on a small scale, says Houde. In addition to annual vegetables, the plot will likely support fruit trees and other perennials. “We will definitely be practicing-organic!” Houde says.

A Green Innovation Grant awarded to Nell Houde ’18 will be used to start a garden that will supply vegetables to Dining Services. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Dining Services will not only reimburse the garden program for produce but pay for summer interns to work the plot. During the school year, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ EcoReps, members of the college’s student sustainability corps, will work the garden. “Farming happens best when there’s a community of people invested in it,” says Houde, whose experience includes a stint with the local Lots to Gardens urban agriculture program.

As in the first round of GIG funding, the new awards emphasize waste reduction through varied means — composting, recycling, and directing consumer habits away from single-use products.

Also like last year’s, some current projects will result from collaborations among people who individually proposed projects that have overlapping goals. This year’s eight grants, in fact, are responses to 12 group or individual applications.

The Maine firm Johnny’s Selected Seeds is one of the suppliers Nell Houde ’18, pictured in a college greenhouse, will use for the new ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ garden she’s planning. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Last year, for example, several proposals addressed that goal of eliminating paper cups. But instead of cherrypicking one or two proposals, the committee asked all applicants with a paper-cup proposal to collaborate on devising a single solution — which, in the event, was to give every student a so-called personal reusable container as a substitute for paper.

With campus-wide compost collection now in its second year, four of the current GIG proposals aim to increase campus composting of food waste (as well as paper towels, which can be composted in limited quantities).

“So we’re doing something similar to last year,” Twist says. “We gave the compost goal $2,000, and we’re arranging for all of those folks” — students and Advancement staff, in this case — “to meet and sort out their ideas.” Composting on campus has “a lot of moving parts, and so the more people thinking and talking about it, the better.”

“Being innovative and impactful — those are the criteria that we’re most looking for.”

The individual compost-themed proposals ranged from simply increasing the number of compost receptacles on campus to hiring a student, equipped with an adult tricycle, to bring compost bins to a central pickup location for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ composting company, We Compost It! of Auburn. “That would save us a lot of money,” says Twist.

Other winning GIGs aimed at waste-reduction? On behalf of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Chemical Society, Nathanael Kuzio ’19 of Moretown, Vt., received $600 to implement a system in Dana Chemistry Hall for recycling used nitrile gloves. The society has engaged of Trenton, N.J., which specializes in processing such hard-to-recycle products as pens, chip bags, and cigarette butts.

Similarly, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ Admission office uses a Keurig machine to brew beverages for the many prospective students and families who visit. One result of this hospitality is a mess of K-Cups going into the waste stream, something that has caught the attention of visitors.

Some ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ dormitories will soon sport new resource-conserving hand dryers like these Dyson Airblades in Kalperis Hall. (Doug Hubley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

So Sherry St. Amant, Admission office manager and assistant to the dean, won a $400 GIG to enroll in Keurig Green Mountain’s program, which sells bins for collecting and returning spent K-Cups to the manufacturer. “Grounds to Grow On separates the coffee or tea grounds from the cups,” St. Amant explains. “The grounds are composted and the pods are used to produce energy.”

While some GIG recipients are pondering how to gather used restroom paper towels for recycling, another seeks to boot the towels altogether. Olivia LaMarche ’20 of Lynnfield, Mass., and Adair Andre ’18 of Edina, Minn., submitted separate proposals for expanding ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ complement of high-speed electric hand dryers in one or more dorms.

LaMarche points out that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, every year, runs through about 750 cases of paper towel rolls and 110 cases of folded, single-sheet towels — all told, about four million feet linear feet of towels. “Our recycling facility, Casella Waste Systems, no longer accepts paper towels because they are too expensive to recycle in large quantities, so the majority of them are sent to the Lewiston landfill,” she says.

High-speed dryers like the Dyson Airblades that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ already uses in a few buildings “are without a doubt more in the long term,” Andre says. But they’re expensive up front: LaMarche and Andre’s final project will likely result in only three new installations.

Thanks to a Green Innovation Grant awarded to two members of the physics department, denizens of Carnegie Science Hall will be able to both refill reusable bottles and drink directly at a chilled water station like this Elkay model in Kalperis Hall. (Doug Hubley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Meanwhile, Matt Jadud, Colony Family Professor of Digital and Computational Studies, received a $250 GIG to pilot an open-source energy-sensor project that will tie into the existing network for monitoring the interior warmth of campus buildings. It’s hoped, Twist explains, that Jadud and his students can beat the high cost of commercial sensors.

Finally, two projects take on water issues. Nicole Hastings, assistant in instruction in the physics department, and physics professor John Smedley received a $900 GIG for a water-bottle refilling station in Carnegie Science Hall, as there’s not enough clearance in the sinks and bubblers to fill today’s tall bottles. And Joanna Vollrath ’21 of Menlo Park, Calif., will use about $900 in GIG funds to replace all 60 shower heads in Merrill Gym with high-efficiency models.

One sweet aspect to the Green Innovation Grants, as Twist points out, is that the program itself was paid for by green innovation: The $10,000 annual GIG budget is funded from savings achieved as ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, under the initiative of energy manager John Rasmussen, has dramatically reduced its energy consumption budget in recent years — from a high of approximately $4 million annually to the current $3 million.

GIG, says Twist, has “been a really successful project, and one that really gives students a lot of momentum in terms of getting their hands dirty and changing the sustainability culture of the campus. We’ll see how it goes, but I think it’s been really effective so far.”

Green Innovation Grants awarded for 2017–18

Additional compost collection bins could be stationed around campus as the result of a Green Innovation Grant. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Proposals (two combined): Install high-speed hand dryers in dorms
Submitted by: Olivia LaMarche ’20 and Adair Andre ’18
Amount awarded: $2,000
Goal: Reduce use of paper towels

Proposals (four combined): Expand compost collection (and paper towel recycling) on campus
Submitted by: Lori Larsson, Eileen Messina, Sarah Bernard (staff); Heather Fear (staff); Elizabeth Colcannon ’21; Kenza Nadifi ’21
Amount awarded: $2,000
Goal: Reduce ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ waste stream through composting

Proposal: Create new ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ garden
Submitted by: Nell Houde ’18
Amount awarded: $1,885
Goal: Create a sustainable source of fresh produce for Dining Services

Proposal: Replace shower heads in Merrill Gym with low-flow models
Submitted by: Joanna Vollrath ’21
Amount awarded: $900
Goal: Save water

Proposal: Water bottle filling station in Carnegie Science Hall
Submitted by: Nicole Hastings and John Smedley, physics department
Amount awarded: $900
Goal: Reduce use of disposable water bottles and encourage healthy hydration

Proposal: Recycle single-use lab gloves in Dana Chemistry Hall
Submitted by: ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Chemical Society
Amount awarded: $600
Goal: Reduce disposable gloves going into waste stream

Proposal: Process spent K-Cups through Grounds to Grow On program
Submitted by: Sherry St. Amant, Admission office
Amount awarded: $400
Goal: Improve Admission visitor experience and reduce K-Cups going into waste stream

Proposal: Pilot project for ubiquitous temperature sensing
Submitted by: Matt Jadud, Digital and Computational Studies
Amount awarded: $250
Goal: Create temperature sensors to support campus heating control

If you’re asking people to behave sustainably and sort their trash as they throw it away, it’s only fair to make their choices as clear as possible.

“Apparently people decide where they’re going to put their trash when they’re about five to 10 feet away from the bins,” says Tom Twist, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ sustainability manager.

Accordingly, in collaboration with the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Communications design team, Twist has come up with a standardized configuration for waste-sorting stations that’s intended to guide people as they unburden themselves of Snickers wrappers, paper napkins, apple cores, Sanpellegrino cans, etc.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Sustainability Manager Tom Twist poses next to a Pettengill Hall waste-sorting station. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

New compartmented bins in about 30 public locations around ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ are color-coded and marked with signage that, Twist says, is “readily visible from afar.” The signage relies on icons, along with text, to indicate what goes where — recyclables, compostables, returnables, fodder for the landfill, etc.

Fabricated from a material made mostly of recycled plastic milk jugs, the bins are custom-built for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ by a Wisconsin company, Max-R. “I think we have some of the nicest-looking, the most functional bins I’ve ever seen,” Twist says.

The redesign is part of an effort, begun a few years ago under Twist’s predecessor, to get the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community to recycle more of its refuse. As a percentage of the overall waste stream, “our recycling rate is 34 percent,” Twist says, while an estimated 75 percent of all refuse is actually recyclable.

“We’re trying to come up with a reasonable goal for the college,” he explains. “We’re kicking around the idea of getting to 50 percent recycling in the next several years.”

Four ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ EcoReps — Isa Moise ’19 of Mount Vernon, N.Y., Beanie O’Shea ’18 of Somers, Conn., Hannah Slattery ’18 of Gilford, N.H., and George Fiske ’19 of West Hartford, Conn. — show off one of the college’s new waste-sorting stations, in Pettengill Hall. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Recycling is a question of folding green as much as sustainability green, Twist adds. It costs ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ about half as much to dispose of the recyclable portion of its refuse as it does to send non-recyclables to the Lewiston landfill.

In fiscal year 2016, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ paid about $60–80 for each of the 267 tons of trash that went to the landfill. In contrast, it cost about $35 per ton for the 138 tons of recycling that went to Casella Recycling Service.

“It’s not that people are intentionally not sorting their stuff,” says Olivia LaMarche ’20 of Lynnfield, Mass. She’s involved in the waste-stream program as a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ EcoRep. “It’s just that they’re really not sure what can be recycled, or they’re not positive whether a bin is for recycling or trash.”

The new system is designed to minimize such uncertainty. Hence the standardized bin colors and icons, and the distilling of the icons for maximum clarity.

“We have thought about everything down to the minutest detail, in terms of social engineering,” says Twist.

The new waste-receptacle system broadens compost collection beyond Dining Services for the first time at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

For instance, “we intentionally made the recycling compartment of the bins much larger than the trash side, to send a visual cue that you are supposed to be recycling more than you are throwing out.

“We changed the ‘Trash’ sign to ‘Landfill,’ to get people to pause and think.”

One of the most significant changes with the new system is that it captures food waste — and, perhaps surprisingly, paper napkins and paper towels — for composting.

Of course, the tray return line in Commons and a sorting station in the Bobcat Den have diverted food waste from the landfill for years, but food discarded elsewhere on campus did go to the landfill. Now, thanks to the new sorting stations, much of it can be recovered for composting.

Twist explains, “We’re within six miles of southern Maine’s largest industrial composter,” We Compost It!, which has a processing facility in Auburn. That firm has a pickup service that, similar to non-food ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ recycling, ends up costing about half of landfill disposal. (In FY 2016, the college sent 131 tons of material to be composted or fed to pigs at a local farm.)

A disposal station in the Pettengill Hall lobby is, if you will, the flagship of the compost-ready waste-bin fleet. “That was the first location that had compost collection outside of Dining Services,” Twist says. “It was kind of a nerve-wracking thing to start, since it had been tried before and failed.

“There are few things that go south faster than poorly planned food waste collection.”

“There are few things that go south faster than poorly planned food waste collection.”

Another major advance in the new waste-disposal platform is the capacity to separate liquids from the rest of the refuse — and contain them neatly. This is accomplished with bins that have funnels inset into the top that feed watertight containers, which are emptied down the drain.

Segregating liquids is important for a few different reasons. For one thing, paper or plastic that has gotten wet can’t be recycled. In other words, a quarter-full cup of chai dropped into a recycling bin, says LaMarche, “just ruins the recycling.”

Another reason is aesthetic: It’s simply discouraging to the custodians to deal with trash bags leaking old coffee or milk into the refuse bin or across a freshly mopped floor.

The new waste stations’ liquid-collection system makes life nicer for custodians and helps keep stray liquids from spoiling recyclables. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

In fact, says Twist, the new waste-handling system makes life easier in a variety of ways for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ grounds and custodial crews, the folks on the front lines of refuse collection. “A lot of times it’s just been a pain the neck for them. We’re trying to streamline that, to make it really easy.”

For example, the new bins open in the front for changing the bags. That’s an ergonomic improvement over the old bins, which opened at the top, making custodians lift full bags of trash straight up and over the bin.

“We put casters on them so you can roll them from place to place to clean the floor,” Twist adds. And color-coding extends to the trash bags, to ensure that the refuse remains properly sorted after they’ve been removed from the bins.

With the Max-R sorting stations installed only in public spaces on campus, the new system isn’t comprehensive. In the dorms, especially, a variety of sorting facilities still prevails and there’s a ways to go on upping the percentage of recycling.

But the public stations have been working well, says LaMarche, whose contributions to the effort included obtaining grant money to expand compost collection.

She says, “I’ve learned that every person can have an impact. And so just doing what we’re doing, trying to educate students about what happens to waste, where it goes, where to put their waste — every student we reach in some way can actually make a big difference in the long run.”

Pettengill Hall, where the waste collection stations made their campus debut, is home to several of them. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Judges were particularly impressed with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ initiatives in environmental sustainability, according to Melissa Ezarik, managing editor of University Business, a national business magazine for higher education based in Norwalk, Conn.

“With a full 82 percent of waste diverted from the waste stream through composting, recycling, or a program where waste is sent to a local pig farmer, the building doesn’t even have enough waste to fill a dumpster,” Ezarik said. “So there isn’t one. And nearly one-third of the food budget is spent locally.”

Although the College’s New Dining Commons is a new facility, by student request the seating area maintains the feel of the old Commons. The servery was designed for easy traffic flow, capable of handling 500 or more within 30 to 45 minutes.

“We’re very excited to be recognized for something that is central to the student experience here at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,” said Director or Dining Services Christine Schwartz. “We have a longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, and our new facility has allowed us to enhance our sustainability mission.”

Higher education institutions from across the nation submitted their dining programs for consideration with 65 entries received. Entries were evaluated by three editors and the magazine’s art director (also a college parent) as well as by a recent college grad, a graduate student and Neal A. Raisman, a higher education consultant and former college president.

The Dining Halls of Distinction program reflects excellence in all aspects of dining operations, including atmosphere, service, variety of offerings, guest satisfaction, environmental sustainability and financial stability. Other schools receiving a top designation are Boston University (large private institution); Bucknell University (medium/small private institution); and Virginia Commonwealth University (public institution).