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With the publication of the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, more than 1,100 school survey responses from over 300 institutions are now available online. In total, these surveys offer more than 10,000 pages of data collected from colleges and universities during the summer of 2009. To access surveys from other schools, go to the surveys section of the website. To see grades, or to access additional surveys submitted by this school, please click the "Back to Report Card" link at the beginning or end of the survey.
Name: Meredith Atwood, Lindsay Ehrhart, and Lauren Sabo
Position (in student organization): Former President, Former Communications/PR Chair, and Current President (respectively)
Date survey submitted: June 25, 2009
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
1) Please describe the student-run campus environmental/sustainability organization in which you have a leadership role.
Name of organization: Green Team
Number of active members: ~20
Website: Not our website, but shows some campus sustainability efforts: http://www.denison.edu/about/sustainability.html
Date of last meeting: April 28, 2009
Frequency of meetings: Once a week throughout the school year
Key issues addressed and programs implemented since August 2008: Water Wars, Energy Wars, Sustainability policies on campus and implementation, improved recycling containers and increased awareness, began a shoe recycling program, and observed Earth Week including a recycled fashion show and campus celebration.
Progress made on each issue/program since August 2008:
- Water Wars – winning dorm reduced water consumption 44%.
- Energy Wars – results TBA in fall.
- Earth Week- an annual week-long celebration that this year included:
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Recycled fashion show: over 150 people attended
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Movie viewing of Flow (about the global water crisis)
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Outdoor campus celebration, including water quality tests and a bottled/ tap water taste test (where students actually preferred the taste of tap water)!
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“Green” buffets in the dining halls for Earth Day (greater use of local, organic, and vegetarian options).
- Recycling- more outdoor recycling bins were made available and indoor recycling bins have been added to classrooms and more have been added to computer labs. Increased recycling of aluminum cans through the “party bag” campaign.
- Shoe Recycling Program- made special bins which are placed in our student union and athletic facility to collect used shoes which are donated to a Soles4Souls collection agency in Columbus, as well as through the Nike recycled playground chip program.
- Paper reduction- paper allowances were instituted campus-wide, which involves a limit on the amount of paper we can print without an additional charge (double-sided costs less than single-sided). There are also now print-release stations, which reduces unwanted print jobs. These combined measures have cut down paper usage by 25%.
- Sustainability in governance-
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Sustainability Coordinator position passed and search committee in full force; position to be filled for fall 2009.
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Sustainability Committee that includes student, faculty, and staff members was also passed, which will also begin fall 2009.
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES AND COMPETITIONS
2) Does your group organize any sustainability challenges/competitions for your campus and/or with other colleges?
[ ] No
[ X] Yes. Please list details for each competition.
#1 - Name of competition: Water Wars
Year initiated: 2007
Frequency of competition: Once per year in October
Participants: All campus residence halls (virtually every student as Denison is 100% residential)
Incentives: Winning dorm gets the money they saved on water back to put into a dorm activity or a dorm improvement (e.g. pizza party, purchase new microwave, etc.)
Goal of competition: Reduce water consumption!
Percent of energy/water/waste reduced: In previous years, we compared water usage between September and October of the same year, but this September we experienced a huge storm that knocked out power and water in some dorms. So instead, we compared water usage over the Octobers of the past three years. Overall, there was a 3% reduction in water use, but the results for different dorms ranged from increasing water use to decreasing use by 44%!
Lasting effects of competition: Not documented, but we hope for an overall decrease in water usage from previous years! We educated the entire campus about water use through tables in the student union to residential assistant programming in the dorms to fliers in the bathrooms.
Website: N/A
#2 - Name of competition: Energy Wars
Year initiated: 2008
Frequency of competition: Once a year in either February (2008) or April (2009)
Participants: In 2008, it was just Denison. In 2009, it was an intra-school competition between Denison, Oberlin, and Wooster.
Incentives: To beat the other schools
Goal of competition: To reduce energy consumption.
Percent of energy/water/waste reduced: TBA
Lasting effects of competition: hopefully reducing energy consumption year round – we raised a lot of awareness through tabling, posters, and residential life staff in the dorms.
Website: N/A
SUSTAINABILITY IN STUDENT GOVERNMENT
3) Does your student government include a specific position or committee dedicated to campus sustainability issues?
[ X] No – but a new Sustainability Committee has been formed, which will have 3 student seats on it.
[ ] Yes. Please describe:
OTHER ACTIVITIES
4) Please describe any additional campus sustainability activities or projects that you or your group has initiated at your school:
We celebrate National Recycling Day in the fall, where we have an event at our on-campus coffee house and also chalk the campus to raise awareness. We also host Earth Week every April, where we collaborate with other earth-friendly organizations to sell plants, fair-trade chocolate, tie-dye, and promote any environmental projects. This year, we focused on water and showed “Flow,” a documentary about the water crisis. We then did water quality tests between bottled water and tap water, which we presented at our Earth Week celebration. At the celebration, held outdoors on our academic quad, we held a water taste test between bottled water and tap water for students, faculty, and staff. We also host a recycled fashion show during Earth Week, which draws over 150 people and we had 12 models.
We have also been working with the dining halls to improve sustainability. They have been doing a great job offering more vegan and vegetarian options, as well as purchasing local and organic foods. There is definitely room for improvement, but it is moving in the right direction. We also are in the second year of our composting program, which allows Denison to compost all pre-consumer food waste on-campus using a turned windrows system. This was a student initiative that Green Team was involved in.
5) Please list and briefly describe any other student-run organizations related to campus sustainability at your school, and provide URLs if available (e.g., student groups; student government committees; student-run food co-ops, gardens/farms, bike co-ops) and provide contact information of the student leaders, if possible:
Denison Progressive Alliance
Denison University Biological Society
Fair Trade Alliance
Garden for Hope
Denison Homestead – http://student-orgs.denison.edu/homestead/
Denison Sustainability with links to many pages: http://www.denison.edu/about/sustainability.html
Questions 6 is for informational purposes only; your response will NOT be included in the Report Card evaluation process.
6) Please list any regional or national networks with which your group is affiliated (e.g., Energy Action Coalition/Campus Climate Challenge, Sierra Student Coalition, a state PIRG, a state student sustainability coalition):
- Campus Climate Challenge
- Sierra Student Coalition
- Ohio Student Environmental Coalition
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