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INSPIRING CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY The Greening of University of South Alabama Changes Lives by Meredith Montgomery
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s the country experienced economic decline during the Great Recession, global studies warned that green initiatives on a corporate level would be put on hold. However, in many cases, the pressure to cut spending actually initiated environmental efficiency as demonstrated by the formation of University of South Alabama’s (USA) Sustainability Committee in 2010. “We formed the committee to improve sustainability and resiliency around campus and initially our emphasis was on energy conservation as a way to reduce resource consumption and spending,” says one of the committee’s founders, Associate Professor and Assistant Director of University Honors Doug Marshall. The team of faculty and students launched awareness campaigns to educate students about the impacts of things such
as leaving electronic devices plugged in overnight and leaving lights on in unoccupied rooms. “On an individual basis, these are small amounts of energy being wasted, but as a campus, this consumption adds up to be substantial,” says Marshall. The committee also developed the Jag Bikes program to encourage students to bike instead of drive. Currently, there are about 30 bikes being checked out each semester by students, for a nominal cost. In recent years the sustainability movement on campus has made huge leaps as the motivation evolved beyond the need to save money. For the past year, the committee’s biggest focus has been on the expansion of the university’s recycling program. Angela McGaugh, a member of the Sustainability Committee and the President of the student Sustainability Council notes, “Recycling bins used to
Food Recovery Network unites students on college campuses to fight food waste and hunger by recovering perishable food that would otherwise go to waste from their campuses and communities and donating it to people in need. ~FoodRecoveryNetwork.org 20
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be easy to miss and students didn’t know there was a program, but now everyone is more aware and educated about recycling because of the committee’s efforts.” A year ago, as a sophomore, McGaugh helped initiate a partnership between USA and the new Mobile Recycling Center, which is operated by the Goodwill Easter Seals. Previously, only plastic bottles and paper were collected on campus. Now there is an on-site recycling shed for the collection of paper, cardboard, aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles, batteries, printer cartridges and most plastics. Goodwill Easter Seals regularly picks up the collected materials to sell to recycling companies and the school allows them to retain the profit to fund their operations. Before this partnership, it cost USA money to recycle; the Recycling Center is now using this partnership as a model in hopes of working with other colleges in the area. Another valuable initiative is the university’s Food Recycling Program, which diverts food waste from the solid waste system and landfill by composting the dining hall’s produce scraps and salad bar leftovers. Students, faculty and community members can also donate their food waste to the composting site at the Food Bayou, the school’s first community garden. Since last spring, the Food Bayou project has been engaging students in organic and sustainable growing practices. The harvest of vegetables, fruit and herbs are given to garden volunteers and donated to the Salvation Army through the Food Recovery Program. USA’s Food Recovery Network (FRN) Program, the first chapter in the state, is part of a national movement to divert wasted food to those in need. Students from the Sustainability Council pick up remaining food items from four satellite