Ashes to Ashes, Rice Crispies to Dirt

Collegiate Composting Saves Cafeteria Scraps from the Landfill

College campuses are getting into the composting game. Determined to reduce their "solid waste streams," students and staff are pitching their scraps and left-over lasagna into compost bins.

Ohio University has the largest "in-vessel" composting machine at any college campus. Installing the behemoth composter near their dairy barn has prevented 25% of Ohio University's solid waste from making it to the landfill. Instead, they convert tons of food and landscape waste into nutrient-rich soil in a mere 14 days.

The University of Vermont found that a partnership with a local non-profit business served their composting needs. Students and dining hall staff use food waste bins to separate compostable material from other waste. The scraps are then hauled to a composting facility where they are eventually used by local farmers and gardeners. Every week UVM collects 4.96 tons of food waste to be turned into compost.

Composting is catching on at the University of Washington, too. At UW, students even eat with compost: forks and spoons made of corn that can go right in the compost bin. Composting is so popular, it even generated a fabulous musical:

Spin Me Right Round, Baby:

Appalachian State Captures the Mountain Breezes

Wind energy isn't only for wide-open spaces on the plains. It can be small and successful almost anywhere. App State's wind energy focuses on smaller turbines that can catch even the smallest breeze or the mightiest wind.

With a grant from the Department of Energy, Appalachian State created a "wind map" of North Carolina and found that the state was suitable for wind projects both large and small. They even created detailed county maps for folks in Western North Carolina. It turns out that the western counties have 1 million acres of land with Class 2 or better wind resources. They have set up demonstration stations and will allow people to borrow anemometers (wind-o-meters) to assess whether their homes, farms, or neighborhoods are candidates for small wind power.

Appalachian States' "Wind Working Group" is also getting down to business. They are writing model ordinances for communities eager to include wind energy, demonstrating commercially available wind power that would be suitable for schools, and organizing workshops for groups and individuals interested in wind power.

Kitchen Sink Conservation:

Harvard's Green Skillet

Powering down equipment, high efficiency appliances, and low-flow sprayers are bringing Harvard's cafeterias into the sustainable fold.

The staff at dining services at campuses across the country are not often engaged in reducing institutional carbon footprints -- but they should be. Harvard's Office of Sustainability challenged instituted a competition to reduce energy consumption among the campus kitchens.

The kitchen staff got creative: the winning team reduced energy consumption by 23%. Over 500 kitchen staff participated, and all kitchens met the goal of reducing energy consumption by at least 10%.

Harvard's efforts to build a culture of sustainability is more than just a top-down effort to bankroll lots of LEED-certified structures. The Green Skillet competition is one of a wide range of efforts to use resources efficiently across campus. Two large science complexes on campus were energy hogs until a "Shut the Sash" competition paid labs to close fume hoods. Even in the dining hall, Harvard's crimson has shades of green.