The UW-Green Bay Sustainability Committee has created the sustainability pledge for the 2018-19 academic year. By thoughtfully considering each of the items in this pledge, you might be able to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. Take the pledge. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.
Five new things greet UW-Green Bay students this year
“UW-Green Bay students have a number new things to see and try on campus this school year. From buses to new buildings, bikes and beverages, here are five new things for students, who return to class (this week).” The Press-Gazette has the story.
Video: Garden partners
Campus Garden Intern Libby Schmit and faculty member Debra Pearson (Human Biology, Nutrition Science/Dietetics) take us behind the scenes to the campus gardens. The gardens and hoop house provide more than an opportunity to consume fresh, pesticide free produce. It’s also an applied learning opportunity for students. UW-Green Bay’s Sustainability Committee financially supports the intern each year along with profits made from summer’s veggie sales. Libby helps with harvesting, planting, watering and weeding along with the Wednesday sales. “The goal is just to promote some healthy produce,” Libby says. Watch the video on YouTube.
Fun facts for Earth Day
Yesterday, the world celebrated Earth Day. We have a few fun facts for you about Eco U and how UW-Green Bay works to sustain this beautiful planet:
Did you know that in the last five years, by refilling at hydration stations across campus, the UW-Green Bay community has avoided 782,023 plastic water bottles!
Did you know that the UW-Green Bay community has recycled 435,000 plastic grocery bags since 2014?
Did you know that University Staff has been recycling toner and have kept approximately 3,000 toner cartridges out of landfills since 2011?
Find out more about recycling, here, or contact a member of the Sustainability Committee.
UW-Green Bay achieves silver environmental ranking
With a solid effort from the UW-Green Bay Sustainability Committee, UW-Green Bay is again seeing STARS thanks to a newly confirmed environmental rating of SILVER from a program that measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education. UW-Green Bay has participated in the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System™ (STARS) which measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education. This is a voluntary evaluation process completed every three years in which colleges and universities review their sustainability efforts against the STARS framework.
STARS is designed to:
- Provide a framework for understanding sustainability in all sectors of higher education.
- Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.
- Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability.
- Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance.
- Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.
This framework assigns various levels of credit to topic areas and based on the number of credits accrued, a school achieves a reported bronze, silver, gold or platinum level.
UW-Green Bay’s Sustainability Committee completed its initial STARS review in 2011 and achieved a silver level. In November 2017, UW-Green Bay once again earned a silver level ranking; the third time in a row. This ranking will be used by organizations such as Princeton Review and the Sierra Club to promote the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S., letting students know we are Eco U™.
For more information about the STARS program and to view UW-Green Bay’s rating: UW-Green Bay STARS Report.