| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65.38 |
| Liaison | Laurie Husted |
| Submission Date | June 12, 2014 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Bard College
OP-22: Waste Minimization
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.38 / 5.00 |
Laurie
Husted Sustainability Manager Bard Office of Sustainability (BoS) |
Waste generated::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 131 Tons | 167.10 Tons |
| Materials composted | 214 Tons | 250 Tons |
| Materials reused, donated or re-sold | 3 Tons | 1 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 425 Tons | 484.60 Tons |
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of residential students | 1,398 | 1,410 |
| Number of residential employees | 39 | 39 |
| Number of in-patient hospital beds | 0 | 0 |
| Full-time equivalent enrollment | 2,040 | 1,662 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 827.50 | 590 |
| Full-time equivalent of distance education students | 0 | 0 |
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Year | July 1, 2012 | June 30, 2013 |
| Baseline Year | July 1, 2007 | June 30, 2008 |
A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
best (of oldest) year of record keeping.
A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:
A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
Bard College is committed to environmental protection and will seek to the fullest extent possible to purchase environmentally friendly products. This reduces Bard’s waste stream, lowers our energy use and enhances Bard’s reputation. This policy extends to Bard contractors. The following qualities are preferred:
EPA Energy Star ™ labeled products, or equivalent
Durable, as opposed to single use or disposable items
Items made with recycled materials, maximizing ‘post consumer’ content
Non toxic or minimally toxic, preferably biodegradable
Recyclable products, and if not recyclable, can be disposed of safely.
Shipped with minimal packaging (consistent with care of the product), and such packaging that is made of recycled or recyclable materials
Produced locally or within our region
Items designed for longer life or repair
Special Notes:
Bard is committed to buying 100% post consumer content recycled office paper for office use. Bard seeks to avoid or eliminate the purchase of incandescent light bulbs.
Procedures:
When sourcing items, the purchaser should request items with as many of the listed qualities as possible. Bard employees responsible for hiring contractors should communicate this policy. These purchases should be made whenever cost, specifications, standards and availability are comparable to the non-preferred products.
Examples of products that might be included in this policy are office supplies, paper products, building materials, lubricants, remanufactured parts, landscape products.
Recycled paper is encouraged when placing orders for brochures, catalogues, books, letterheads, business cards, etc.
Use reusable products if possible. Examples are ceramic coffee mugs, glass drinking cups, metal silverware, rechargeable batteries, and campus mail envelops.
When preferred products are distributed, special educational efforts should be made to let end users know that they have received a preferred product.
A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
Bard has a FreeUse store which is open 9am-9pm during the regular academic year. Re-usable materials go through the blue bins located at every recycling & re-use station around campus (150+ locations) and are brought to FreeUse where the work study student staff sorts them for redistribution on campus. All items are free and available to Bard community members.
A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
The major EUS puts its course offerings and requirements and internships and clubs etc. online and tries to avoid printing these things.
Admission, PR, and Web Services have been making an effort to make more documents available on Bard's websites. The best examples of this are on the Admission website. e.g.
http://www.bard.edu/admission/accepted/forms/
http://www.bard.edu/admission/applying/forms/
In an effort to reduce the carbon footprint, we have encouraged faculty to scan items, rather than post items. The avenue to increase this is through our Moodle or Reserves systems.
The Transportation Department now lists all schedules on our website blogs.bard.edu/transportion. In addition we have a Bard Transport app created by a Bard student that provides schedules on smart phones. These two informational sources have replaced hard copy schedules, currently we only post laminated hard copy at the Shuttle stops.
There will not be any more printed directories starting 7/1/2011. We did not print course catalogs in Spring 2011 except as requested.
A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:
Students have a paper budget and must pay for printing after a designated number of copies are exceeded.
A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
We concentrate on salvaging re-usable items for our FreeUse store. We carry this out by designating FreeUse drop locations at 12 locations around the residential areas, starting 3 days before MoveOut. On MoveOut Day we have a team of students who collect the items, sort them and put them in storage for next year's Move In. We also work with the local Community Action Agency to salvage unopened, non perishable foods from kitchens. Lastly, we hire a team of Compost Commandos to go to kitchens and compost items that have been left behind.
A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:
The Bard Bartering FB system and online garage sale site allows people to re-use.
A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:
EcoReps and BardEATs members perform mini waste audits of residential areas and the dining hall.
A brief description of any programs and/or practices to track and reduce pre-consumer food waste in the form of kitchen food waste, prep waste and spoilage:
Our food service provider, Chartwells, uses TrimTrax to accomplish this goal.
A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:
Through our annual participation in Recyclemania, we track post consumer food waste daily for an eight week period.
A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable and/or third party certified compostable to-go containers for to-go food and beverage items (in conjunction with a composting program):
Chartwells is trayfree and uses reduced diameter plates. They highlight their use of local foods to encourage people to value them, not scrap them.
A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable service ware for “dine in” meals and reusable and/or third party certified compostable service ware for to-go meals (in conjunction with a composting program):
Students can request a durable plate at our Down the Road to go eatery.
A brief description of any discounts offered to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in to-go food service operations:
In existence at DTR Cafe and Manor Cafe: Buy 9 beverages with reusable mug get the 10th beverage free
A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:
Take Back Kline is an effort to reclaim durable dishes that leave the dining hall. Several times during the year, an effort to reward returned dishes is undertaken by BardEATs members. Raffle tickets are awarded based on the number of dishes returned, with Bard Bucks as the prize.
The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.