Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 63.40
Liaison Olivia Herron
Submission Date March 2, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Miami University
OP-22: Waste Minimization

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.40 / 5.00 Yvette Kline
Dir. Sustainability & Energy Conservation
Physical Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Waste generated::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Materials recycled 683 Tons 1,763 Tons
Materials composted 907 Tons 337 Tons
Materials reused, donated or re-sold 0 Tons 0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator 2,727 Tons 3,961 Tons

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of residential students 5,275
+ Date Revised: March 30, 2016
4,795
Number of residential employees 35 35
Number of in-patient hospital beds 0 0
Full-time equivalent enrollment 11,923
+ Date Revised: March 30, 2016
10,552
Full-time equivalent of employees 3,206
+ Date Revised: March 30, 2016
3,199
Full-time equivalent of distance education students 347 347

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
Start Date End Date
Performance Year Jan. 1, 2014 Dec. 31, 2014
Baseline Year Jan. 1, 2005 Dec. 31, 2005

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:

A third party study had previously established baselines for 2005.


A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:

Eco Reps in the residence halls "suit up" to conduct sort-and-weigh waste audits on a regular basis, and report their findings.
Visual inspection of dumpster contents are conducted at by the Sustainability Office prior to its annual solid waste review, to ensure that blue liners are in the recycling dumpsters and not in the trash dumpsters. Spot checks of indoor and outdoor containers are also conducted throughout the year.
By contract, four times a year, Miami's trash and recycling hauler uses dedicated refuse trucks to weigh all landfill and recycling waste picked up for a full week. These figures are used in a model as part of diversion rate calculations.


A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

The purchasing department has arranged for many "by the pallet" deliveries to Dining's central processing facility. This has greatly reduced packaging waste.
Pouch style ketchup was sourced to reduce the amount of packaging needed to contain and ship a case of product.


A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:

Surplus furniture is collected for reuse on other projects.


A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:

Miami University currently distributes course schedules and most official publications electronically. The Orientation mobile app helped us cease physical printing of the Welcome Week program guide, of which we used to order 8,000 copies (for first- and second-year students). Rather than distributing printed Welcome Week information, the residence hall staff created a station on move-in day where they helped each student download the app to his/her mobile device.


A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:

Pay for Print (or Pay4Print) is designed for students and the general public to print reports and documents from many convenient locations at all of the campuses. These locations include instructional computer labs (labs assigned to courses), open computer labs (labs open on a walk up basis) and the campus Libraries. There is a charge for printing and copying. With Miami uPRINT, you can print wirelessly from your own Mac or PC laptop or desktop to any Pay4Print location on campus.
The Physical Facilities Department conducted a lean project to eliminate desktop printers in favor of centralized printers, only one of which has the option to print in color.


A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:

During move-out all students (both on campus and off) are encouraged via email, signage, facebook, and banners to divert their unwanted items to a program called Sharefest Oxford. Every year during a "ShareFest" event thousands of pounds of materials are collected by volunteers and either given directly to social service agencies or sold by the local Family Resource Center to benefit their social services. On campus participation is facilitated by staff in the Office of Residence Life.


A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:

This is a fine example of how Lean has helped Miami reduce waste. Following is a small sampling of the projects completed in various departments during the past couple of years:
* Electronic work order distribution
* Elimination of paper reports
* Email invoicing
* Paperless invoice payments
* Elimination of paper forms and streamlining processes
* Reduction of custom printed disposables in student dining services
One of Miami's major departments, HDRBS, reports that electronic ordering and inventory through the FSS program has drastically reduced the paper use in those processes.


A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:
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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:

Dining's Culinary Support Center provides a central point for production control methods and training.
One of the main elements of training for their staff is utilizing first-in first-out rotation of products to reduce the risk of spoilage.
Another area of training is batch cooking - which coupled with data that assesses customer demand - ensures that the amount of product being produced is aligned with demand.
A third area of focus and training is on next day ordering. Next day ordering is possible because delivery time has been reduced to less than 12 hours for many items, enabling unit managers to order the exact amount of product needed for next day service.
Centralized menu control ensures that the same recipe is used around campus on the same day, thereby minimizing opportunities for waste.
Dining has also conducted many Lean waste reduction projects, including the following.
* Centralized menu support with increased usage of "Heat and Serve" entrees, which are portion controlled, and can be batch cooked effectively
* Bread production, which maintained quality and reduced waste through a process change


A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:

Many of Miami's current and future Dining sites are trayless in an effort to prevent the potential waste that could occur from people over-serving themselves in self-serve locations.
Dining operations are being evaluated for a move from all-you-care-to-eat format to a made to order format to reduce food waste.


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):

Miami's composting program has made several adjustments to align with the processing options available both within Dining operations and in the region the past few years. The most notable of these was the closure of three regional commercial composting facilities. With every change, Dining and the Sustainability Office have worked to ensure that to-go food and beverage items, as well as to-go meals, were compatible with the disposal processes available. BPI certified plastics and ASTM D6400 liners are used for all compost headed to a commercial facility.


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):

All Marcum Center events are served on real china instead of disposables to reduce the amount of disposables used in food service.


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:

Miami has a reusable coffee mug program at multiple campus locations. Participating customers can fill their own mugs at a discount, saving $1.14 per fill.


A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:

We have designed our packaging system to operate centrally, allowing us to make affordable and environmentally sound choices in the products used to package and serve our foods. The packaging choices for to-go and centrally packaged products now include lines of bamboo, sugar cane, corn starch, or recycled paper products.


The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

By contract, trash and recycling from regularly-serviced dumpsters is weighed on the Oxford campus for a full week, 4 times per year. (July, November, February and April). These weights are considered typical for the period, and are extended to provide a full year of estimated actual weights. Data from roll-off reports are added to the figures, as is the weight of other qualified recycling, reported annually to the county.


By contract, trash and recycling from regularly-serviced dumpsters is weighed on the Oxford campus for a full week, 4 times per year. (July, November, February and April). These weights are considered typical for the period, and are extended to provide a full year of estimated actual weights. Data from roll-off reports are added to the figures, as is the weight of other qualified recycling, reported annually to the county.

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.