August and October Newsletter

Zero Waste Events Come to BGSU! 

Waste reduction has been one of BGSU’s sustainability goals for quite some time.  With the university generating in excess of 50 tons of waste in a typical week, any efforts to reduce that have both environmental and economic advantages, as less trash is sent to the landfill.  “Zero Waste” is a way of implementing events that all but eliminates the environmental “footprint” created by that event, regardless of the size of that event.  At such an event, everything served/provided is either reusable, recyclable, or compostable.    

Zero Waste arrived at BGSU this fall in the form of a collaborative partnership between Campus Sustainability and BGSU Dining at both the Fall Welcome and the All-Campus picnics on August 26 and September 13 respectively.   With a solid and committed core of student, faculty and staff volunteers, these two events, serving close to 3000 people each, resulted in the composting of 2320 pounds of organic material (over a ton!) and produced no waste!  That’s over a ton of material deferred from the landfill, where it would have sat in the ground producing harmful methane gas with no benefits that will be made into compost, which is beneficial and productive to the growth process of plants and trees!  

How was this accomplished you ask?  The actual process is rather simple:  Compostable plate, napkin and fork; recycling for the pop can and water bottle, and collecting leftover food for composting are all part of the process.  The appearance is simple also:  One container for cans/bottles; and one container for compostable items and food.  What’s missing?  A trash can, since the only trash generated were items brought by guests, such as disposable coffee cups, or other personal items, which were collected separately.   

The monitoring/staffing of the compost/recycling stations is critical to the success of such an event and our volunteers did a stellar job at that, resulting in no contamination of the compost whatsoever!  BGSU partners with NAT Transportation to haul our compostables to Hirzel Farms in Pemberville, a class 2 composting facility.  This is the same location that we send our pre-consumer compost from dining center to on a regular basis.  The costs of transporting and accepting the compost are covered by the Student Green Initiatives Fund, and those weights average between 53 and 56 tons annually.   

The success of these two events shows that BGSU can in fact employ simple measures to reduce its waste, increase our diversion rate, save money and help the planet!  It just takes effort, commitment, and collaboration!  Many thanks to BGSU Dining for their leadership and proactivity in obtaining compostable serving items and supporting this initiative and to all our volunteers!  You really did make a difference! 

The Tradition of Friday Night Lights

A tradition the Office of Campus Sustainability has on a weekly basis is Friday Night Lights. This program is run with the help of volunteers that go around campus to academic buildings and turn off the lights in each room. The simple act of turning a light switch off has now reached a total savings of $100,000 for Bowling Green State University. To celebrate this milestone, it is worth looking back at the program’s inception.

Dustin Sabo, a graduate of Bowling Green and now Assistant Director in Admissions, saw a need for an energy reduction program on campus as an undergraduate student.

“I can remember walking around campus on the weekends as an undergraduate and thinking to myself that it was such a waste to have all the classroom lights on when I knew they would be used very infrequently, if at all, over the weekend”, said Sabo in an interview. He then saw a similar program at Penn State and knew that it was possible to start a program here at BGSU. However, he had no clue where to start.

Sabo was an Orientation Leader and made connections with administrator Andy Alt in the process. He pitched his idea to Alt, which was received with open arms, and was then directed to Dr. Nick Hennessy. Together they crafted the program that we see today. All of their hard work paid off and continues to even after Sabo has long since graduated.

“I wasn’t sure if anyone would show up that first day, but when they showed up, and continued to show up week after week, it was a great feeling knowing there were others on campus who had a similar passion”, Sabo on the success of the program. “I would also like to believe that through our actions and publicity we helped to change the mindset and actions of at least one person to think about how even their smallest change in behavior could have a big impact”.

Without the help from Dustin Sabo, this program would not exist. Friday Night Lights successfully reduces emissions and costs for BGSU, but it does more, it sets an example for taking small actions, building on those actions, and making big impacts. Turning off a light switch, taking a shorter shower, carpooling, or recycling are all examples of small actions that each of us can take to help the environment.

If you would like to volunteer with Friday Night Lights, it is every Friday night outside of the Union Theater (206 BTSU) at 6:30.