Ripon College competes in RecycleMania

Starting today and going for 8 weeks (March 29) our campus will be participating in the national, inter-campus recycling competition, RecycleMania.

The purpose of RecycleMania is to increase awareness about what we're throwing away, to guide us as consumers to use less in the first place, re-use or re-purpose when possible, recycle what can be recycled, and to have FUN doing so.


Each week, I will be posting the number of pounds of solid waste and recycling we haul off campus.  
Pre-season baseline:
Solid waste:  17,259 pounds per week
Single-stream recycling:  4,448 pounds per week

Throughout this competition we will strive to lower the value of solid waste, increase recyclables, and overall have less waste (both solid and recyclable) leaving campus.

Here's what you can do:

1. KNOW what can be recycled!  Paper, plastic (#1-#7), glass, aluminum, milk cartons can all be placed in single-stream recycling.
2. RECYCLE everything that is recyclable.  Sound simple?  It is!  Dump out any food that may be in a container, then recycle.  
3. TEACH others what to recycle.  

More information about waste reduction can be found on this blog under the "waste minimization" tab.

Sustainability Intern: Holiday Break

Winter break is over and another semester at Ripon, my last semester, is beginning. Over winter break I went back to my old job at Panera Bread to work a few hours and make a few paychecks (I know, college ain’t cheap!). While there I took up my old position as the environmental captain. This previously had me enforcing recycling practices and conservation of water and energy throughout the restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised when I came back to find that the Christmas gift given to the employees this year was a reusable tumbler that can be used for hot or cold drinks. 

I have always noticed how many coffee cups and plastic cups employees go through everyday. I often would bring in a reusable water bottle, but if I wanted coffee or something hot, I would then use a paper cup as well. I thought giving the employees these versatile tumblers was a great idea! But hardly anyone was using them! In order to cut down on the waste of employees using so many cups and to get them to use their tumblers instead I suggested an idea to the managers. Perhaps they could keep track of the employees who always bring in their tumbler and those who use the least amount of cups each week get a free signature drink such as a smoothie or hot chocolate that they would normally have to pay for. Now, I’m not sure if they will take up that idea, but at least I got them considering it. While I’m away at school there are a few others who are in the role of environmental captain at the Panera, one of which suggested the tumblers in the first place. Hopefully they keep up the great work! 

We go back to school in just a few days and EcoREPS will start up once more! I’ve got a few ideas in mind for this semester so hopefully we’ll be impacting the campus and we can be Ripon’s environmental captains! 

First georeferenced map of campus!

Happy New Year.  It is with great enthusiasm that I share with you a student project completed in Fall 2013.  Environmental Studies seniors, Brenna Richards and Ashley Storms created a georeferenced map of campus.  In it they included walkways and sidewalk, as well as location of buildings and parking lots. This map will be tremendously useful to all campus users as we make changes to campus and catalog them. Thank you, ladies, for a job well done!
Now it's up to the rest of us to populate this map with Sustainability hotspots: bike racks, bike paths, recycling bins, compost drop-off locations, solar panels... Dream big.

If you would like a copy of the map, please contact the authors (richardsb@ripon.edu, stormsa@ripon.edu) or the Sustainability Coordinator via the website.

Sodexo intern update #5: composting, local food, and honey in The Commons

Hello again, and I apologize for the delay between this blog post and the last; the environmental scene in Ripon has been keeping me busy.

First thing to cover is that I went to speak at the Ripon city council on November 12^th 2013 to ask for an exemption for educational institutions from the current composting ordinance, which only allows residential composting. The council was receptive to my proposal, and an exception is currently being written to be approved by the city council at a later date. More updates on that in the future, but for now, I am hopeful that Ripon College can begin composting on campus in the spring of 2014.

Additionally, there was a meeting at Fraser Farms, hosted by Dennis and Mary Meyer, to discuss the possibility of a partnership between Ripon College and GrowSureEase. For this meeting, we toured the greenhouse that GrowSureEase uses to grow vegetables during the winter months and saw the different types of plants that he is currently growing there. Then we went to the Meyer’s Christmas tree farm, where we had a delicious vegetarian lunch prepared by Mary that featured fresh greens from their greenhouse and hot apple cider pressed from the apple trees that are on the property. After the fantastic local meal, those in attendance (including President Messitte, Mrs. Messitte, Dean Ogle, Sarjit Singh, and Samara Hamzé) listened to Dennis’s proposal and began a dialogue on the potential for this relationship in the future. Nothing concrete was decided, but it began a discussion about the role of local food on our campus and the importance of connections between the college and community businesses.
Also on the topic of composting, a total of 32 5-gallon buckets of organic material were removed from the Sodexo kitchen in October to be composted at Fraser Farms, with 28 buckets collected during November, and 28.5 buckets in September. So, our total for the fall of 2013 is 442.5 gallons of compostable materials prevented from going to the landfill. (Note: We will temporarily be stopping the collection of compostable materials, since we have no way to continue composting during the cold months, especially now that there is snow on the ground. This is something that we hope to correct in the future, but as of now we are unable to do so.)

One other noteworthy event was the introduction of honey produced by the EGOR hives into the Pickard Commons. Look for it and the sign on the east end of the Commons near the beverages. Also at the beverage stand is the lack of plastic straws that have been replaced with a sign informing students and staff about the negative environmental impact of plastic straws, which are still available at the checker’s stand, but are less accessible, so people make a conscious decision to use or not use a straw.

As the semester winds down, planning for next semester begins, so look forward to the reappearance on minimal-meat Mondays occasionally in the Commons. And stay tuned for more updates on composting and upcoming projects.

Wellness Fair - learn about health impacts of landfills and commit to reducing the waste you make on campus

Join campus and community members on Tuesday, November 2013 to learn about and participate in Health and Wellness activities relevant to Ripon students. The event will occur in Great Hall on campus 11AM - 2PM

Ripon Sustainability will have a table there to share information with the college community about the health benefits of reducing solid waste and increasing recycling.  Data are gathered from the EPA and DNR websites.  Come by to learn about what is recyclable on campus and meet our EcoREPS.

UMACS Conference at Luther College report

Last weekend I had the great experience of attending a Midwest Conference dealing with sustainability Samara, Kaitlyn, and I began our adventure to Iowa bright and early Friday morning! 

We made it to the lovely college campus that was hosting the event, Luther College, right around lunchtime. Kaitlyn and I were able to register, grab some food, and poke around the campus a bit before the opening presentation. Even from walking around the campus, we could really see their environmental commitment. They had quite a few solar panels on one side of campus, a wind turbine on another side, a large garden, local food in their commons areas, a large greenhouse, and all these integrated into an overall beautiful campus.

            Then the conference actually began! The opening speaker was John Farrell, the son of the author of The Nature of College James Farrell. One quote that stood out to me that he mentioned was, “If God wanted us to live sustainably, she’d have given us brains!”. I loved that! The rest of the day was filled with speakers from various colleges that held sustainability programs. One was on how to get a program started and how to keep one running. Another one, that I found to be exceedingly interesting, was about Eco Houses on a few different campuses. As they were speaking about the houses, I could just imagine one at Ripon. Maybe one day!

            Following this there was a poster session where each school could present what they were working on. It was awesome to walk around and talk to students who are working on astonishing projects! Some of the students were working on programs similar to the EcoRep program we have started here. I found it helpful to sit down with some of these students and see what they did when they began there programs, what seemed to be successful and what failed and, most importantly, why.

            As a side note, for dinner the first night, after the poster session, and lunch the second day we were served absolutely delicious mostly vegan food! It was almost entirely from local sources too. Needlessly to say, I went back for seconds!

            After dinner Friday we heard another speaker, Chad Pregracke. He started his talk with some facts, but it was mostly a narrative conversation about his life experiences. He was a college-aged kid who noticed something wrong and set out to fix it. Chad grew up right along the Mississippi and one day noticed the overwhelming amount of trash built up in certain areas. It blew his mind that this could be happening to a river so important to our country. He faced obstacle after obstacle, but managed to get a clean up initiative started and continues today on rivers all over the country. His story was remarkable and inspirational. The fact that he was able to grow from just him doing this project he believed in so strongly to the operation he has today is extraordinary. Not only this, but he managed to come through it all with a great sense of humor. He made a great point of saying that you have to be able to laugh, not get burned out, not take anything too seriously, and even try to have fun with your mission. He is actually offering a free service opportunity as an alternative spring break cleaning up the Mississippi! Granted, anyone wanting to go will be expected to pay for travel price and lodging. It is being hosted in Memphis, TN. For more information on Chad, his organization, or the spring break opportunity, check out www.livinglandsandwaters.org/ .

            The second day was filled with more impressive speakers, information on sustainability on campuses, and delectable food. Our main speaker we listened to after lunch said something that stood out to me. With all the information we receive on issues of the environment, it can seem overwhelming to try and fix it all. The speaker, Jacqueline Johnson (president of University of Minnesota - Morris), told us to “decide which hill you’re willing to die on”. We must each pick what we feel is the most important fight and see that through. It does not good to try and do everything and get nothing done. I thought that was a really insightful comment.

            This past EcoRep meeting I decided to ask a question that had been posed to me at the conference. The question of: What is it we are trying to sustain? I thought it was a great question. At the conference we were put in groups to mull this over. We eventually got to the point, as did the EcoReps, that it ultimately comes down to not just sustaining anything as it is now, but actually improving it. The EcoReps listed things that they would like to see changed on campus (less energy consumption, less waste, etc.), but this is not sustaining the culture of the campus as it is now. Instead this is implying we want to change the campus. We want it to improve and not just sustain, but grow to be better than it is now!

            That’s All Folk!

            Kristen

Meet 3rd floor Scott EcoREPS: Ricardo Jaimes

My name is Ricardo Jaimes.
I am a freshman at Ripon College.
I a member of the EGOR club, Sierra Club, and Hola club.
I plan to pursuit a major in Environmental Studies.
My goal: To help Ripon College become a more Eco-friendly campus.