Highlights of 2016-2017
Early in 2016, the A line Bus Rapid Transit opened with a stop right next to campus. This new fast bus makes it even easier for the Mac community to get around town without a car. The Sustainability Office hosted a successful A line lunch where we paid for the transportation to get people out to lunch on the A line. We have high hopes for increased transit use with this new fast transit option.
In the Sustainability and the Campus in the fall, students recommended actions on bird safe glass, looked at overheating in dorms, and used STARS data to see hour our school compares to our peers. During this year, our office also reorganized a Living Laboratory website that highlights potential student projects and links to prior student papers so new students can build on work already done. Check it out on the Living Laboratory website.
The college placed eighth in the nation in the Recyclemania competition with 69.932% diversion rate! During the spring, the athletics department joined the Sustainability Student Worker Network and developed new zero waste outreach for teams and events held in the Leonard Center. A new plastic bag recycling program started this summer.
This year, we finished the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System. It is like that Macalester College will again be rated a "gold" institution, though we still need to wait for our final review by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
The Sustainability Office worked with Katelyn Miller '18 and Kaleb Mazurek '18 so they could attend the UN Climate Change conference in Marrakesh (COP 22). Check out their blog posts. The year previously Suzanne and an environmental studies class attended COP 21 in Paris.
We are looking forward to next year when we celebrate our office's 10 year anniversary. We have come a long way since 2008 when we still routinely used bottled water events and had a 17% recycling rate. Our waste diversion rate now puts us in striking distance of our Zero Waste goal.
In the Sustainability and the Campus in the fall, students recommended actions on bird safe glass, looked at overheating in dorms, and used STARS data to see hour our school compares to our peers. During this year, our office also reorganized a Living Laboratory website that highlights potential student projects and links to prior student papers so new students can build on work already done. Check it out on the Living Laboratory website.
The college placed eighth in the nation in the Recyclemania competition with 69.932% diversion rate! During the spring, the athletics department joined the Sustainability Student Worker Network and developed new zero waste outreach for teams and events held in the Leonard Center. A new plastic bag recycling program started this summer.
This year, we finished the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System. It is like that Macalester College will again be rated a "gold" institution, though we still need to wait for our final review by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
The Sustainability Office worked with Katelyn Miller '18 and Kaleb Mazurek '18 so they could attend the UN Climate Change conference in Marrakesh (COP 22). Check out their blog posts. The year previously Suzanne and an environmental studies class attended COP 21 in Paris.
We are looking forward to next year when we celebrate our office's 10 year anniversary. We have come a long way since 2008 when we still routinely used bottled water events and had a 17% recycling rate. Our waste diversion rate now puts us in striking distance of our Zero Waste goal.
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