Wellesley College Class of '57 Green Fund
The Sustainability Advisory Committee is proud to support the Class of 1957 Green Fund, which was established to provide funding for initiatives designed to enhance sustainable practices at Wellesley, to reduce the college's environmental impact, and to raise awareness about environmental issues on campus.
Funds from the 1957 Green Fund will be distributed in order to meet the needs of those projects determined to be the most worthwhile and the most feasible by the Sustainability Advisory Committee.
Rules for Grant Applications:
- Any member of the community may submit an application.
- Proposed projects must have the prior approval of relevant administrative departments.
- Preference will be given for projects that involve collaboration between students, faculty and staff, although individuals projects will be considered.
- Funds will be given only to those projects that are well-planned, feasible and have a demonstrable outcome. Projects must describe how success will be measured.
- Projects must include a plan for publicizing the outcomes - via a report, a presentation, etc.
- Priority will be given to pilot programs.
- Typical award amounts will range from $1,000 to $10.000.
- Projects from this round of funding should be completed by the end of this summer. There will be an additional call for proposals for projects to be carried out during the 2008-2009 academic year.
Applications are due November 17th and award recipients will be announced on December 1st. Applications can be submitted electronically to csalop@wellesley.edu or submitted hardcopy to Kate Salop, President's Office
Class of 1957 Green Fund Projects - FY08
The installation of "low flow" shower heads in Stone/Davis Hall emerged from a class project that investigated six different shower heads to determine which ones would be best to install on campus (based on how much water they conserved and how appealing they were to the users, etc.) These were installed as a pilot project in partnership between Facilities and EcoReps, and the findings from this pilot will be used to guide the installation of similar showerheads across campus. As part of this project, the EcoReps and the Sustainability Committee distributed "5 minute shower" reminders to students, to encourage the use of shorter showers. This project fits into our goal of reducing water consumption by an additional 25% by the year 2013.
Installation of Brita Filters on taps in Shafer Hall, a pilot project aimed at discouraging the consumption of bottled water, emerged from a class project and was implemented in coordination with Facilities. The students in the class additionally ran a campaign aimed at their peers, for instance, hosting water tastings to allow students to compare bottled water and filtered water. While this project clearly has a very low initial budget, it allows us to model whether or not students will use the filtered tap water and to determine what the implications will be for custodial service to replace the filters, etc. Also, the money spent so far does not factor in the cost of replacement filters. If this program proves to be effective, we will expand the filters to taps across campus.
Our most visible project has been the creation of "Zip Cups" (a creative title echoing our use of Zip Cars on campus). This project provides cups "to go" to students in the dining halls. These cups are then returned and cleaned for reuse. "Zip Cups," provided by Dining Services in partnership with the Sustainability Committee, are very popular with the students. The program was launched in January, and we have requests to expand it to some of the student-run eateries.
By far, the most expensive project has been the replacement of lighting in the parking garage. Over Wintersession, we replaced a portion of the existing metal halide lights with double amp fluorescents as a test to ensure that the light quality of the new lights would be comparable to that of the old. These new lights will result in approximately a 60% reduction of electrical consumption (which should provide the equivalent of reducing over 200,000 lbs of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year). This project is important to our goal of reducing campus energy consumption.
Four Dyson Airblades, two in a Ladies' Room and two in a Men's Room in the campus center, were installed. The Dyson Airblade is one of the more energy efficient and powerful hand dryers that wipes hands dry with a high velocity blade of air. Installing the Airblades would result in a reduction in waste and litter and an improvement of hygiene. The custodial department would not have to restock/remove old paper towels. And, importantly, paper towels cannot be recycled. This installation is a trial and, based on the outcome, the Airblades might be introduced more widely across campus.
Forty copies of The Low Carbon Diet by David Gershon were purchased to be read by members of an administrative group and then shared more widely on campus. The distribution of the book would be followed by survey instruments measuring whether, through reading the book, there was increased awareness that resulted in any changes in behavior.
The same group of administrators requested funds to purchase two composting containers for the Stone Center kitchen with the goal of teaching people about the benefits of composting.
The Alumnae Office submitted a proposal to advance its stated goal of improving the sustainability efforts of reunion –in support of overall institutional priorities and at the request of our alumnae. The proposal requested funds to cover the incremental cost of printing the reunion program, which each attendee received, on 100% reusable paper with non-petroleum-based inks.
A student submitted a proposal to fund an initiative to increase duplex printing and paper conservation by faculty and staff. The student will receive a modest stipend (based on hours worked) to develop a website and collaborate with Information Services and with the Wellesley College environmental group, WEED, to assess current printer usage and to develop programs to encourage the use of duplex printing and paper conservation.
Two students requested funds in order to purchase 600 metal reusable drinking vessels for distribution to the incoming class of 2012 as part of an ongoing project to decrease the utilization of plastic water bottles on the Wellesley College campus. The decision was made to use metal bottles in light of increasing concerns over the dangers of plastic bottles.
SAC considered various options for reducing the number of items thrown away during the end-of-year move-out as students rushed to empty their rooms. The committee decided to partner with a student group that had been collecting clothing before it entered the waste stream and to provide on-site storage units which would allow the student group to collect more clothing items and items other than clothes. The clothing and other items are then sold at an on-campus event in the fall (with proceeds supporting the student group).
It has been the standard for each student room to be equipped with a trash can, but not a recycling bin. While WEED has used the sale of recycling bins as a successful fundraiser, and the Sustainability Advisory Committee received kudos for handing out free recycling bins to incoming students last fall, the committee decided that the best course of action would be to have these bins in each dorm room as standard issue.