Class of 1957 Green Fund
The Class of 1957 Green Fund was established by the Class of 1957 in the late 2000s to provide funding for initiatives designed to enhance sustainable practices at Wellesley, reduce the school's environmental impact, and raise awareness about environmental issues on campus.
Academic Year 2023-24: 1957 Green Fund Project Submissions Deadline: December 4, 2023, but then accepted on a rolling basis
Important Notes About Applying:
- Any faculty, staff, union member or student may submit an application
- Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis but we encourage applicants to submit by the priority deadlines to ensure a timely review of their application
- Projects submitted in the fall should be completed by the end of the academic year
- Grants typically range from $500 to $2,000
- A couple of larger collaborative projects may be considered as well. For suitability, please reach out to the contacts below
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The number of projects funded and the amount of the awards will vary from year to year based on project merit & available budget
- Please read the complete guidelines to see if your project idea is a good fit
- Questions? Please reach out to Jenn Garvin (jg120@wellesley.edu) Sustainability Manager or Liza Oliver (eoliver3@wellesley.edu) Chair of Sustainability Committee.
Previously Funded Projects
The Wellesley College Bike Sharing Program started back in 2012, when the Green Fund generously completely funded this pilot project. In 2013, the Bike Share Program expanded to the east side of campus. The Green Fund completely funded this expansion as well. This included 10 outfitted bikes, three morse key watcher systems, including a portable station to easily sign-up new members, and display signs. The entire Wellesley community can now enjoy free green transportation around campus, 24-hours at any given time after registration.
The Office successfully implemented several hybrid/electric vehicle charging ports in the Davis Garage. These chargers are free to all Wellesley students, faculty, and staff, courtesy of the Green Fund, that donated all funds for this new technology.
Over Wintersession 2011, we replaced a portion of the existing metal halide lights with double lamp fluorescents as a test to ensure that the light quality of the new lights would be comparable to that of the old in the Davis Parking facility. After successful testing all metal halides within the Davis Parking Facility were replaced, resulting in approximately a 60% reduction of electrical consumption (which provides 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.
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.) This project fits into our goal of reducing water consumption by an additional 25% by the year 2013.
With support from the Green Fund, the Book Arts Program proposes inviting Amanda Nelsen, an artist based in Cambridge, MA, who works with found paper to collaborate with members of the Wellesley College Community to make a unique piece of art. This collaboration would take place during the first half of the Spring 2010 semester. The goal of this creative project is to foster awareness about the responsible use of paper on campus by working with an artist who explores themes of sustainability and sparks community activism through hands-on work with found paper.
The Office of Sustainability has provided the first year orientation students with reusable water bottles so they don’t have to purchase bottled water. Not only does this cut down costs for the College, but it promotes students to “think green” and be involved in better their environment and community from day 1 here at Wellesley. We believe this is a very important program, and the Green Fund has been of great assistance this year, providing all funds for these custom-made, reusable water bottles.
In recent years, the Green Fund helped a Recycling Bag program which provides each new student with a reusable bag to help reduce waste on campus.
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. This is a building standard for Wellesley College in any location which calls for a hand dryer.