Volunteer at Chancellor Martin’s Inauguration

Five thousand people are expected to come together on October 3rd to celebrate the inauguration of the 15th Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. We are excited to have worked closely with Chancellor Martin’s team to make this ceremony a green event, with the inclusion of 4 waste stations to help and educate the WashU […]

Recycling Genius Volunteer Opportunities: Fall 2019

Educate the WashU community about correct waste sorting while ensuring that events are truly zero waste. Volunteers are needed for first year Move-In, the WUSM Employee Picnic, and the Chancellor’s Inauguration Celebration. First-year Student Move-In: August 17 For several years, the WashU Green Ambassadors have assisted the ResLife Housekeeping team with diverting massive amounts of […]

Get Involved this Summer with On-Campus Farm Burning Kumquat

The Burning Kumquat is the on-campus, student run, organic garden located right next door to the Alumni House on the South 40. During the school year, the farm functions as a student club involving members pitching in at workdays and selling produce at DUC markets. But in the summer, when most students are gone and […]

The Not-So-Sweet Story of Honeysuckle in St. Louis

Honeysuckle evokes for many fond summer memories of plucking small, white flowers off the vine and guzzling their sweet nectar. However, for others, honeysuckle represents a terror to our native ecosystems. In this enlightening article, Hanna Peterman, senior majoring in Environmental Biology and Spanish and student coordinator of the Tyson Conservation Corps, explains how honeysuckle […]

Volunteer to Green End-of-Year Iconic Events!

Help educate the WashU community about how to correctly sort waste while ensuring that iconic events are truly zero waste. Commencement May 17, 11a – 1p; 4p-6p // Locations vary. Contact Cassie with availability: cassandra.hage@wustl.edu. Staff Day May 20, 10a – 1p and 3 – 4:30p // Athletic Center Contact Cassie at cassandra.hage@wustl.edu to sign up. […]

Sustainability Action Team (SAT) Relaunches at WUSM

The first Sustainability Action Team (SAT) meeting of 2019 took place on Wednesday, March 27 on the School of Medicine campus. The group has been on pause over the last year while administrators conducted a sustainability survey and worked to better structure all of the sustainability programs on the medical campus. The first SAT meeting […]

Get Involved with the Student Environmental Council

Looking for ways to get involved this semester but not quite sure where to start yet? The Student Environmental Council (SEC), a collection of WashU environmental student groups, offers many opportunities for students to engage, learn and take action for sustainability on campus. You do not need to be a member of a sustainability group […]

Green Offices Gather to Network and Share Best Practices

On July 26th, the Green Office team hosted the Green Office Luncheon in College Hall as a way for offices to network, learn more about the Green Office program, and recognize participants for their sustainable practices. Twenty offices who certified or recertified in the first part of the year received their 2018 plaque tiles. The […]

Changes in the Recycling Industry Raise the Bar for Waste Sorting on Campus

[Pile of plastics in China – Photo Credit: Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse] In 2010, WashU made the transition to single-stream recycling on all campuses, making it easy and convenient for the university community to recycle. At the time, this change helped the university to nearly double consumer waste diversion. Today, about 42% of the waste generated by […]

Recycling Genius Lunch & Learns Summer Series

This summer the Office of Sustainability will be hosting a series of Recycling Genius Lunch & Learns. The Recycling Genius training consists of a brief, yet in-depth, training on what can be recycled and composted and why. Once you are trained as a Recycling Genius, you can provide presentations to groups (like your office) or […]

Summer Garden Membership at the On-Campus Burning Kumquat

The Burning Kumquat is the on-campus, student run, organic garden located right next door to the Alumni House on the South 40. During the school year, the farm functions as a student club involving members pitching in at workdays and selling produce at DUC markets. But in the summer, when most students are gone and […]

Share Our Stuff 2018: Seeking Volunteers!

SWAP is getting ready for Share Our Stuff, its end-of-semester donation initiative, and is looking for volunteers! Partnering with WashU ResLife, the Office of Sustainability, and WashU Facilities, SWAP is mobilizing a campus-wide (and off-campus WashU owned) collection for anything usable that would otherwise be thrown out. How it works: Donation bins will be placed […]

Employee Picnic Strives for Zero Waste

On September 30th, the Office of Sustainability and the Operations and Facilities Management Departments will team up with the Employee Picnic Planning Committee to pursue zero waste at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) Employee Picnic. Betsy Snyder, Chair of the Employee Picnic Planning Committee, worked with vendors, including caterer Kendrick’s and frozen custard provider […]