Celebrate World Car Free Day with OCSS!

For one day, leave your car at home and try riding your bike, walking, or taking public transportation.

AUTHOR: Karly Trinite, Sustainability Outreach Intern @ OCSS

For more info about D.C. events: http://www.carfreemetrodc.com/car-free-day-events.php

For more info about the OCSS shuttle tour on Sept. 20^th: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/casualcarpooling/events/19877

For more info about Transit Services: www.umbc.edu/transit

Join an organization related to campus sustainability!

Student-led Groups:

Weekly Meetings 12-1pm in Commons 318.

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/sea

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/sga-ea

UMBC's Environmental Task Force (community service/ volunteer work)

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/etf 

Geography and Environmental Systems Council of Majors (GES COM)

Molissa Udevitz, molissa1@umbc.edu

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/ges-council

https://www.facebook.com/UmbcOutdoorRecreationClub/info

UMBC Community Garden

https://www.facebook.com/groups/490221211032987/

UMBC Biodiesel Project

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/biodieselclub

Campus-wide Groups:

Climate Change Taskforce

Join a work group: Energy/Waste, Research/Education, Outreach & Transportation

http://sustainability.umbc.edu/energy-climate/

Recycling Promotions & Events Team

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/reset

Food Coalition

https://lists.umbc.edu/lists/subscribe/foodcoalition

Landscape Stewardship Committee

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/lsc

Is there another group you would like to mention? Do you have ideas for new groups, projects or initiatives?

As you returned or arrived to campus in the fall, you may have seen the new waste bins (including compost!) in the Commons. In case you were wondering, here's how they came to be, and how you can use them! Help us spread the word by sharing this post with your networks: http://sustainability.umbc.edu/waste

Check out this illustrated guide from OCSS for sorting recycling, composting and waste (printable PDF)

UMBC's new bins have 3 or 4 slots:

1. Paper
2. Landfill
3. Compostable (Commons & UC only)
4. Glass, Cans, Plastic

The labels are available as stickers as well, to show and explain how waste should be sorted. The new bins are located in the Commons, and at lecture halls, and will be phased in across campus as a new indoor standard. Outdoor recycling bins (the black, metal, circular bins) accept all recyclables: paper, glass, cans and plastic.

Above: President Freeman Hrabowski demonstrating new 3 hole bins.

Compost

Learn about compostable packaging: 

What can we compost?

• All Food Waste
• Soiled Paper Products (such as used napkins, pizza boxes, etc. If you notice a plastic or wax coating, toss into the landfill slot for general trash)
• Plant-based Packaging (just check the labels and images below)

• True Grits Dining Hall (all food waste is composted in the kitchen, including food on used dishes)
• The Commons (labeled green slots in waste bins)
  
• University Center (ground floor by dining options)

Why Compost?

Composting allows food to decompose naturally into valuable fertile soil. Otherwise, food waste decomposing in a landfill without oxygen would create methane, a problematic greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Learn more at epa.gov!

History: Collaboration and Coordination

We were able to start composting our food waste in 2012 thanks to the efforts of SGA Sustainability Intern Madeline Hall (featured in the composting video below), and a coordinating committee including student leaders, our dining provider Chartwells, contract coordinators Campus Card, our green housekeeping group, and the company who picks up our compost and returns the decomposed food as fertile soil, Waste Neutral, as well as Facilities Management and UMBC's Sustainability Coordinator!

Composting has been phased into food services since 2012, starting with the Dining hall, then the Commons- to allow time to collaboratively select, purchase, and install new user friendly bins, to become a standard across campus.

Awareness: Events, Promotions and Education

Our student partners such as Students for Environmental Awareness, SGA Department of Environmental Affairs and SGA Sustainability interns have taken the lead in the 2012-2013 school year and designed educational outreach programs to raise awareness on why and how to compost on campus since composting was first introduced on campus!

We are excited to work with anyone interested in helping spread the word! Just email sustainability@umbc.edu to get involved!

Check out the student video about composting in the dining hall: http://youtu.be/Jlf80VmIvpQ

Some popular past published updates on composting:

• Taking time to compost in The Commons, by Zoe Gensheimer; An article from the Retriever Weekly describing composting!
• Check out the inside scoop: News on composting & recycling! Stay up to date on how you can pitch in!
• SUSTAINABLE FOOD AT UMBC! Chartwells has been doing tons of great things to go "green!

Zero Waste Events

Consider plant-based compostable dishware and flatware rather than plastic or Styrofoam for your next campus event with food and be sure to request a portable compost bin and pick up service through events services!  The new SGA Green Paws fund allows student organizations to acquire plant based compostable materials at no additional cost.

Do you have any questions or ideas about composting on campus?

Sustainability and the Environment

From innovative student ideas, to new courses and programs, to campus-wide initiatives, UMBC, as a growing research university, is practicing what it teaches by going green. The Princeton Review, in its new Guide to Green Colleges, recognized UMBC as one of 322 colleges and universities nationwide demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability.

UMBC’s sustainability efforts are thriving, with many undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty actively engaged in promoting, leading and initiating sustainability efforts. This past year, a group of undergraduates organized and hosted a statewide student conference on clean water. In June, we held our first workshop for Sustainability across disciplines, with faculty discussing opportunities for creative interdisciplinary collaboration and teaching innovations. Our new Global Studies track in Development, Health and the Environment and our new Chemical Engineering track in Environmental Engineering and Sustainability expand our ability to inform and engage in sustainability in the classroom and beyond.

The environmental work of faculty contributes significantly to our development as a research university and our strengths in the geosciences, with faculty applying new knowledge about environmental science and policy to advance health, safety, and the economy. UMBC recently ranked 18^th nationally among universities in federal research funding in the environmental sciences. Moreover, UMBC is the field headquarters for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (a federally-funded urban ecology project), and our campus is home to both the U.S. Geological Survey’s regional water science center and the Maryland Clean Energy Incubator.

We are continually advancing environmentally sustainable practices on campus through our research, courses, service, policies and operations. Since I signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007, we have taken many steps to reduce our campus carbon emissions by conserving energy, purchasing renewable energy, and raising awareness. To date, UMBC has reduced net emissions by 13.3% since committing to reduce carbon pollution in 2007. This was accomplished even with a 15% increase in enrollment and campus construction that resulted in a 2% increase in square footage.

How was this accomplished? Sourcing 20% of our annual electricity from renewable energy sources has been one major factor in our reduced carbon footprint. Recycling rates increased from 28% in 2011 to 40% of total waste in 2012 as UMBC participated in the national Recyclemania competition for the 5^th year, adopted a new composting program for food waste, offered e-cycling for electronics, and continued dual-stream recycling. We also advanced our sustainability goals by hiring, in 2012, our first full-time campus environmental sustainability coordinator, and we are continuing to reduce transportation-related emissions by optimizing transit and offering preferred parking to carpoolers. Our most recent construction includes the LEED Gold Certified addition to Patapsco Residence Hall, complete with our campus’s first green roof, and the LEED Silver Certified Performing Arts and Humanities Building (phase I).

Two more developments this summer have also improved our campus environment. In July, the campus went smoke-free. In August, the State of Maryland debuted the newly renovated Halethorpe MARC train station, increasing ease of use at one of the closest MARC stations to the UMBC campus. This renovation will help us continue reducing the size of our carbon footprint by allowing more students, faculty, and staff to easily commute to campus by rail. The university runs shuttles to the Halethorpe station and the BWI rail station as part of UMBC Transit.

Originally, the drive was intended for vehicles servicing the on-campus pool and provided access to chemical storage and treatment tanks. However, with the addition of the new campus center, the Commons, many began using the area as a through-way between buildings and this new project responds to the need for a safer, more attractive pedestrian thoroughfare that allows water to filter into the ground rather than puddling.

The design also extends an existing allee of trees with additional tree plantings. This project is on track for completion in the spring of 2013.

FTLA’s design will add walls, benches, a walkway, new pavement and plantings to the access road, while incorporating new drainage patterns to add a bioretention feature.

The bioretention feature is important to reduce stormwater runoff from entering streams on campus, and eventually the bay. With paved surfaces dominating the landscape in many areas, sediment, nutrients, and pollution gush into water ways during rain events, causing erosion and disrupting the water. With sediment causing murky water and blocking sunlight, and with nutrients causing alage blooms this is very dangerous to aquatic life. UMBC's pond, No Mow Zones, and protected natural spaces as well as pervious pavers and rain gardens also help to address this problem.

In addition, our new LEED construction protects water with a vegetated green roof on Patapsco Hall soaking up rain and a rainwater harvesting system on the roof of the new Performing Arts and Humanities Center capturing and reusing rainwater to irrigate the surrounding landscaping.

Many of UMBC’s older trees are being strangled by English ivy (hedera helix), a non-native invasive vine (NNI). A one-credit course will explore the the problem of non-native invasive specieis and challenge participants to protect UMBC trees.

Participants may seek information, form teams, develop work-plans, and document their activities.

Shared leadership and collaboration will characterize the course.

•  Tools, hats, gloves will be provided
•  Online resources
•  Hands-on outdoors work to protect trees 
•  Understand the issue, gain knowledge and implement solutions to NNIs (Non Native Invasives)

"English ivy is an aggressive invader that threatens all vegetation levels of forested and open areas, growing along the ground as well into the forest canopy……" - Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas, p. 105.

Instructors:

Dr. Mary Rivkin, Faculty, Education Department

Donna Anderson- Manager of Recycling and Grounds, Certfied arborist and trained horticulture expert, UMBC Facilities Management

With Phil Cho, Landscape Architect, UMBC Facilities Management

Contact 

Dr. Mary Rivkin: rivkin@umbc.edu

Thanks to UMBC BreakingGround for their support.

PAID Sustainability Outreach Internship Opportunity @ OCSS