Arizona State University
ER-3: Sustainability in New Student Orientation

New Student Orientation includes the ‘Sun Devil Way’ presentation. The presentation covers the three pillars of the ASU community: Achievement, Engagement and Responsibility, with emphasis added to the student’s responsibility regarding sustainability. Printed handouts are kept to a minimum; instead electronic publishing is utilized for some materials and information. Orientation provides students and guest with reusable grocery-type bags to encourage limiting waste. Recycling is prominent and available for plates, cups and eating utensils at lunch. Students and guests are also provided with re-useable lanyards (name tag holders) that students and guests can reuse. Often times however, the students and guests return the lanyard to a staff member at the conclusion of the orientation program to be used again. Additionally, many first year students and their families participate in Family Weekend held during the fall semester. Family Weekend 2009 in partnership and collaboration with the Green Team, was award ASU’s President Crow’s award for sustainability as the event was considered a zero-waste initiative. To site an example of the zero-waste effort, the Send-off Breakfast hosted approximately 400 participants and only generated 5 pounds of trash. Obviously, extensive efforts were undertaken with recycling, composting and assessment to achieve these results.