Central Michigan University
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education

GLISS: The Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable MiAPPA: The Michigan Association of Physical Plant Administrators (MiAPPA) is an affiliate of the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA). We are also affiliated with the Midwest APPA (MAPPA). This organization is comprised of higher education facilities professionals, business members and emeritus institutional members. MiAPPA typically hosts a winter conference and a summer conference focused on the innovations and best practices for the facilities and institutions that we serve. These conferences rotate to various university campuses in Michigan. The conferences also serve as an opportunity for business members to network with the key facilities professionals that make the decisions on how to improve the operations of their respective campuses. MiAPPA believes in developing the future of Facilities Management. They offer the Supervisor toolkit annually at the winter conference. MiAPPA also promotes to our members the APPA University EFP and CEFP programs. MiAPPA currently offers scholarship opportunities for young facilities professionals of member institutions to attend these programs annually. http://miappa.appa.org/about.cfm MRC: The Michigan Recycling Coalition fosters sustainability by leading, educating, and mobilizing business, government, non-profit, and individuals to advance their own and collective resource use and recovery initiatives in Michigan. Our Vision - Members of the MRC look forward to a future... *Where natural resources are managed to the environmental and economic benefit of every community. *Where all possible uses for a given material are exhausted before being managed as waste. *Where waste is managed in a way that causes minimal harm to habitat, wildlife and the environment. *Where Michigan's high public & private waste diversion and participation rates are common knowledge and a source of State pride and economic benefit. *Where recycling and composting are vital and sustainable services and collected materials have value in industries globally. *Where the MRC and its members are recognized, influential leaders in effective resource use and recovery throughout the state.

Director of Facility Operations, Jay Kahn, presented a comprehensive composting presentation, modeling Central Michigan University's Zero Waste Dining Program. Mr. Kahn has recently attended a conference known as, Summit Squared. There he was able to present about CMU's composting program and how the zero waste dining program contributes food to local food pantries.

Central Michigan University has been involved with many different award programs over the years including: Game Day Challenge, Recycle Mania, Food Recovery Challenge and the Green Cleaning Award, to name a few. Game Day Challenge website, reads: The GameDay Recycling Challenge is a nationwide competition among universities to reduce and recycle the waste generated at home football games. During each competition cycle, participating schools report recycling, compost and attendance data for at least one home football game. In 2015, 99 schools rallied fans to recycle an impressive 2.1 million pounds of bottles, cans, paper, cardboard and more, and compost 457,000 pounds of food organics from football stadiums and tailgating areas while also raising awareness and inspiring action around waste reduction. http://gamedaychallenge.org/ Recycle Mania website, reads: RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period each spring, colleges across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling. With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more. National recognition is provided to the winning school in each category on the RecycleMania website and in a national press release. Winning schools receive an award made out of recyclable materials, and win the right to host that category’s special traveling trophy for the coming year. https://recyclemaniacs.org/about Food Recovery Challenge website, reads: Sustainable Management of Food is a systematic approach that seeks to reduce wasted food and its associated environmental impacts over the entire life cycle, starting with extraction of natural resources and manufacturing, sales and consumption and ending with decisions on recycling or final disposal. Through a Sustainable Management of Food approach, EPA is helping change the way our society protects the environment and conserves resources for future generations. Building on the familiar concept of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle", this approach changes how we think about environmental protection and recognizes the impacts of the food we waste. https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/sustainable-management-food-basics Food Recovery Challenge is a data driven recognition platform designed to promote source reduction, alternative uses for unused foods, composting and landfill diversion of organics. In the past year, CMU has engaged in Recycle Mania, Game Day Challenge and the Food Recovery Challenge. In 2016, Central Michigan University received recognition within Recycle Mania with a total diversion rate of 34.1% for the competition. Additionally, CMU was recognized for diverting a total weight of 145 tons of materials from landfills during the competition. 2014-2015 Consecutively, Central Michigan University was awarded the Food Recovery Challenge Award for Colleges & Universities in region 5 for two years running.

The Great Lakes Institution for Sustainable Systems, was created by Central Michigan University's Thomas Rhorer: The Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems (GLISS) at Central Michigan University promotes academic programs, research, community outreach, and campus operations that are dedicated to the advancement of sustainable systems. The institute will promote these goals through interdisciplinary collaboration within the University and through complementary external partnerships to benefit the community, the Great Lakes region, and the world. https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/chsbs/GLISS/About/Pages/default.aspx

Central Michigan University works with Grand Valley State University, as well as other local universities to share resources and materials aiding in the establishment and enhancement of Zero Waste Dining Operations.

Central Michigan University has recently engaged in a mentoring/collaboration relationship with the University of Toledo. The Rockets Recycling program and SEED make University of Toledo an ideal model for CMU to collaborate with. Through ongoing efforts, CMU aims to emulate parts of the SEED program, as well as develop sustainability innovations based on collaboration.