Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	77.56
Liaison	John Pumilio
Submission Date	Oct. 11, 2022

STARS v2.2

Colgate University
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.34 / 8.00	John Pumilio Director of Sustainability Sustainability Office

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Parts 1 and 2. Waste per person

Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Materials recycled	104.69 Metric tons	44.23 Metric tons
Materials composted	33.02 Metric tons	0 Metric tons
Materials donated or re-sold	29.48 Metric tons	0 Metric tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Metric tons	0 Metric tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	776.32 Metric tons	958.89 Metric tons
Total waste generated	943.52 Metric tons	1,003.12 Metric tons

If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:

A brief description of the residual conversion facility:

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Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	July 1, 2019	June 30, 2020
Baseline Period	June 1, 2004	May 31, 2005

If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:

Colgate's baseline for landfill waste and recyclables was established during the 2004-5 fiscal year.

Colgate used 2019-20 as its performance year because that was the last uninterrupted year of full operations and data before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

FTE for employees below is for FY 2020 and does not match PRE is for FY 2021.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	2,690	2,561
Number of employees resident on-site	4	7
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	2,940	2,811
Full-time equivalent of employees	1,086	946
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	3,693	3,459.75

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.26 Metric tons	0.29 Metric tons

Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:

11.88

Part 3. Waste diverted from the landfill or incinerator

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:

17.72

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):

17.72

In the waste figures reported above, has the institution recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold the following materials?:

	Yes or No
Paper, plastics, glass, metals, and other recyclable containers	Yes
Food	Yes
Cooking oil	Yes
Plant materials	Yes
Animal bedding	Yes
White goods (i.e. appliances)	Yes
Electronics	Yes
Laboratory equipment	Yes
Furniture	Yes
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste	Yes
Scrap metal	Yes
Pallets	Yes
Tires	Yes
Other (please specify below)	Yes

A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:

We recycle all electronic waste generated on campus. This includes large items (TVs, monitors, computers, etc.) as well as small items (cables/cords, batteries, phones, laptops, etc.).

Optional Fields

Active Recovery and Reuse

Materials intended for disposal but subsequently recovered and reused on campus, performance year:

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Recycling Management

Does the institution use single stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Does the institution use dual stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Yes

Does the institution use multi-stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Contamination and Discard Rates

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:

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A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:

We have custom-designed recycling stations that serve as our campus standard. These stations have a hole for containers, a slot for paper, and a larger opening for trash. This reduces contamination rates and maintains consistency across campus.

Programs and Initiatives

A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:

Colgate participates in Race-to-Zero-Waste (RecycleMania) each year for 8 weeks. Each year, over 600 colleges and universities challenge each other to reduce waste, increase recycling, and raise general awareness of sustainability issues on campus. During RecycleMania, we collect and weigh all landfill trash and all recyclables on a weekly basis. We then compare our totals to previous years and with peer institutions across the country.

A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:

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A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

We limit the minimum purchase order to $50 (up from $35). This reduces overall deliveries and packaging. We are working with our office supplier to right-size packaging on office supply orders.

A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:

Colgate operates a Salvage Exchange program that takes and redistributes all office supplies, furniture (desks, closets, tables, etc.), and electronic devices (computers, televisions, printers, digital projectors, etc.) for reuse or recycle on campus or resale through public auction. http://blogs.colgate.edu/salvage-exchange/

A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:

During the 13 Days of Green event, there is a clothing swap on campus. Students donate clothes they no longer wish to wear and they can go to the swap and find "new" clothing of their own.

A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:

We installed print-release stations throughout Colgate's public printing areas. Students/employees must now release their print jobs before printing happens. This has saved many thousands of sheets of paper annually. We also default double-sided printing for all public printing stations. These measures and increased use of digital formats and public awareness about wasteful printing has resulted in nearly a 50 percent reduction in the amount of paper we are consuming as a university since 2009. In real numbers, this a over 2.5 million sheets of paper saved every year.

A brief description of the institution's initiatives to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:

We have all of our course catalogs, schedules and directories online and no longer make hard copies of our directories.

A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:

At the end of each academic year, COVE volunteers tour residence halls and apartments on campus to salvage unwanted and donated materials for local charitable organizations.

Volunteers collect, sort, and organize items for local non-profits to “shop” — at no cost — for items needed to cover their core functions and services.

Results
Last year, items included food, clothing, furniture, bedding, kitchen utensils, books, and toiletries. The 47 student, staff, and faculty volunteers combined to spend more than 470 hours collecting and sorting the items in Starr Hockey Rink for pickup by 30 non-profit organizations located throughout Central New York.

The estimated value of all salvaged items put into the hands of people who need them amounted to $60,000 in 2019. The organizations we work with for this program report that the individuals they serve receive much-needed supplies to furnish transitional housing, provide warm clothing and bedding and educational materials, and stock the food pantry shelves for our neighbors.

A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:

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Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:

https://www.colgate.edu/about/campus-services-and-resources/waste-minimization-and-recycling

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Landfill Waste:
Our landfill waste data goes back to 2007. A trendline gave us an estimate of 1,057 tons in 2005.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qcGApB8YVY1giFNDxFm_0ercuwmLhRRSImr2NCHlaR0/edit?usp=sharing

Recyclables:
Our recycling data is collected during the 10-week RecycleMania competition. We extrapolated this data for the year and came up with a total for 2019.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y6wNL4GomEQLOKTNfTgMOatimDcHxFMNPmjhNApMBig/edit?usp=sharing

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.