Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	48.46
Liaison	Gabrielle Lommel
Submission Date	Dec. 16, 2020

STARS v2.2

Concordia College - Moorhead
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.26 / 8.00	Jackie Maahs Sustainability Coordinator Student Engagement

"---" 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	98 Tons	76.86 Tons
Materials composted	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	360 Tons	360 Tons
Total waste generated	458 Tons	436.86 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	May 1, 2019	April 30, 2020
Baseline Period	May 1, 2018	April 30, 2019

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:

This baseline aligns with the timeline for our Climate Action Plan and Greenhouse Gas Emissions baseline.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	1,141	1,256
Number of employees resident on-site	9	7
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	1,989	2,075
Full-time equivalent of employees	551	518
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	2,192.50	2,260.50

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.21 Tons	0.19 Tons

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

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:

21.40

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

21.40

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	No
Cooking oil	No
Plant materials	No
Animal bedding	No
White goods (i.e. appliances)	No
Electronics	No
Laboratory equipment	No
Furniture	No
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste	Yes
Scrap metal	No
Pallets	No
Tires	No
Other (please specify below)	No

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

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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?:

Yes

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

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:

The Office of Sustainability and Facilities Management have partnered to create a student position, Recycling Specialists. This positions empties and monitoring recycling in the residence halls. In order to combat contamination in recycling, the Specialists bring their observations to the Ecorepresentatives in each hall so they can start an education campaign. For example, plastic was being thrown in to the aluminum bin. The Ecorepresentatives posted education signs and send out emails regarding the correct location of plastic recycling.

Programs and Initiatives

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

The Office of Sustainability continually works with Facilities Management to increase educational signage near recycling bins on campus. By offering graphic representation of materials that can be recycled, building occupants tend to be less confused.

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:

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

Each Winter, the Green Office Program puts on an Office Supply Free Sale. The weeks leading up to the sale, the Sustainability Office collects unused and not longer needed office supplies from offices across campus. These supplies are then organized and put out on tables in the campus center atrium. Students, faculty, and staff are then welcome to visit the tables on the day of the event and take whatever they would like for free. All leftover materials are then donated to the campus Free Store, local thrift stores, recycled, or disposed of if necessary.

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

The Office Supply Free Sale as well as the Free Store, which is an on campus location for students to exchange and reuse materials for free.

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

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

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

Eco-Representatives in the residence halls help organize programs for move-out waste reduction. In the week(s) leading up to move-out, bins are placed in each residence hall, often in laundry rooms, to collect unwanted but gently used items such as clothing, and small household items, which are donated to resale nonprofits. Larger items such as furniture and large lamps can be donated as well; these items are picked up by a resale non-profit at the end of move-out. Facilities Management assists with storage of these items in order to increase the times and days during which students can donate larger items. As during fall move-in, additional recycling, particularly cardboard, receptacles and dumpsters are placed near residence halls.

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:

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Concordia's trash disposal service does not track waste weights for the college, so landfill waste is tracked via a one week long visual waste audit conducted by students and staff. the waste audit is conducted once every three years. The last audit was conducted in 2018-2019.

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.