Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.25
Liaison Laura Bain
Submission Date Jan. 26, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Furman University
OP-22: Waste Minimization

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.32 / 5.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Waste generated::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Materials recycled 423.25 Tons 130 Tons
Materials composted 29.80 Tons 0 Tons
Materials reused, donated or re-sold 39 Tons 0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator 595 Tons 1,062 Tons

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of residential students 2,439 2,361
Number of residential employees 0 0
Number of in-patient hospital beds 0 0
Full-time equivalent enrollment 2,769 2,688
Full-time equivalent of employees 848 841
Full-time equivalent of distance education students 0 0

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
Start Date End Date
Performance Year July 1, 2013 June 30, 2014
Baseline Year July 1, 2005 June 30, 2006

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:
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A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:

North Village Waste Audit

Earlier this year, Dr. Dripps and his class conducted a Furman Residential Garbage Waste Audit which revealed that 41 percent of the garbage by volume and 25 percent of the garbage by weight could have been recycled under the current campus recycling program.

- See more at: http://newspress.furman.edu/2014/03/its-trash-day/#sthash.F7UO9TBP.dpuf


A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

Furman encourages recycling and provides containers throughout campus to aid in your recycling efforts


A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
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A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:

Our online system, Moodle, allows teachers to put syllabi, readings,and schedules online; it even lets students turn in digital work and even take quizzes and test online rather than with printed paper. Furman's course catalog, course schedules, and directories are all online as well.


A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:

There is a printing quota of 500 pages per semester for each student. All library printers print double-sided automatically.


A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:

Furman has a move-in recycling program, where a group of students set up recycling stations outside of the dorms and collects the cardboard and boxes used during the move-in process.


A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:

The North Village Waste Audit looked at how much food that could have been composted was thrown away.


A brief description of any programs and/or practices to track and reduce pre-consumer food waste in the form of kitchen food waste, prep waste and spoilage:

Furman Dining Services gives all of its pre and post-consumer food waste to the Furman Farm to be composted. The Dining Hall keeps track of how much of each item of is consumed and over-time has developed a system that very closely predicts how much of each thing should be prepared at each meal so as to reduce waste.


A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:

Furman Dining Services gives all of its pre and post-consumer food waste to the Furman Farm to be composted. The Dining Hall keeps track of how much of each item of is consumed and over-time has developed a system that very closely predicts how much of each thing should be prepared at each meal so as to reduce waste. We have tray less dining as well.


A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable and/or third party certified compostable to-go containers for to-go food and beverage items (in conjunction with a composting program):

Furman provides 100% compostable to-go containers and cups in the Dining Hall.


A brief description of the institution's provision of reusable service ware for “dine in” meals and reusable and/or third party certified compostable service ware for to-go meals (in conjunction with a composting program):

All service ware in the Dining Hall is washed and reused. The to-go containers and cups are compostable.


A brief description of any discounts offered to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in to-go food service operations:

-


A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:

Dining Services offers several hydration stations throughout campus, which allows students to use filtered water stations to fill up water bottles rather than use plastic water bottles.


The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.