| Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 48.64 |
| Liaison | Michelle Seppala Gibbs |
| Submission Date | May 2, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Hope College
OP-22: Waste Minimization
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.00 / 5.00 |
Kara
Slater Director of Operations Physical Plant |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
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Waste generated::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Materials recycled | 83.65 Tons | 83.04 Tons |
| Materials composted | 1,046.90 Tons | 1,375.07 Tons |
| Materials reused, donated or re-sold | 0 Tons | 0 Tons |
| Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator | 776.05 Tons | 313.20 Tons |
None
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Number of residential students | 2,445 | 2,601 |
| Number of residential employees | 12 | 12 |
| Number of in-patient hospital beds | 0 | 0 |
| Full-time equivalent enrollment | 3,119 | 3,318.30 |
| Full-time equivalent of employees | 718 | 680 |
| Full-time equivalent of distance education students | 0 | 0 |
None
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Year | Jan. 1, 2016 | Jan. 1, 2013 |
| Baseline Year | Dec. 31, 2016 | Dec. 31, 2013 |
None
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:
In the fall of 2016 Hope hired an outside consultant to complete a waste audit on two of our residential buildings.
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A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:
In the Dining Service area, historical food consumption data is used to forecast future production quantities which significantly reduces the amount of leftover foods produced. In addition, the amount of food displayed for use toward the end of each meal is reduced by lowering production and closing of non essential serving stations.
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A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:
All excess furniture and materials from office reconfigurations are put in storage for future use or donated to local resale stores.
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A brief description of the institution's efforts to make materials available online by default rather than printing them:
Hope attempts to make as much information available online as possible - including, but not limited to, course catalogs, course schedules, directories, handbooks, etc.
Printed materials are printed in limited amounts.
Hope also strongly encourages the use of systems like Google Docs so materials can be shared between students, faculty, and staff.
None
A brief description of any limits on paper and ink consumption employed by the institution:
Hope College's Computer Information Technology (CIT) Team sets all campus computers to default on a duplex (or double-sided) printing. This helps to reduce the amount of paper wasted. They also encourage using a lower ink level for standard printing as well.
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A brief description of any programs employed by the institution to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:
Hope’s Volunteer Services with the support of the “Green Team” and Physical Plant Staff has participated with Goodwill for the past four years to provide an alternative for students to donate food, clothing, electronics, furniture and carpet to promote the mission of the college. In addition, we provide recycling containers for all items not donated.
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A brief description of any other (non-food) waste minimization strategies employed by the institution:
Annually the college collects old phone books from students, faculty, and staff. In 2015-2017 this was opened up to the community by sharing information on the Holland-Hope College Sustainability Institute's website. Once the old phone books are collected, Physical Plant and Custodial staffs transport books to Holland Rescue Mission's Gateway Recycle Center.
Hope College student-athletes are teaming up with an awesome organization, Soles4Souls, to share our love for athletics and make a difference in the lives of others! Soles4Souls is an organization that reaches out to impoverished people and gives them hope by providing them with a pair of shoes to put on their feet. The organization also takes used shoes and gives them to entrepreneurs in other areas of the world who can re-purpose them.
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A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:
In the fall of 2016 Hope hired an outside consultant to complete a waste audit on our large cafeteria and grab-and-go grill food service station.
None
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:
These are currently collected and composted but not tracked at this time.
Dining Services also partners with Alternative Energy Solutions to recycle our waste vegetable oil. Rather than paying a company to pick up this product, AES picks it up at no charge to the college and converts it to bio-diesel. They then use it to produce electricity for local needs.
Excess prepared food in good condition is donated to a local community kitchen on a daily basis. This organization opens their doors to anyone in the community in need of a meal and support.
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A brief description of programs and/or practices to track and reduce post-consumer food waste:
Hope College operates two dining halls, both of which are completely trayless. The estimated amount of pre and post consumer food waste diverted from the landfill is 40 tons annually. Additionally, all post-consumer food waste is composted, but not tracked.
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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):
The Kletz Snack Bar - an on-campus grab-and-go grill and both dining halls offer reusable to-go containers on request. Students can use these containers for their meal and return them to the Kletz, where they are washed and reused. These containers are also available for purchase.
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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):
The two main dining halls offer reusable service ware on a daily basis. All single use food and beverage containers used on campus are certified compostable products.
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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:
Hope College offers students, staff, and faculty the option of purchasing reusable containers for both food and beverages. Refills using these containers are offered at a significant discount.
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A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:
Our new dish machine installed in the summer of 2014 will reduce the amount of concentrated chemicals by 1,500 # per year.
"Totally Trayless": Dining Services went trayless saving 120,000 gallons of water used to wash the trays and eliminating tons of food waste.
The new dishwashing machine will save the college 613,000 gallons of water (and $15,000) per year compared to the old one.
We have switched to a phosphorus-free dish detergent in attempt to protect the fragile Lake Macatawa Watershed.
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The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The waste service provider does not have an extensive record history for the college, so we are not able to provide any data prior to 2010.
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.