Northern Arizona University
OP-22: Waste Minimization

The baseline year was adopted because it was the first year that amounts were accounted for.

On October 20, 2013, Facility Services in coordination with Campus Dining audited the waste stream from the homecoming football game. Various waste streams were inventoried and weighed. All recyclables were recycled properly.

The NAU Purchasing department has established policies that address sustainable purchasing in the "Contracting and Purchasing Services Policy Manual." Among other items, when possible, practical and feasible, the University will strive to select products that are: Durable as opposed to single use or disposable, Non or minimally toxic, preferably biodegradable, Contain a high recycled content, especially post consumer recycled content, highly recyclable at the end of the life-cycle, and shipped responsibly by combining shipments with other shipments to the University or region with minimal packaging consistent with care of product made from recycled and/or recyclable materials. The full policy can be found here: http://nau.edu/Contracting-Purchasing-Services/_Forms/Policies/204/

Northern Arizona University is required by law to maximize use of all assets and, when it has no further use for them, maximize returns on their sale. We are not allowed to give surplus property away. The Surplus Property Department is the only NAU department authorized to dispose of surplus property. The primary role of the Surplus Property department is to ensure that the excess property generated by NAU will be handled in a method that both maximizes the return to the University and meets the disposal requirements of the state and federal governments. Departments may use property surplus to obtain used materials on campus and when materials are not used within the University, they are sold to the public.

Course catalogs are available at: http://catalog.nau.edu/ Course schedules available through the student online LOUIE system. Directory is found on the front page of the NAU website: http://nau.edu/

In the library and computer labs on campus there either is no printing or charged printing. Free printing is limited to some Graduate Assitant Offices only.

The "Leave Green" campaign was the marketing effort to enhance the existing residence hall move out waste diversion program benefiting local, not-for-profit agencies. The Leave Green logo, title, and enhanced marketing materials were created in cooperation with a Hooper Sustainability Grant (awarded to undergraduate students Emily Goff and Melissa Phillips), NAU Residence Life, NAU Recycling, and the Merriam Powell Center for Environmental Research. NAU Residence Life annually invites local non-profit agencies to submit applications to participate in this program. Past participants include Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, St. Mary's Food Bank, and the Northern Arizona Food Bank. The selected agencies are granted permission to place donation bins inside of every residence hall on campus to collect gently used clothing, household appliances, reusable furniture, unused school supplies, and non-perishable foods.

At the University Union and Dubois center people can drop off batteries and printer cartridges to be recycled. Batteries can also be recycled at Facility Services as well as light bulbs. There is also a central drop-off location location for glass in parking lot P62B.

NAU annually audits the waste stream of the University which includes our dining areas. NAU Campus Dining tracks and reports their waste stream of landfill, recyclables and compost to the EPA Food Recovery Challenge annually using LeanPath software, City of Flagstaff tipping weights of recycling and refuse and the NAU Composting Programs daily weight logs for tracking and measurement. Dining Services also coordinates “Weigh the Waste” events within the resident dining halls throughout the academic year to educate students on daily food waste and its impact on the environment and provide analysis of post-consumer waste.

NAU Campus Dining measures and carefully analyzes food waste through a program developed specifically to minimize waste, named LeanPath. LeanPath software records all pre-consumer food waste daily, the reason for it being composted or thrown away, as well as provides strategic action plans to reduce food waste. These numbers are also cross referenced with the NAU Compost Programs daily weight logs. NAU Campus Dining participates in the EPA Food Recovery Challenge yearly which provides resources and webinar training to reduce food waste and requires yearly reporting of food waste and a commitment to reduce food waste each year. Through the use of these tools, we have seen a 20% reduction on pre-consumer food waste in our main dining facilities.

NAU Campus Dining Services coordinates events like “Weigh the Waste” within the resident dining throughout the academic year and "Slash the Trash" at the Skydome during the football season to track and bring awareness to waste reduction specifically post-consumer waste. Students sort and weigh the waste and analyze the post-consumer waste stream for improvements on waste minimization as well as become more empowered as individuals to reduce their waste footprint overall.

Several dining locations use only compostable containers for “to go” orders. All retail cold beverage cups in the 16 oz size (which is the size that comes with the meal plan transfers) are compostable. NAU Campus Dining provides compostable to-go ware for catering events and at specific retail locations.

Both resident dining locations use “dine in” service-ware. Additionally, the Green Scene Café customers have the option to use “dine in” plates and silverware if they choose to eat in the café, which a majority of the customers do or use a re-usable container for “to go” orders.

Reusable beverage containers can be used at any retail dining location across campus for a $0.50 discount on a beverage purchase. At the Green Scene Café reusable to go sandwich and salad containers are available for purchase which also come with the incentive of the $0.50 discount each time the container is used.

NAU Campus Dining strives to reduce their impact on the environment and reduce consumption of natural resources by employing best practices in the areas of waste minimization (i.e. LeanPath program), energy reduction and water conservation. Education and outreach to the campus community are also facilitated through a variety of Campus Dining marketing vehicles such as table tents, LCD screen imaging and special events to encourage reducing waste on campus, relating to food waste, recycling and how to get involved with such projects on campus. Other initiatives Campus Dining has implemented to reduce waste that have not already been listed include the “Take A Taste” program encouraging tasting of foods before taking an entire plate, trayless dining, using products (napkins and some containers) made of recycled materials, removing plastic bags and Styrofoam from Dining’s retail services, and water refill stations. Take a Taste is a program within resident dining; staff at each platform keeps a small number of portions size samples of the main entrée available for a taste test. Along with the signage “Take A Taste” I’s main objective is to encourages customers to try a small sample of the dish at the before taking a full serving to ensure the least amount of food is wasted. Trayless Dining reduces water waste, energy waste and food waste in our residential dining locations. Every time a meal is served without a tray, a quarter of water, one ounce of food waste, plus the detergent and energy needed for washing trays is saved. By using recycled materials and non petroleum based products we are decreasing the amount of virgin materials being harvested and fossil fuels in the production of for disposable ware. A large component of the retail dining is “to-go”. This requires a number of disposable materials. Dining Services work with their vendors to encourage the use of sustainable products and ensure proper recycling of containers when possible. Campus Dining went Styrofoam free across our retail dining locations the fall of 2012. Dining went bagless in the fall of 2010 which has annual removed 33,000 plastic bags from the campus supply chain and saved over a ton of carbon in production and disposable of the bags. All of the brown napkins are made of 100% recycled materials. Each case of napkins used in our express dispenser saves, 126 gallons of water, one cubic feet of landfill space, and seven gallons of water (compared to virgin fiber products). Express napkin dispensers make it easy for you to get the napkins you need while reducing the number used and wasted, saving valuable natural resources. Filtered water refill stations are available in both the University Union and the du Bois Center. Several other hydration/water bottle fill stations have been installed in various buildings on campus. These stations encourage the use of reusable containers instead of buying individually bottled water.

Performance year 2011