Pomona College
IN-2: Innovation 2

Sustainability checkout program The Sustainability Integration Office’s (SIO) checkout program provides students with equipment for sustainable living on campus. These items provide the campus community with reduced hurdles or transaction costs for trying various technologies and for engaging in various sustainable behaviors (e.g. line-drying, composting), and introduce students to technologies and equipment that they can continue to utilize after they leave campus. These items are also showcased in the SIO’s booth at the City of Claremont’s annual Earth Day Festival, where the local community is introduced to the same behaviors and technologies that are used on campus. In this way, the College’s efforts in sustainability reach far beyond campus and far beyond a student’s time at the College. The SIO distributes free CFL light bulbs across campus, provides free semester- or year-long checkout of laundry drying racks and compost buckets, and provides free use of Activeion Ionator chemical-free cleaning units for personal cleaning. The program also provides "Greenware" zero waste events kits available for checkout, including reusable plates, cups, bowls, and silverware, a compost bucket, 100% recycled napkins, and signage for events on campus. Launched by student initiative in 2009 and funded in part by the President’s Sustainability Fund, the laundry rack program began with 25 racks and now totals 67 racks with a waiting list of over 60 students requesting racks. After extensive surveying of the student body, four models were chosen to accommodate different student needs (e.g. space, quantity of laundry to dry, etc.). The racks allow students to dry their clothing indoors, in a private, secure space without fear of theft (there are also wall-mounted laundry racks installed in some laundry rooms). Tumble dryers are enormous energy consumers and line-drying can prolong the life of clothing. Also launched by student effort and funded in part by the President’s Sustainability Fund, approximately 50 compost buckets are available for check out by students. These filtered buckets allow students to collect compostable wastes in their residence hall before disposing of these wastes in the six large compost bins placed throughout residential areas of campus or at the on-campus organic Farm, where the compost is eventually processed. This compost is then used either at the Farm or in the Dining Services herb garden. Students checking out buckets often place them in hallways, suites, or trash rooms for communal use, and buckets are placed in kitchens for summer residents (when most students are cooking for themselves). For the previous two years, green cleaning kits have also been available for student checkout from Resident Advisor desks for personal cleaning. When the College transitioned toward using Activeion Ionator chemical-free, ionized water cleaning units in 2010, the three Resident Advisor desks were each given two Ionator units to check out to students instead of certified green chemicals. These units come with information about why this type of technology is important, how to use it, and its environmental benefits. One unit is also available for checkout by students, staff, and faculty at the Sustainability Integration Office. Most recently, the SIO has added Greenware kits to the checkout program. These kits provide groups, departments, and offices on campus with reusable diningware and materials for composting wastes from their event, as well as detailed signage to post at the event which builds awareness about appropriate waste disposal on campus. The sustainability checkout program allows students a hassle-free and cost-free way to engage in sustainability lifestyle behaviors on campus; behaviors that will follow them beyond graduation. Several students have noted that they didn’t even know they could dry laundry on a rack or compost food waste, but that having these tools available to them for free has changed their perspective. Many students have also asked where they could buy their own racks and buckets upon graduating or leaving for the summer, which indicates that the College’s sustainability checkout program has an impact beyond the campus.