Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 58.49
Liaison Richard Johnson
Submission Date Nov. 11, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Rice University
OP-22: Waste Minimization

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.81 / 5.00 Richard Johnson
Director of Sustainability
Facilities Engineering and Planning
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Waste generated::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Materials recycled 563.82 Tons 571.03 Tons
Materials composted 120 Tons 120 Tons
Materials reused, donated or re-sold 0 Tons 0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator 1,771.28 Tons 1,888.67 Tons

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of residential students 2,824 2,824
Number of residential employees 71 71
Number of in-patient hospital beds 0 0
Full-time equivalent enrollment 6,446.67 6,071.33
Full-time equivalent of employees 2,861 28,420
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 Jan. 1, 2013 Dec. 31, 2013
Baseline Year Jan. 1, 2012 Dec. 31, 2012

A brief description of when and why the waste generation baseline was adopted:

These are the two most recently completed calendar years. The university switched recycling providers in 2011, and switched to single stream recycling at that time. There is data missing from 2010, and 2011 represents a major process change, so the appropriate baseline is 2012.


A brief description of any (non-food) waste audits employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any institutional procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

Rice's IT Department oversees computer purchasing, and they recycle the computers that are removed from service at that time.


A brief description of any surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:

Whenever a lab gets shut down, the Environmental Health and Safety department will send out a memo to all of the other research labs who can take materials as necessary. This prevents unnecessary waste from the various labs on campus since the materials are being reused. This includes glassware and lab equipment in addition to the various chemicals and gasses that are unused.

The IT department has a similar program called rice classifieds that allows the IT department to offer electronic waste to the faculty. Once the off-site Rice IT center accumulates enough electronics, it then pallets the electronics and sells them in bulk on Rice classifieds. This gives professors and staff the opportunity to purchase these goods and use them instead of adding them to the landfill.

The university also organizes an office supplies swap where every department can donate unused or unwanted office supplies. These include everything from staplers and file folders to office chairs and cabinets. Students, faculty, and staff can then pick through the stuff and take what they want or need, preventing the stuff from being thrown away unnecessarily.


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

All course catalogs and schedules are available only online. Students must log on to the Rice course catalog and sign up for classes through the registrar's website. No paper is used when looking up classes nor when registering for them.

Rice has also begun switching from paper timesheets to online submittal timesheets. Many departments are already taking advantage of the paperless timesheets over the tradition paper submittal. This is coupled with the preference to have employees sign up for direct deposit instead of receiving paper checks. The university has incentivized this option by allowing the employee to receive their check directly in their account without having to visit the payroll office. Next, the university also offers W-2s online instead of in paper form. The employee can then print as necessary the single sheet without having the associated mailing paper waste as well.

The office of procurement no longer will be accepting paper order forms, all requests must go through the online ordering system. This greatly reduces waste as previous order forms were 3 pages of carbon-paper per order. Now, no paper is generated as all orders are managed online.

All requests to housing and dining as well as environmental health and safety is through online submissions. Students, faculty and stuff do not need written requests for services nor repair anymore. Instead, the email or fill out the online form and the respective department will respond as necessary.


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

There is no free printing at Rice University. Every student must pay per sheet printed when using any of the on-campus printers.


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

The EcoReps have started a program called freecycle which allows students to place their unwanted goods at a central table for other students to take during move-out. Some of the residential colleges also offer summer storage. Students may keep their goods at the college over the summer. At the beginning of the next academic year, the goods are then auctioned off at a very low price to new and returning students. This has kept dozens of small refrigerators and microwaves out of the landfill.


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

The Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen collects materials such as cardboard, metal, wood and other scrap materials for use in rapid prototyping. They also collect scrap electronics and other materials that can be repurposed or taken apart for use in simple freshmen engineering designs. Unused materials that students order are also stored to allow future teams to make use of the materials in an effort to divert waste.


A brief description of any food waste audits employed by the institution:

Through the ENST 302/ SOCI 304 class, students have calculated the amount of pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste per capita for the institution.


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:

Blast chillers allow the kitchens to re-use food by preventing the food from going to waste. Combi-ovens are used to prevent shrinkage of meats, which results in higher yields.


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

Every campus dining hall uses tray-less dining. Rice University dining staff have also reduced plate sizes and portion sizes in the dining halls.


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):

Graduate students purchasing food from the Cohen House are provided with the option of a reusable to-go container, which can later be returned for cleaning and/or exchanged with an already cleaned container.


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):

Rice University relies heavily on reusable service ware for dine in meals. Reusable tumblers, mugs, plates and cutlery are provided to students for reuse at every meal. These are then cleaned and returned for further meals. In addition Rice has tray-less dining. Without trays, the number of dishes that get used are minimized and water is not wasted when used to clean the trays.


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:

Coffeehouse offers discounts for reusable mugs.


A brief description of other dining services waste minimization programs and initiatives:
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The website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization initiatives is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Performance year demographic data is for Fall 2013, baseline is from 2011-2012 academic year.

Materials reused, donated, and resold were not tracked for weights or volume.


Performance year demographic data is for Fall 2013, baseline is from 2011-2012 academic year.

Materials reused, donated, and resold were not tracked for weights or volume.

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.