Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	55.74
Liaison	Kristyn Achilich
Submission Date	May 11, 2021

STARS v2.2

Saint Michael's College
OP-18: Waste Minimization and Diversion

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	1.81 / 8.00	Karen Talentino Professor of Biology Biology

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Parts 1 and 2. Waste per person

Figures needed to determine total waste generated (and diverted):

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Materials recycled	243.55 Tons	215.60 Tons
Materials composted	30 Tons	16 Tons
Materials donated or re-sold	18 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed through post-recycling residual conversion	0 Tons	0 Tons
Materials disposed in a solid waste landfill or incinerator	494 Tons	452.63 Tons
Total waste generated	785.55 Tons	684.23 Tons

If reporting post-recycling residual conversion, provide:

A brief description of the residual conversion facility:

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Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	Jan. 1, 2019	Dec. 31, 2019
Baseline Period	July 1, 2014	June 30, 2015

If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:

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

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Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	1,613	2,000
Number of employees resident on-site	10	0
Number of other individuals resident on-site	10	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	1,793	2,169
Full-time equivalent of employees	442	466
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	2,092	2,476.25

Total waste generated per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total waste generated per weighted campus user	0.38 Tons	0.28 Tons

Percentage reduction in total waste generated per weighted campus user from baseline:

Part 3. Waste diverted from the landfill or incinerator

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator by recycling, composting, donating or re-selling, performance year:

37.11

Percentage of materials diverted from the landfill or incinerator (including up to 10 percent attributable to post-recycling residual conversion):

37.11

In the waste figures reported above, has the institution recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold the following materials?:

	Yes or No
Paper, plastics, glass, metals, and other recyclable containers	Yes
Food	Yes
Cooking oil	Yes
Plant materials	Yes
Animal bedding	No
White goods (i.e. appliances)	Yes
Electronics	Yes
Laboratory equipment	Yes
Furniture	Yes
Residence hall move-in/move-out waste	Yes
Scrap metal	Yes
Pallets	Yes
Tires	Yes
Other (please specify below)	Yes

A brief description of other materials the institution has recycled, composted, donated and/or re-sold:

Batteries and light bulbs/ballasts
During move-out, approximately 18 tons of furniture and appliances were donated to local community resource agencies.

Optional Fields

Active Recovery and Reuse

Materials intended for disposal but subsequently recovered and reused on campus, performance year:

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Recycling Management

Does the institution use single stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Yes

Does the institution use dual stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Does the institution use multi-stream recycling to collect standard recyclables in common areas?:

Contamination and Discard Rates

Average contamination rate for the institution’s recycling program:

A brief description of any recycling quality control mechanisms employed:

The state of Vermont requires by law, single-stream recycling and composting. All buildings (on every floor), in every classroom and in every residential unit/apartment there are blue recycling bins and black/gray waste bins. Posters/signage is paired with all the bins in public/common areas. In every academic and administrative building, there are also food scrap bins on the first floor of every building; food scrap containers are located in the Trash/Recycling rooms of every Residential Hall and each apartment unit is given a food scrap bin (with labels) in the kit

Programs and Initiatives

A brief description of the institution's waste-related behavior change initiatives:

EcoReps and Resident Assistants promote recycling and waste reduction behaviors in various ways, through programming and signage, as well as presentations during Orientation.

A brief description of the institution's waste audits and other initiatives to assess its materials management efforts and identify areas for improvement:

ES 107 (Environmental Science) performs an annual audit of contamination of recycling, trash and food scrap containers in the academic building. The results are shared with the EcoReps, who incorporate it into their campus education initiatives.

A brief description of the institution's procurement policies designed to prevent waste:

Many institutional purchases are now made by the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, which means that we purchase larger quantities, and are able to negotiate a better price. Those items include cleaning supplies, paper products, electronics/technology, as well as services such as waste management.

A brief description of the institution's surplus department or formal office supplies exchange program that facilitates reuse of materials:

Office supplies are ordered collaboratively by office or division; surplus supplies are made available to other offices.

A brief description of the institution's platforms to encourage peer-to-peer exchange and reuse:

This is done informally, but effectively.

A brief description of the institution's limits on paper and ink consumption:

Current student printing policy is 1,000 pages are credited to each student account before the Fall Semester. Each student account is reset in August. The credit is viewable in dollar amounts, and it starts at $40. Each print represents .05 cents. When the student reaches $0, the account goes to a negative balance until it reaches -$10, at which point is hits a hard stop and the account is no longer able to print (scanning still works) until credits are purchased at .05 cents per print. In the two years of this policy, less than 50 students have purchased additional credits and none of them has applied more than $10.

The campus eliminated desktop printing and discontinued supporting any personal devices or fax machines in 2010. At that point, they were replaced with 104 Multifunctional Devices (MFP’s) in 34 buildings. In 2014, the number of MFP’s was reduced to 66. In 2018, the number of MFP’s was reduced to 44. Paper purchasing in that same period was reduced from roughly $24K to $11K.
The MFP devices are all energy efficient.

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

For many years, course catalogs and schedules were online. As part of our membership in a consortium with several other colleges, we utilize an Oracle software system for the management of nearly all administrative processes (Finance, Advancement, Procurement, Human Resources). Therefore, all internal and most external processes are online.

A brief description of the institution's program to reduce residence hall move-in/move-out waste:

For most of the past 15 years, the institution has run a Ditch the Dumpster program. During finals week, students are encouraged to donate certain items (including non-perishable food and clothing) that are then donated to various local organizations. A great deal of preparation is involved, across campus, preparing students for the process, organizing dumpsters and other drop-off points, and facilitating the transfer of materials to proper destinations.

A brief description of the institution's programs or initiatives to recover and reuse other materials intended for disposal:

GreenUp (student sustainability club) have designed and constructed a paper/cardboard/packaging recycling center in the Mailroom. The student EcoReps take responsibility for proper recycling or disposal of items, and encourage students to re-use the items, as well.

Website URL where information about the institution’s waste minimization and diversion efforts is available:

https://www.smcvt.edu/academics/center-for-the-environment/sustainability/recycle-and-compost/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

These waste data are from calendar year 2019; we did not have records of waste amounts for 2018 so we could not use data for the technical performance year, 2018-19. The resident student and FTE student numbers are from our performance year 2018-19.

Our membership in the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium has resulted in a great deal of resource sharing and waste minimization. A number of our offices are now shared (with consortium employees) and centralized offices, either partially or completely. This has saved money, and made many processes more efficient. In addition, the Consortium is able to negotiate better pricing and services with some of our largest vendors, such as Cigna insurance, and electronics vendors.

For Trash and Recycling data, we have converted to an Imputed Tonnage system, so that we pay a base amount, by the bin, rather than by weight. Therefore, our data are not as precise or accurate as they were during the baseline year when recycling and trash were weighed.

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.