Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

The Student Organization for Sustainability (SOS) sponsored by the Sustainability Advisory Group (SAG) conduct a water bottle campaign to raise awareness and reduce plastic water bottle use on campus. For the past 3 years all incoming freshmen receive a reusable water bottle and information on the Take Back the Tap campaign. The Take Back the Tap campaign at SIUE focuses on informing students on the facts of tap water vs. bottled water including safety, price, and environmental concerns and reducing bottled water sales on campus. SOS has showed the Take Back the Tap video, hosted blind water taste tests, talked with students about the facts, given students reusable water bottles, and installed water bottle refill station on campus. SOS also distributes water bottles at other events, such as Campus Sustainability Day and Earth Day. SIUE has participated in Recyclemania for the past 2 years.The campus Recyclemania campaign included posters in all residence halls (by SOS) and academic buildings. Education and awareness about campus recycling is a part of all sustainability related programs and events. As an example a campus wide recycling party was held in the University Center at the end of the Recyclemania reporting period to celebrate SIUEs success and to continue awareness and education of recycling and sustainability.

In the past 3 years SOS has distributed approximately 10,000 reusable water bottles. The campus installed refill stations in all academic buildings with counters that give SIUE the ability to measure refills on campus. The current count is 157,000 refills. SIUE has a campus wide Recyclemania marketing campaign that culminate with a Recycling Party where we discuss the current policies, compare the weights and goals. SIUE has increased its waste diversion rate by approximately 5% from 2011 to 2012.