University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

The Fill it Forward program https://z.umn.edu/fillitforward More than 8,000 incoming first year and transfer students receive a custom UMN reusable water bottle each fall during Welcome Week. The bottle design varies by year, but every year's design includes a scannable barcode specific to the University of Minnesota. Students can scan the barcode on bottles (or on water filling stations across campus) each time they refill a reusable bottle to earn points toward rewards. The purpose of the program is to encourage use of reusable beverage containers to reduce waste from single-use plastics and to get students accustomed to living sustainably on campus from the start of their education at the University of Minnesota. If students prefer a different bottle or container, UMN barcode stickers can be added to any bottle for use with the Fill it Forward app. The program is also promoted on social media and our website, and on water filling stations across campus.

"More than 8,000 students receive a reusable water with a scannable barcode each year for use in the Fill it Forward program. UMN's team impact to date: (Source: https://www.fillitforward.com/umn-fill-it-forward-program/)
3,751 lbs waste diverted from landfill
70,772 kwH of power saved
55,017 lbs of emissions saved
750 lbs of ocean pollution prevented
125,038 Total bottles diverted"

The Stop the Thud/Lights Out for Birds program started in 2020 to identify which windows and buildings are posing the biggest threats to birds on campus. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities has made a commitment to reducing bird collisions with University buildings by pledging to retrofit buildings which have established patterns of bird-glass collisions and by ensuring that new buildings and renovations are compliant with bird-safe guidelines. During migration season, especially, staff are encouraged to make sure that interior lights are turned off at the end of the day, specially on higher floors that are directly in line with bird flight patterns. Staff are also encouraged to report bird strikes and bird fatalities including photos and location tags with an online form (https://z.umn.edu/birdstrike) to help identify buildings that may pose a threat to bird safety. This program was promoted via various social media channels, webpages, and email newsletters. Additionally, digital TV signage was displayed in several buildings on campus and staked signage was displayed across campus during migration season, encouraging the University community to report bird collisions and to keep unnecessary lights off at night. https://z.umn.edu/stopthethud

A total of 232 bird collision reports were submitted between March-November 2021, 189 of which were identified as resident species (28) or migratory species (161). Collisions were reported at a total of 70 different buildings on campus. 45 reports were submitted in the spring migration season, 22 during the summer, and 165 during the fall migration season. Collision locations and additional data is available at https://z.umn.edu/stopthethud/. As a result of this campaign, data is being used to identify buildings that would be good candidates for bird safe glass and other mitigation strategies.

Green Labs Program: The Green Labs Program was designed to promote sustainable practices in lab spaces on campus. The pilot of this program began with waste management changes and is now focusing on energy efficiency and emissions reductions practices. All practices and infrastructure changes are being piloted with the goal of expanding the program to many more labs in the future. Labs can commit to actions that are feasible for their lab space, including changing freezer temperatures to use less energy, recycling lab plastics, composting paper towels and kimwipes in our organics recycling, recycling styrofoam, shutting sashes, and turning off equipment when not in use. Labs receive green labs stickers to place around the labspace as reminders to shut the sash, turn equipment off, put paper towels in the organics recycling, and more. https://z.umn.edu/greenlabs

In FY 2020 we collected 13.7 tons of lab plastics for recycling. We have lab plastics collections in approximately 200 labs on campus. We're collecting around 60 lbs of paper towels for composting per week from labs.