University of Missouri
SD-1: New Student Orientation

Summer Welcome leaders receive training from the MU Sustainability Coordinator on sustainability topics to include in their summer welcome tour. During the summer welcome visits, students receive information about the Sustainability Office and our programs in their welcome packet. The Sustainability Office also has a staffed booth during the Summer Welcome event as an opportunity to speak with all incoming freshman.

Sustain Mizzou a student group helped organize a sustainable living fair on September 9, 2012. The Fair is mid-Missouri’s premier sustainability education event; a great learning opportunity for those who want to make Earth-friendly lifestyle choices. It features eight on-site workshops, three mini-solar tours, and approximately 30 booths set up by area organizations promoting sustainable lifestyles. A highlight of the event will be a 1:45 p.m. keynote talk by green energy and building guru Dan Chiras, Director of the Evergreen Institute. Chiras is the author of 30 books, including numerous titles on residential green energy such as Power from the Sun and The Solar House, as well as books on green building, including Green Home Improvement and The Natural House. His keynote will address the topic: “The Sustainable Energy Revolution Has Begun!” In addressing the subject, Chiras notes, “For years, solar and wind energy were nothing more than a promise and dream. Today, they are the two fastest growing sources of energy in the world and are quickly becoming mainstream players in the world’s energy supply. http://sustainmizzou.students.missouri.edu/?p=1705 USGBC-Student Chapter-Mizzou (formerly known as Emerging Green Builders) is a club for students interested in sustainable design and green building techniques. Their club members consist of mainly Architectural Studies students; however it is open to anyone who shares our interests. They meet every month to discuss new technologies, systems, and materials that aide the world of green design. They also share how one can use these innovations in our project designs to become more familiar with them. This group is made to be an educational experience for their members; trips to local buildings and meetings with architects and manufacturers are frequent. In the past year, they have met with local architects in Columbia to discuss green design strategies, such as the Eco School House, designed by Nick Peckham. They have also met with other local chapters, which mostly consist of working professionals, allowing for them to network. Trips to Kansas City and St. Louis were frequent to see new design tactics first hand. They have also participated in different charity events, including Habitat for Humanity.

Sustain Mizzou is a non-partisan 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization run by student volunteers at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Our mission is to promote a sustainable way of life at the University of Missouri-Columbia through education, cooperation, and local action regarding the environment. Sustain Mizzou is active across campus with year-long and seasonal projects including Environmental Reading and Media Group Footprint Magazine Great Outdoors Local Food for Local Food Drive Recycled Notebooks RecyclInk Re-purposed T-Shirts Stream Team & River Relief Sustainable Living and Research House (Sustainahouse) Tigers for Community Agriculture Tiger Tailgate Recycling Special Events E-Waste Drive Earth Day Fresh Beets benefit concert Gulf Sounds benefit concert No Impact Week Sustainability Week

With sustainability and environmental friendliness rising to the forefront of university consciousness, Mizzou kicked off the academic year with a quietly green bang, showing you don’t have to sacrifice convenience — or flavor — to hold a large but low-impact party. Eric Cartwright, an executive chef with Campus Dining Services, had the idea to make Mizzou’s annual Fall Welcome Picnic a zero-waste event. After doing research on what it would take to get all recyclable or compostable materials, Cartwright worked with the CDS Marketing Manager Andrew Lough, the CDS purchasing coordinator and Campus Facilities to make it happen. “I was pretty skeptical at first,” Lough says, watching thousands of students file in to the Mizzou Recreation Complex for the picnic. “Then I was asking those what-about questions: ‘Well, what about your plates? What about your cups?’ He had answers for every single one of them.” Although the team was unable to make the get-together truly zero waste, more than 99 percent of the picnic materials (by volume) were either recyclable or compostable. All of the service ware (plates, cups, forks and napkins) was made from compostable materials. Instead of grabbing portioned packets for condiments, students picked up reusable and recyclable bowls, taking only as much ketchup or relish as they needed. The bags used to transport the material from the site were compostable. Even the packaging the food products came in was recyclable, with the exception of some box liners. http://mizzouwire.missouri.edu/stories/2009/zero-waste/index.php

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period, colleges across the United States and Canada report the weekly amount of recycling and trash collected and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling. With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more. National recognition is provided to the winning school in each category on the RecycleMania website and in a national press release. Winning schools receive an award made out of recyclable materials, and win the right to host that category’s special traveling trophy for the coming year. http://sustainability.missouri.edu/topics/recycling.html