University of Nebraska - Lincoln
EN-4: Outreach Materials and Publications

Starting in April 2017, the Office of Sustainability released its inaugural monthly newsletter called "The Sustainability Scoop". The newsletter covers the four main pillars of sustainability at UNL: academics, engagement, facilities, and operations. The newsletter also features an individual highlight of a student, alumni, faculty, or staff who is doing something inspiring or innovative in the field of sustainability. The monthly newsletter also encourages people to get involved and attend sustainability related events on campus and in the community.

The "Smart Choice" campaign seeks to expose the campus community to all the sustainable features of the University. The signage employs positive feedback strategies to show students, faculty, and staff how their university is working to enhance campus sustainability. Smart Choice also shows the community how their actions are helping and reinforces good habits.

The Office of Sustainability created a Green Map that lists all of the bottle filling stations on campus to help students find the one closest to them and encourage them to refill instead of buying a plastic water bottle from the vending machine.

https://sustainability.unl.edu/bottle-filling-stations

University Housing and University Dining Services implemented new sustainability practices that worked to reduce paper consumption when communicating with students. The new practices include moving promotional messaging from table tents onto digital signs. The policy went into effect August 1, 2016.

A strategic communications plan to install digital signs was developed in 2014 and the first phase of installation in dining centers was completed last year. Phase two of the project identified additional key locations and installation has been ongoing throughout the 2016 academic year. Phase three will expand signs into residence hall traffic ways.

University Housing also supported sustainability efforts during move-out. University Housing has partnered with Goodwill, UNL Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) and the Student Affairs Huskers Helping Huskers Pantry+ to collect items as students leave their residence hall rooms. Students see information in residence halls in mid-April on how they can support sustainability efforts as they move out of the residence halls. In spring of 2019, this move out program also included a furniture drive where students who would otherwise put unwanted furniture in the dumpster, could donate it to a local non profit working to help the formally incarcerated get back on their feet.

Dining Services installed their first Liquid Food Composter (Bio-Digester) at Selleck dining. All food scraps now go into the digester and not to the landfill. As we gain more information on digester use, we will continue to install these machines in each of our dining units. The Dining director provides tours to students who want to learn more about the dining hall composting.