Green: Sustainability Initiative

Our goal is to empower individuals, and the institution, to contribute to a sustainable community, through a deeper understanding of the ecological connections that bind us all together, through the creation of opportunities for action, and through ongoing assessment of our progress.

• NOW FEATURING - DID YOU KNOW?
  This page will give you updates on how we are doing with our Energy Conservation, our Recycling and Waste Management, our Composting, our LUGLY BIKE SHARE -etc.... Please visit periodically for new updates!
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RecycleMania is back for 2012!

For 10 weeks each spring, schools across North American and Canada participate in a friendly competition to help reduce waste, increase recycling, encourage improved behavior, and raise awareness of conservation issues across campus. Lesley University will now be competing for our third year.

During the 2011 10-week competition, we averaged 2.7 tons of recycling AND averaged 9.4 tons of landfill/trash waste each week.

This year our goal is to reach an average of 3.5 tons/week of recycling AND 7.5 tons/week of landfill/trash waste, demonstrating how we are recycling more and throwing out less!

Grand Champion Competition combines trash and core recyclable materials to determine a school's recycling rate as a percentage of its overall waste generation. Successful colleges and universities in this category demonstrate their achievement in both source reduction and recycling.

Waste Minimization Competition sees who produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (both recyclables and trash) per person. This competition is intended to reward those schools that generate the least amount of combined waste and recyclables, emphasizing reuse and source reduction over recycling.

Organic Waste-Targeted Material Competition that goes beyond the other competitions and schools compete in four targeted material categories including: paper, corrugated cardboard, bottles and cans, and food service organics.

Check out our rankings from previous years in the chart below:

This year we are tracking our RecycleMania data compared to 5 other area schools - Suffolk, Boston College, Brandeis, Emmanuel, and Wellesley.

Let's improve our numbers and beat the competition in 2012!!

RECYCLING COLLECTIONS for 2012!!!

We're collection eye glasses, keys, sneakers, random art and craft supplies, boots, technology and equipment, and more. For more details on the upcoming schedule, see the Recycling Information page.

LUGLY Bike Share 2011/2012

LUGLY Bikes will be taken offline and stored for the winter as early as December 1, 2011 or as late as December 15, 2011.

• Program Overview, Policies and Procedures [pdf]
• LUGLY Sign Out Sheet [pdf]
• Cambridge and Massachusetts Summary of Bike Laws [pdf]
• LUGLY Parking Maps [pdf]

COMPOSTING in the Student Center

• What to compost and what NOT to compost! [pdf]

You may have noticed we started composting in the Student Center! We will be reorganizing our waste collection bins to designate one built-in set for strictly composting, and the other built-in set for trash and recycling. The area adjacent to the vending machines will be designated composting collection station only. You will be able to throw out your food scraps, including your food service items -posted on the wall above the built-in. Everything else (not itemized on the built-in) must be carried over to the Trash/Recycling area adjacent to the Information Desk.

AASHE-Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education

2011/2012 Renewal -Instructions for signing onto the AASHE website as a member [doc].

Energy Conservation REMINDER

As a conservative measure - we are asking that all Lesley University members practice "Power Off"! Save Energy, Save Money!

• Power down your monitors, computers and laptops when you step away for more than 20 minutes
• For details on our "Power Off" program, download this brochure [pdf].