Projects.
Below are some of the programs promoting sustainability at Drew:
A bicycle rental program for students to get around campus and downtown using alternative transportation. Simply register for the program and pick up your bicycle and lock! Bicycles are painted yellow with ‘Drew University’ on the frame.
Need a ride? Leave your car at home and take a Prius Zipcar! Located in the Tilghman lot, the cars are available by registering at zipcar.com/drew. Drew Zipcars are available 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Registration includes gas, maintenance and insurance. Whether you need to pick up groceries, or go for an interview, leave your car at home and grab a Zipcar!
The C’05 Class Gift is aiming to help Drew’s sustainability efforts. With a goal of $5,000, the class gift will purchase several Elkay water filling stations on campus in support of a proposed campus-wide ban on single-use plastic water bottles. Drew has already begun this process, and this gift will help to add additional stations in the DoYo and in the dorms. This initiative is a priority of President MaryAnn Baenninger and the University Sustainability Committee, and is an important step Drew can take to honor the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.
Building | Water Refill Station Location |
Brothers College Filling Station | Located on the first floor near the bathrooms |
Carriage House Filling Station | A goose neck style fountain located in the kitchen at the sink |
Commons Filling Station 1 | The soft drink fountain provides filtered water options |
Commons Filling Station 2 | The soft drink fountains provide filtered water options |
Dorothy Young Center for the Arts Filling Station | Located in the Theater Wing near the vending machines |
Ehinger Center Student Center Filling Station | Located near the bathroom |
Hall of Sciences Filling Station | Located near the bathrooms on the ground floor |
Learning Center Filling Station | Filling station available near the bathrooms in the Learning Center |
Madison House Filling Station | Located on the second floor near the bathroom |
Mclendon Hall Filling Station | Located on the first floor by the bathrooms |
Pepin Filling Station | Located in the lower level Facilities Breakroom |
Rose Library Filling Station | Filling station available on wall opposite main entrance |
Seminary Hall Basement Filling Station | Located on the bottom floor by the bathrooms |
Seminary Hall First Floor Filling Station | Located on the first floor by the bathrooms |
Seminary Hall Second Floor Filling Station | Located on the second floor by the bathrooms |
Simon Forum Filling Station | Located on the second floor of the Simon Forum across from the fitness room |
Tolley Brown Filling Station | Located on the first floor by the kitchen area in the TB Lounge area |
Welch Holloway Filling Station | Located in the common area near the vending machine |
Wesley (Admissions) House Filling Station | Located on the second floor by the bathroom |
Certified LEED-Silver by the United States Green Building Council
The new residence hall heats and cools the building using geothermal energy. The building utilizes the earth’s consistent 55 degree temperature to more efficiently control the building’s temperature for occupants.
The Environmental Studies and Sustainability program provides students with the in-depth knowledge, multidisciplinary perspectives, and critical skills needed to address the complex environmental problems of today and of the future. For more information, visit the ESS website.
A rain garden was installed adjacent to the parking lot at the Ehinger Center to reduce soil erosion from stormwater runoff. Water is diverted into the rain garden from the road. Then, water-loving plants in the garden slow the flow of the water and filter it through the soil.
Once the plants are in bloom, the rain garden will attract native pollinators like butterflies.
Euonymus americanus L. | American strawberry bush |
Ilex glabra | Inkberry Holly |
Arrowwood Viburnum | Arrowwood Viburnum |
Chelone glabra | Turtlehead |
Iris versicolor | Northern blue flag |
Juncus canadensis | Canada Rush |
Eupatoriadelphus fistulosus | Spotted Joe-Pye Weed |
Lobelia cardinalis | Cardinal Flower |
Osmunda regalis | Royal Fern |
Aquilegia canandesis | Wild Columbine |
Clethra alnifolia | Summersweet Clethra |
Dicentra eximia | Wild bleeding Heart |
Drew encourages using a reusable mug in place of disposable beverage containers. The Snack Bar (EC) and the Peet’s Cafe (BC) offer a 10% discount to Drew Community members carrying a reusable mug.
Fern Fest is an annual re-foresting event at Drew held during Earth Week. Students work to replace a section of campus lawn with diverse native ferns and wildflowers, helping to restore the forest ecosystem that once thrived here. Small shrubs and trees are also planted. The Fern Fest event also includes other activities, depending on interests of the organizing students: tie-dying, craft and food booths, and bands playing into the evening. The end results: enhanced biodiversity on campus, a fun community celebration, and some good environmental education for all!
Recycling may seem like an unusual cause for school spirit, but at Drew, the national RecycleMania competition unites the community in purpose. In just 10 weeks in 2008, the campus recycled almost 45 tons (90,000 pounds) of bottles, cans, paper and cardboard. That’s 33.5 pounds per person! The effort earned the university a 20th place finish out of 180 participating institutions.
Paper usage (including printing and photocopying) on campus continues to be an area of focus. There are multiple areas where our environmental impact of printing can be reduced.
University Technology will be coordinating with Sustainability, Purchasing and the University Library to implement a comprehensive system to reduce the amount of printing devices on campus and to further reduce paper consumption. Issues to be determined will include but are not limited to the following:
Increased use of online services to keep documents in electronic format only. The recent adoption of Google Apps has caused an increase of use of Google Drive to share documents across campus and in many cases these are not being printed to paper. University Technology also wishes to reemphasize the use of the University’s knowledge management platform called U-KNOW and establish it as the official repository of University knowledge, policies, and standards, and encourage use of the documents there electronically as they can be easily searched, placed in meaningful hierarchies, and linked to one another to promote ease of use.
Extensive training for faculty, staff and students on how to work with electronic documents, including how to store them securely, back them up, edit collaboratively, and share them. For faculty, we will place a special emphasis on how to edit and grade papers entirely in the electronic milieu.
Increasing community awareness that a document need not be printed to be “official”. Education initiatives to discourage the printing of multiple copies of paper documents for meetings, and leveraging use of tablets and computers when possible to manage and distribute documents.
A comprehensive agreement or set of agreements with photocopier or printer support companies that emphasizes sustainability and eliminates per-page minimums on copiers if possible.
Policies on printer and photocopier selection and placement with an emphasis to reduce the number of photocopiers and printers on campus, with a likely minimum of one per building. In some cases this will mean replacing multiple personal or workgroup printers or copiers with a single larger device with more capabilities centrally located in a building. Personal printers would be discouraged except in cases of high confidentiality where printing a document to a shared or public location would not be appropriate.
Increased use of Banner Document Management and other methodologies to prevent having to photocopy or store papers that come in to campus from other sources. This will involve the increased use of scanners, and those will likely be desktop scanners, not scanners associated with copiers or multifunction printers, due to software incompatibilities and logistical issues, as well as power consumption concerns when a photocopier comes out of power saving mode just for a scan.
Leveraging our contract with our print services provider more effectively. Hopefully they can expand their ability to take electronic submissions, manage print jobs online, and use their larger format printers more effectively to reduce paper usage.
Check out our sustainability map featuring all the water filling stations, green spaces and more on campus!