Special Section

Green Grades

our local universities take the lead on environmental issues

Tom Giffey |

Blue Devils Are Recycling Maniacs

UW-Stout takes recycling seriously – so seriously that it reduced the amount of waste it sent to the landfill by more than 43 tons during the 2013-14 school year. Overall, the campus recycled over half its waste – 52.8 percent, to be specific – putting it ahead of the 13 other Wisconsin colleges and universities that took part in the national Recyclemania contest. UW-Stout ranked 24th out of 474 campuses across the U.S. and Canada, nearly 100 spots higher than the previous year. Among the Blue Devils’ biggest achievements: UW-Stout now creates more compost (33 percent of its waste) than trash (31 percent). That’s a huge shift from the prior year, when 56 percent of waste was trashed and only 16 percent composted. One secret of UW-Stout’s success: Trash cans were removed from classrooms and meetings rooms on campus, and bins with slots for recyclables, compost, and trash were placed in hallways and at building entrances, forcing people to think before they throw. To learn more about the contest, go to recyclemaniacs.org.

UWEC Ranked Among Greenest Colleges

UW-Eau Claire is one of the greenest universities in the state, according to a guidebook published this spring. For the fourth straight year, UWEC was included in the Princeton Review’s Guide to 332 Green Colleges, which profiles 332 exemplary institutions of higher learning in the U.S. and Canada (only seven of which are in the Badger State) out of 832 schools that responded to a Princeton Review survey about sustainability. The guide cited several factors in ranking UWEC highly, including the Sustainability Fellowship program, which designates a liaison for sustainability issues on and off campus; the Clean Commute Initiative, which focuses on bike, pedestrian, and busing issues; the Campus Sustainability Network, which organizes efforts like the “Cardboard Corral” that keeps cardboard out of landfills on move-in day; as well as the students themselves, who voted to pay a $20-a-year fee to support the Student Office of Sustainability, which has worked on everything from a campus garden to e-waste recycling. To learn more, visit princetonreview.com/green-guide.