“The way we approached our climate action plan is characteristic of Bates,” says Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. “We don’t throw money at problems. We figure out a solution within our means.”

The magazine, a national publication for higher education decision makers, notes that Bates is working toward its “aggressive goal” of carbon neutrality by 2020 while also moving forward with a new phase of facilities planning and construction.

The story quotes Sustainability Coordinator Julie Rosenbach, who explains that Bates has integrated sustainability ideas and costs into its infrastructure planning, rather than proposing the projects separately, where they would compete for funding.

Integrated planning saves money, increases efficiencies and ensures sustainable growth, she says. “Often the goals of energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions and saving money are compatible overall; it’s the initial capital costs that make people associate sustainability with higher cost.” View story from University Business, June 2010.

By Kelly Cox  ’11

Stressing the importance of keeping recyclables out of trash and trash out of recyclables, Rob Little ’12 of Auburn premiered his documentary Recycling at Bates College during the Feb.4 EnviroLunch.

Aimed at a student audience, the video emphasizes the proper sorting of trash and recyclables, a dimension to recycling not often considered. Through scenes of dorm waste, cans, and throwaway cups, Little illustrated the environmental and economic effects of sloppy sorting.

An environmental studies major and education minor, Little spent six months creating the documentary at the request of Julie Rosenbach, the college’s sustainability coordinator. Using equipment from the Digital Media Center and Bates College Television, Little transformed Rosenbach’s abstract ideas into a viral educational video, intended to spread quickly via the Internet.

Little took a course on producing documentaries at the Maine Media Workshop in Rockport, an international center for education and training in photography, film, video, animation, design and book arts, and multimedia. He hopes to use his film talents to advance issues concerning wildlife.

Edited from five hours of footage, the 7-minute, 27-second piece follows recyclables from dorm basements to Lewiston’s Solid Waste Department. In the piece, department Superintendent Rob Stalford points out that it costs the city more to dispose of “contaminated” or badly sorted recyclables.

Stalford explained that recycling is a market-driven process. The industrial purchasers of recycled materials have certain requirements — for example, pure newspaper is worth more than mixed paper. If those requirements can’t be met, purchasers shop elsewhere. “If that falls apart, you’re not recycling,” Stalford said. “You’re creating a lot more work for the disposal process.”

The documentary offers recycling guidelines and illustrates the impact the practice can make. While on the face of it, it appears that an effort is being made, students actually need to pay more attention to how we are disposing of our waste, an average of four and a half pounds per student a day.

“The biggest thing is, of course, education,” said College grounds supervisor John Griffiths, who notes that contaminated recyclables are not longer recyclables — they’re just trash.

Little contrasts student concern for the issue with their wasteful habits, incorporating interviews from the 2009 Waste Audit, a visual presentation outside of Commons that emphasized the campus’ need for better recycling. The short film powerfully accentuates the responsibility of all Batesies to grow a green consciousness.

With some 1,700 students on campus, our participation “is essential to the whole process,” said Little during the noontime screening. “The students’ role in sorting recyclables is the key to profitable and therefore sustainable recycling.”

“Everybody should see this film, students, staff and faculty,” noted Maryli Tiemann of the Maine Campus Compact, a coalition of 18 member campuses that catalyze and lead a movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. “Bates is a community, and we could really make a difference if we did sort our recycling.”

“It is up to all of us to do it correctly,” noted Little at the Envirolunch, a weekly community gathering for all students, staff, and faculty sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and the environmental studies program. “I believe that documentary has the power to teach and inspire people.”

Among amenities awaiting Bates students as they arrived on campus this month was a bicycle built for two — just the thing for taking a spin downtown with a close friend.

Donated anonymously by a Bates alum, the tandem bike is part of the college’s Bike Coop fleet. Launched in 2007, the program gives participating students an easy, healthy and environment-friendly way to get around.

The tandem bike and 14 new Marin cruiser bikes expand the coop fleet to 25. Julie Rosenbach, Bates environmental coordinator, increased the number of bikes to get more students pedaling, and eliminated a small fee for taking part, making the program free.

The program is now at full capacity, with 150 students signed up.

According to the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, 48 percent of all vehicular trips were three miles or less, and 24 percent were one mile or less — about five minutes by bike.

“The bicycle is the ultimate clean-air, zero-emissions vehicle,” says Rosenbach. “Access to bikes will offer an alternative to that car culture.”

The coop is part of the Sustainable Bates program, designed to encourage changes in individual habits. The idea, says Rosenbach, “is not just to ask people to live differently, but to also provide the tools for people to act with.”

The Bates coop is a simpler version of the large-scale bike-sharing schemes in major cities like Paris and Montreal. Coop bikes are dispersed around campus, and participating students receive a key that will unlock any bike in the fleet. They can take a bike wherever and whenever they need to go, and just lock it up again when they return it.

Rosenbach has helmets for students who need one.

Her office was also instrumental in bringing the national Zipcar car-sharing program, with two Toyota Prius hybrids, to campus. “Students can leave their cars at home entirely,” she says. “They can use our Zipcars for longer trips and in bad weather, and the coop bikes for around campus and town.”

Bates’ wide-ranging portfolio of sustainability initiatives has sparked a recent spate of national publicity, including mentions in the Sierra Club magazine, The Princeton Review and The Huffington Post.

This year, the college asked its 470 arriving first-year students to join together in researching and taking action on carbon emissions and climate change. They were given suggested summer reading that relates to climate change, and the annual orientation period included a presentation by Franke James, an artist known for her environmental activism.

In October, the first-years and other Bates students will take part in the International Day of Climate Action sponsored by the advocacy organization 350.org.

In recent years Bates has built new eco-friendly housing and a campus dining hall; contracted to virtually all its electricity from renewable Maine sources; and joined a national consortium of higher-educational institutions working toward carbon neutrality.

In addition, 28 percent of the food and beverages offered in the dining hall are locally grown or sustainably harvested, and the dining operation keeps an impressive 80 percent of its solid kitchen waste out of the local refuse stream through conservation and recycling.

Bates’ ninth annual Clean Sweep, a “garage sale” of usable goods donated by departing students, raised a record $21,400 in proceeds that will be divided among local nonprofit organizations.

A community tradition, the sale on June 20 drew swarms of eager bargain-hunters to the college’s Underhill Arena, on Russell Street.
“More than 100 volunteers from 14 organizations spent over 1,000 hours collecting, cleaning, organizing and pricing items for the sale,” says Julie Rosenbach, event organizer and the college’s environmental coordinator. “Items filled the arena — we had more than 90 tables full of stuff, plus rows of lamps, furniture, appliances and electronics.”

Items donated by Bates students and other members of the college community also included sporting goods, housewares, books, toys, clothes and shoes.

Bates is one of a number of colleges and universities nationwide that benefit both local nonprofit organizations and the environment by selling useful possessions donated by students as they head out at the end of the academic year.

The sale both keeps unwanted possessions out of the waste stream and raises money for the organizations. Nonprofits supply volunteers to help staff the event, and in return receive a share of the proceeds proportionate to the amount of time volunteered.

The beneficiaries of the event were: the Caleb Garden Club; Common Ties Mental Health Services; First Universalist Church, Auburn; the Justice, Ecology and Democracy Collective, Greene; Life Center; Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin; Lots to Gardens; Maine Fair Trade Campaign; Maine People’s Alliance; New Beginnings, Inc.; the St. Andre Home; the Share Center, Auburn; Somali Bantu Community Association; and TriCounty Mental Health Services.

Last year’s sale raised $11,897, divided by 14 local nonprofit organizations. The total for 2007 was around $18,000.

When Bates College environmental coordinator Julie Rosenbach places cartons marked “Clean Sweep” in the college’s dorms each spring, students know just what to do.

In those cartons and at the college’s ice arena, they drop off small furnishings, electronics, sports gear and other useable stuff they won’t take along when they leave campus this spring. These goodies will be offered for sale at Clean Sweep, Bates’ annual “garage sale” that keeps truckloads of useful items out of the waste stream and raises money for nonprofit organizations in the region.

The ninth Clean Sweep sale takes place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at the college’s Underhill Arena, 145 Russell St. The sale is open to the public. To learn more, please contact Rosenbach at 207-786-8367 or jrosenba@bates.edu.

(NOTE: The summer 2009 edition of “Bates Invites You,” Bates College’s events calendar, incorrectly stated that the public is invited to help staff or donate items to Clean Sweep. We regret the error.)

Bates is one of a number of colleges and universities nationwide that benefit both the environment and their communities each year by selling possessions donated by students as they head out at the end of the academic year.

Bates’ event has become a tradition on campus and in the region. Different nonprofits participate every year and the boxes Rosenbach places in dormitories are always filled to overflowing.

“People look forward to the sale. They expect it,” Rosenbach says. “And they really like being a part of it.”

This year, at least 10 nonprofit organizations will be taking part by collecting goods from around campus, helping organize the sale or volunteering at the event.

In 2008, more than 115 people from 14 local nonprofit organizations volunteered 1,000 hours of collecting, sorting, cleaning, organizing, pricing and selling items. Less than 1 percent of sale items ended up in the trash, and the sale raised nearly $12,000 for participating nonprofits.

This fall Bates College introduces the Bates Bikes, a fleet of 10 cruiser bicycles that belong to the newly created Bates Bike Co-op.  Students, faculty and staff can join the co-op for a $10-fee and use the bikes for short trips on and off campus, says Julie Rosenbach, the college’s environmental coordinator.

Membership in the co-op gives an individual a key to the locks that secure the bikes and the freedom to use the bikes on campus and in the greater Lewiston-Auburn area. Individual users taking good care of the bicycles will promote the program’s sustainability, Rosenbach says. “If the program is successful this year and we see the need, we will expand it.”

Rules and regulations for the bikes include the following:

• Bikes must be properly secured and locked to a bike rack when not in use.
• Riders taking bikes off campus must return the bike to a campus rack upon completion of their adventure.
• Riders must abide by all Maine state and Bates College rules for bicycles.
• Riders are strongly encouraged to wear helmets.
• Bikes will be available through the Thanksgiving recess and will be returned from storage in April.

In addition to the newly instituted Bates Bike and Zipcar programs, says Rosenbach, “the college will also be exploring policy changes such as developing an intercollegiate ride board for carpools, offering on-campus vacation alternatives and offering subsidies for public transportation.”

Clean Sweep, Bates College’s seventh annual “garage sale” of electronics, furnishings, bikes, toys and other goods donated by departing students, takes place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 16, at the college’s Underhill Arena, 145 Russell St.

Please note that some published reports listed the wrong date for the event. Saturday, June 16, is correct.

Proceeds from the sale benefit local nonprofit organizations. The sale is open to the public. Members of the public are also invited to donate items and/or volunteer to staff the event. To learn more, please call Bates environmental coordinator Julie Rosenbach at 207-786-8367 (office) or 207-240-4626 (cell).

Bates is one of a number of colleges and universities nationwide that benefit both the environment and their communities by selling usable goods — clothing, electronics, furniture, appliances, athletic and outdoor equipment and myriad other items — donated by students as they head out at the end of the academic year. Organizations that benefit from the sale’s proceeds provide volunteers to staff the event.

Last year’s event raised more than $9,500 in proceeds that were divided among nine local nonprofit organizations and a school athletics program. Beneficiaries included the Maine Fair Trade Campaign, Androscoggin Head Start, the Maine People’s Alliance, the Lewiston High School track and field program, Nana’s Dream Museum of Miniatures, Common Ties, the Caleb Community Garden, the Share Center, New Beginnings and the Justice, Ecology and Democracy Collective.

More than 100 volunteers from those organizations helped staff the 2006 event. An estimated 88 percent of the goods on offer were sold, 11 percent were donated to charitable organizations and a mere 1 percent entered the waste stream.

“I think the sale couldn’t help but be a success — an arena full of items that would have gone to trash got reused,” Rosenbach said. “That’s a lot smarter than burying those resources in a landfill.”

“At the same time, working with local volunteer groups was a lot of fun,” she added. “It felt like a true community effort.”

In January, for the first time, Bates College joined more than 200 colleges and universities across the United States in RecycleMania, a 10-week recycling and waste minimization competition.

For more information, please contact Julie Rosenbach, Bates’ environmental coordinator, at this jrosenba@bates.edu.

RecycleMania at Bates started on Jan. 31 with a “Wheel of Fortune” environmental trivia game in the dining Commons. With designated recycling bins in every building, student volunteers are meeting twice a week to collect recyclables on campus and determine their weight on a per capita basis. A scoreboard in the college’s dining Commons displays Bates’ recycling rate vs. those of Colby and Bowdoin colleges.

Student outreach teams are using posters, banners, a recycling pledge drive and fun events to build support for recycling and the contest.

In mid-March, Commons hosts the first annual “Trashion Show,” in which students will make costumes from recyclables to show off their creativity and propensity for recycling. Later in March, a trash bin “dump and sort” event is scheduled to demonstrate how many recyclables are thrown away. Finally, RecycleMania is sponsoring an intramural indoor soccer team.

RecycleMania began in 2001 as a competition between Miami University in Ohio and Ohio University. The competition spread gradually until 2004, when the Environmental Protection Agency, National Recycling Coalition and National Wildlife Federation partnered with RecycleMania to expand the competition nationwide.

In 2006, 93 schools recycled more than 17 million pounds of paper, cans, plastics and cardboard.

This year the competition has taken off nationally. In Maine, other participating schools include the universities of Southern Maine, Maine at Farmington and the flagship UMaine campus in Orono.