University Sustainability

Grant from Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will reduce food waste and expand composting operations at George Mason

lclarkg — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:21:35 +0000

Grant from Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will reduce food waste and expand composting operations at George Mason lclarkg Thu, 05/07/2026 - 09:21

91�� received a grant of more than $1 million from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to support food waste prevention, food rescue, and composting programs on campus. The funding supports projects that reduce landfill methane emissions by reducing food waste, recovering surplus food, and composting any remaining food waste.

George Mason received the second-largest award of any Virginia institution of higher education.

Photo by University Sustainability

The Virginia DEQ has awarded nearly $8 million to 12 Virginia colleges and universities to reduce food waste across the commonwealth. The funding is provided through the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program.

Through this grant, University Sustainability and Mason Dining will lead a university-wide food rescue and composting program to reduce food waste, address student food insecurity, and keep compostable material from going in the trash. This includes the creation of a dedicated Food Rescue Hub, implementing artificial intelligence technology in dining halls to identify and prevent food waste, and adding critical personnel and infrastructure to expand and improve compost and food rescue operations.

"We are focused on developing a campus-wide system for addressing food waste—from prevention, to rescue, to composting,” said Amber Saxton, program manager for University Sustainability. “Working with campus stakeholders, we identified critical needs, and we will use [this grant] to address those needs and build a leading model for change together."

Bigbelly units help reduce waste on campus with recycling and composting options. Photo by Facilities and Campus Operations

The grant will fund improvements to composting operations. George Mason has some composting infrastructure, which helped increase its composting rate from 49 tons in FY2020 to 298 tons in FY2024. However, a recent waste contamination audit of a university dining hall revealed that 74% of dining trash was compostable food waste. Improving food waste diversion at dining halls will support University Sustainability’s Zero Waste goal of diverting 90% of all waste away from trash incineration and landfills.

The grant will also fund a dedicated full-time compost coordinator to address strategic planning, compostable purchasing, and contamination monitoring.

The funding for food rescue efforts arrives at a critical time for the Patriot Pantry as well. The Patriot Pantry, George Mason’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network, and Mason Dining are already working to address food insecurity on campus, but resources have not kept pace with the growing needs in this area.

The Patriot Pantry provides food and hygiene items at the Fairfax Campus and Mason Square and has experienced a 990% increase in use since it became a permanent student service in 2016. Plans are underway to open an expanded Patriot Pantry in the Johnson Center in early 2027, including the addition of free grab-and-go meals.

Volunteers from the Food Recovery Network have recovered extra food at campus dining halls and provided it to individuals in the surrounding community, but the new funds will allow these efforts to happen on campus as well.

“With the grant, we will be able to focus [food rescue] efforts on campus and provide grab-and-go meals through the Patriot Pantry to students who identify as food insecure,” said Jonathan Elwell, director of Dining Services.

The grant will fund a dedicated space and equipment for a new Food Rescue Hub in Southside Dining Hall, as well as two part-time student food rescue specialists, who will work with staff from Mason Dining and volunteers from the Food Recovery Network to package, label, and flash freeze surplus food (prepared but never served). The food will then be transported to the expanded Patriot Pantry in the Johnson Center.

George Mason’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network works to address food insecurity in the community. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

"The DEQ grant adding capacity to provide flash-frozen dining hall meals perfectly aligns with our relocation timing and goals,” said Dwayne Hamilton Jr., assistant director for basic needs services with the Student Support and Advocacy Center.

Any food waste not rescued in this new system will be collected as compost and hauled to a local industrial composting facility, diverting waste from landfills and incinerators.

Campus partners, including University Sustainability, Mason Dining, Auxiliary and Business Services, the Patriot Pantry, Recycling and Waste Management, the Office of Community Engagement and Civic Learning, and student leaders from the university's chapter of the Food Recovery Network will work together to implement these new food waste prevention and composting systems.

“Our goal was to rethink how we handle food from start to finish,” said Saxton. “By bringing partners together and building a shared vision, we created a sustainable model for change that will serve our university for years to come.”

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This campus greenhouse is powered by the sun—and student innovation

lclarkg — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 17:11:48 +0000

This campus greenhouse is powered by the sun—and student innovation lclarkg Wed, 04/23/2025 - 13:11

Gardening season is here, and those with green thumbs are preparing their planting strategy for the season. In any garden, plants need basic essentials to grow: sunlight, soil or nutrients, air, and water.

Through a new solar array at 91��’s Fairfax Campus, the sun will play double duty in the successful growth of plants. Solar energy will power the Presidents Park Greenhouse with the electricity it needs to support the plants growing inside.

The Presidents Park Greenhouse uses hydroponics and aquaponics to grow produce on campus. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Designed by student researchers and partially funded by a research grant, the solar array will help offset the energy consumption for the equipment and temperature controls in the greenhouse, which uses hydroponics and aquaponics to grow produce on campus.

A team of 10 George Mason student researchers applied for support from the Patriot Green Fund, an annual sustainability fund provided by Facilities and Campus Operations to make George Mason’s campuses more sustainable through infrastructure improvements. The Patriot Green Fund covers $20,000 of the total $185,000 project cost. The remainder of the budget is provided by Facilities and Campus Operations.

“This student-led project is designed to reduce electricity costs, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and provide educational and volunteer opportunities for the George Mason community,” said Demin Zhu, Patriot Green Fund program manager with University Sustainability.

The Presidents Park Greenhouse operates year-round and produces approximately 1,000 pounds of fresh lettuce and salad greens annually, which are served on campus at Ike's dining hall. Other fruits, vegetables, and herbs are donated to the George Mason community through free produce pickups.

Students are a driving force behind greenhouse operations, working inside for service hours, internships, and experiential learning. They have the opportunity to learn about the greenhouse’s hydroponic and aquaponic food production systems.

“The electricity from the solar panels will feed into the greenhouse to power our fans, pumps, cooling system, and grow lights,” said Doni Nolan, greenhouse and gardens program manager with University Sustainability. “The electrical equipment helps us grow lettuce, baby greens, tomatoes and more in the greenhouse to provide local sustainable ingredients to our dining halls.”

The ground-mounted solar panels will be installed outside the greenhouse and are expected to offset more than 80% of the electricity it requires. The solar array is estimated to produce more than 22,000 kWh per year. The panels will reduce the building’s annual greenhouse gas impact by 13.8 metric tons of CO₂, which is about equal to the carbon footprint of 2.2 typical single-family homes.

The concrete pad under construction will accommodate the new solar array for the Presidents Park Greenhouse. Photo provided

The students developed the project under the guidance of several George Mason faculty and staff, including Nolan, Christy Hogan, who is senior director of university asset management in Facilities and Campus Operations, and Colin Reagle, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

George Mason currently has one other on-campus solar array, at Mason Square. Vertical solar panels on the face of Fuse demonstrate how a solar array can be integrated into a building’s design in an urban setting. A vertical solar array requires less space and captures sunlight from multiple directions throughout the day. The array produces about 1% of the electricity used by the building and is part of a range of sustainable features that help Fuse meet LEED Platinum standards.

The installation at President’s Park expected to be complete by early June.

Crystal Bowers, BS Mechanical Engineering ’23, was one of the students who led the solar array project during her time at George Mason.

“Working on the Solar Greenhouse Project was one of the most impactful experiences of my time at 91��,” said Bowers. “It not only deepened my understanding of sustainable infrastructure and project management, but also demonstrated the power of collaboration in transforming ideas into tangible, lasting change on campus.”

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Office Supply Swap is a staple of sustainability at Mason

lclarkg — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:22:38 +0000

Office Supply Swap is a staple of sustainability at Mason lclarkg Thu, 04/18/2024 - 09:22

They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. On a college campus, that treasure could be a stack of three-ring binders or sticky notes collecting dust in the office supply closet.

The Office Supply Swap gives new use to unneeded supplies, conserving resources and supporting Mason's zero waste goals. Photo by Getty

Someone else might need those supplies—and need them urgently. Jessica Adams, assistant director of knowledge management for fiscal learning and engagement at 91��, remembers when a former colleague approached her with a last-minute purchasing crisis. The department was hosting a conference and organizers realized the day before that they needed additional supplies.

The commonwealth’s supply vendor policies are not always conducive to last-minute purchases, according to Adams. “I offered what advice I could from my place in Fiscal Services and asked if she checked with other offices to see what supplies they had available,” Adams said.

This last-minute request sparked an idea that had been on Adams’ mind for quite some time: Mason needed an office supply exchange, where departments could quickly and easily seek out or repurpose extra or unused supplies.

Adams shared the idea with her colleagues on the Staff Senate, and it took off from there. The Office Supply Swap launched on Microsoft Teams in Spring 2023, thanks to the efforts of the senate and University Sustainability.

April Lopez, part of the Staff Senate’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Committee, took the lead in creating the online community. Lopez has worked as an administrative assistant at Mason since 2019 in the Division of Special Education and disAbility Research in the College of Education and Human Development.

“We realized that with new collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and an increase in familiarity with community groups like Buy Nothing, we could get this going with very minimal input and no additional storage space requirements,” Lopez said.

The supply swap is part of the larger Greener Mason Community on Microsoft Teams, where the Mason Nation can share ideas and collaborate on topics related to sustainability. Illustration by Getty

The supply swap channel is open to all Mason faculty and staff and sits within the larger Greener Mason Community on Teams, which covers a range of sustainability topics at Mason: recycling, plastics reduction, living landscape, and even environment and climate-related reading and listening recommendations. The group offers a place for the Mason Nation to connect and learn.

The rules for the Office Supply Swap are simple: faculty and staff post unneeded items on the Teams channel. If another department needs the items, they can comment and arrange pickup. If someone needs an item, they can ask if anyone has a surplus. All items must remain university property—personal items and personal use of items are not allowed. Technology and furniture items should not be offered in the swap; they should go through existing surplus procedures.

The supply exchange echoes one of Mason’s core values: We are careful stewards.

“There are financial savings in not buying new when there are things already at the university that can be reused,” Lopez said. Repurposing and reallocating supplies also supports Mason’s zero waste goals.

Adams is thrilled that the supply swap is thriving. “The idea needed to get to the right people, at the right time,” Adams said. “April Lopez is the real hero with execution. She has been the biggest catalyst in bringing the Greener Mason Community to life and has built it into what it is today.”

Lopez hopes that the project helps people recognize that small actions support sustainability at Mason.

“I hope that the Office Supply Swap helps us recognize the abundance we already have, even if we’re just talking about paperclips, three-ring binders, and suspension files,” Lopez said. “In our cabinets and desk drawers, we already have items that the university could use for years to come.”

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Don’t trash it, compost it: Mason Facilities adds 23 Bigbelly zero waste stations to campuses

lclarkg — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 18:38:11 +0000

Don’t trash it, compost it: Mason Facilities adds 23 Bigbelly zero waste stations to campuses lclarkg Thu, 02/15/2024 - 13:38

91�� Facilities has installed 23 Bigbelly zero waste stations on the Fairfax and Mason Square campuses. These solar-powered stations support Mason’s recycling and composting goals through their user-friendly design, technology upgrades, and capacity-based alerts.

Five of the new Bigbelly stations on the Fairfax Campus include solar-powered, waste compacting compost bins at outdoor patio sites. Expanded composting access is part of a long-term strategy to improve Mason’s waste diversion rate—the amount of waste composted, recycled, repurposed, or otherwise diverted away from trash.

Bigbelly zero waste stations support Mason's recycling and composting goals. Photo by Mason Facilities

The Bigbelly zero waste stations expand the waste collection benefits achieved through Mason’s industrial composting pilot. Launched in August 2022, the composting pilot included the installation of Mason’s first indoor zero waste station in the Starbucks located in Northern Neck on the Fairfax Campus. The project was funded by University Sustainability's Patriot Green Fund (PGF). A previous PGF grant supported the installation of Bigbelly’s smart-waste management system at the patio outside the Starbucks.

Capacity alerts from Bigbelly solar zero waste stations increase the efficiency of operations for recycling and housekeeping staff, who are automatically alerted when the stations need to be emptied.

“Thanks to the daily efforts of Mason Dining and Facilities recycling staff, Mason’s first sitewide composting pilot was able to consistently divert clean compost away from trash while informing best practices for adding composting access at future campus locations,” said Colleen Regan, zero waste specialist with University Sustainability.

The solar powered stations send real-time alerts to Facilities and housekeeping staff when the bins need to be emptied. Photo by Mason Facilities

To successfully divert food scraps and other compostable items, the university must maintain a clean compost stream. Design changes were installed at waste stations to help reduce waste contamination. The Max-R zero waste station inside the on-campus Starbucks offers helpful design features like waste stream co-location, restrictive lid openings, and color-coded messaging. The station is made of more than 1,600 reclaimed milk jugs, supporting Mason’s post-consumer recycled purchasing goals and guidance.

The involvement of Mason Dining was crucial for the success of the industrial composting pilot. Mason Dining staff identified difficult-to-sort items, inventoried common contaminants during weekly audits, and piloted behavioral and educational interventions to support appropriate waste disposal.

"Bigbelly has a huge impact on our daily operations” said Kevin Brim, recycling and waste management supervisor with Facilities. “The stations' technology makes us more efficient in performing our duties. We’ve seen an immediate impact with environmental challenges like wildlife—[fewer] yellowjackets at the bin, [less] wind-blown litter—and the operational challenge of keeping up with Mason's growth and overall population day to day.”

Learn the best ways to sort your compost, recycling, and trash. Check out the Zero Waste Mason page and see the complete list of zero waste locations.