Dear Campus Community,
Several years ago, Whitworth committed to the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and taking positive steps toward monitoring and reducing our direct and indirect emissions. With the new academic term, you will see several changes that are focused on advancing this commitment to sustainability and reducing the university’s carbon footprint.
First, we’ve renewed the soda/vending contract with Pepsi through a competitive process. Bottled water is being eliminated from the vending machines and many of the machines are being converted to aluminum cans rather than plastic bottles. Drinking fountains are being fitted to make filling personal containers easier. We also reduced the number of vending machines and reduced the lighting, which has lowered our electrical consumption.
In addition, each employee will be provided a personal waste container for non-recyclable material (e.g. food items, wrappings, apple cores, etc.). Each employee’s primary, larger waste receptacle will be removed. We will each dispose of personal, non-recyclable waste using the personal waste container and then take that waste to a central receptacle in our work area. We will continue managing the recyclable waste as we’ve been doing.This process allows us to adjust custodial duties to other cleaning functions and increases the recycling stream of waste products from our offices. This change may seem small, but it allows our custodians to perform other vital work to care for our facilities and it will increase the waste into the recycling stream.
Finally, other energy reduction strategies are being explored through a special program of resource conservation being undertaken in partnership with Avista. This effort will examine lighting patterns and other ways to reduce the direct costs of utility consumption across campus.
Thank you for your engagement and support of these efforts as we strive to learn how best to live in a more sustainable manner.
Brian Benzel
Vice President for Finance and Administration
