Learn about the UAA Landscaping team's efforts to preserve local habitats, reduce waste and enhance natural environments.

UAA’s Dining Services is going to great lengths to put sustainable values into practice. To reduce the harmful impacts associated with disposable utensils and containers, Dining Services uses reusable chinaware exclusively in the Creekside Commons. For waste that simply can’t be avoided, Dining Services has switched away from Styrofoam containers to more environmentally friendly paper and compostable packaging for catering and to-go orders.

Dining Services has also set its sights on reducing food waste. In the past, diners could pile several plates, bowls and cups on a plastic cafeteria tray. This led to several thousand pounds of food waste annually because diners would often take a bit of everything and then throw most of their selections away. This practice increased food prices for students, wasted valuable resources and even contributed to the Freshman 15. To reduce these impacts, UAA has joined hundreds of schools and universities across the country by eliminating the ubiquitous tray from our cafeterias. Now diners can take a single plate and then return for seconds, and even thirds, if hunger strikes.

Dining Services has also made a commitment to purchase locally grown produce when prices and the season allow. Local veggies are simply fresher and healthier because they only have to be shipped 50 miles from the Valley rather than from thousands of miles away. Supporting local farmers also helps address Alaska’s serious food security issue.

Another partnership allows Dining Services to put its waste cooking oil to good use. The oil is collected and stored in barrels for a company to convert it to bio-diesel.

The folks at Dining Services aren’t stopping there. They’ve set their sights on starting a composting program for food waste and introducing re-usable containers for to-go orders. Look for these changes and many others sometime in the future.

The Mayor's Marathon, an event sponsored by UAA Athletics, has taken important steps to "Green" this year's race.  The Race director Michael Friess and assistant race director, Mandy Kaempf made the following changes to their operations:

• To reduce waste the organizers partnered with Green Alaska Solutions to us 84,000 Bio-Degradable cups at aid stations.
• The race will use an online registration this year and race information will be provided online, in an effort to cut down on paper waste.
• Organizers stopped the old practice of using balloons to decorate the race course and made the switch to re-usable decorations.
• Aid stations and the finish line will be stocked with recycling containers to properly dispose of recyclables.
• Race organizers partnered with the Municipality of Anchorage to encourage participants, volunteers and spectators to get the race using the People Mover and other alternative forms of transportation.
• Race posters are printed on 100% recycled paper.

Thank you Mandy and Michael for your impressive efforts and for demonstrating that small changes can make a big difference on our environmental impact here at UAA.

The UAA Campus Bookstore has been quietly toiling away at becoming more sustainable for many years now. Their efforts fall into three pillars: products, practices and promotions.

As the central retail center on campus, the Bookstore has a great opportunity to feature sustainable minded merchandise. The Bookstore currently offers a variety of such products including recycled paper and notebooks, corn plastic coffee mugs, and compostable plates, bowls and silverware made from corn and sugar.  The Bookstore also offers a variety of novelty items such as Elephant Poo Poo Paper, bracelets to support relief efforts in Darfur and hip reusable bags from Environs.

The Bookstore has also made great strides to green their operational practices.  Textbooks, clothing and all of the other merchandise must be shipped in cardboard boxes. The Bookstore has been recycling huge quantities of cardboard for quite some time. In addition, the employees have developed a small but dedicated recycling effort in the office where they recycle plastics, aluminum and paper.

The Bookstore will unveil a new green practice at the start of the Fall semester- a time the bookstore employees refer to as rush. In the past, Bookstore employees have worked to reduce the amount of plastic bags by encouraging customers to use their backpacks and bookcase to carry their purchases. In spite of these efforts, sometimes you just need a bag. For those times, the Bookstore will now be offering 100% pre-consumer recycled plastic bags.

The Bookstore employees are also working to cut down on packaging waste. Pens, pencils and other supplies are often sold in wasteful amounts of packaging. The Bookstore has made an effort to shift away from this waste by purchasing items in bulk and then offering them for sale without all the single item packaging.

Rachel Epstein, the Bookstore’s Special Events Coordinator, is also working hard to make sure sustainability plays a central role in the event line up for the Bookstore. She is hard at work developing events in conjunction with this year’S Book’s of the Year- Shopping for Porcupine by Seth Kantner and The Whale and the Supercomputer by Charles Wohlforth.  Look for these and many other great events at the Bookstore throughout the year.

UAA has partnered with several close-by institutions to form Alaska’s first Green District. District members work to leverage geographic proximity and combined purchasing power to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations. The District’s efforts focus on four work groups: Active Transportation, Green Purchasing, Infrastructure and Energy Use, and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The nine partners represent over 9,000 employees, thousands of students and over 1,130 acres of land. They include Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage School District, Providence Hospital, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, McLaughlin Youth Center, United States Geologic Survey, Alaska Psychiatric Institute and Southcentral Foundation.

Check out the U-Med Green District website to learn more: http://www.umedgreendistrict.org/

Parking Services has made great progress towards sustainability over the years.

Parking Services has partnered with the People Mover  to create the U-Pass Program that allows all student, staff and faculty to ride the People Mover buses for free with their Wolfcard ID. Several routes run directly to campus, making the bus a convenient option for getting to the University. Employee and student commutes contribute over 35% of the University’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Utilizing the free bus service can help each of us do our part to reduce our emissions.

Facilities and Campus Services, Operations also runs our very own Seawolf Shuttle program. There are several shuttles on campus that make stops at the dorms, several locations on main campus, the University Center and the Aviation Technology Complex.  Check the website to find a schedule and route map.

In an effort to cut down on needless trips, Parking Services started offering a Housing Parking Permit for residents of the dorms. People who purchase this permit will only be allowed to park in the housing lots, but will save over $100 a semester on parking costs. Students who wish to purchase this permit can seek out more information about this program on the Parking Services website.

Finally, Parking Services isn’t just for drivers anymore. In collaboration with Administrative Services and the Office of Sustainability, they are working with several University partners- including the UAA Bike Club, and Facilities, Planning and Construction, to offer covered bike racks on campus in the coming year.

Members of the Campus Kickoff organizing committee have made a commitment to creating a sustainable kickoff this year. The organizers are cutting back on waste by eliminating paper agendas and minutes at meetings and by switching from a paper program at the Comedy Show to displaying information on the projector. The organizers are also looking to increase recycling efforts at this year’s event by providing recycling bins for drink containers in the Quad and by using recyclable plates and utensils at the BBQ. Also look for “Green information from the UAA Bike Club, the UAA Office of Sustainability and the People Mover.  Nice work team. Thanks for setting a sustainable tone for the next school year.