Fanshawe's school colour may be Pantone 185 red, but the College and the Student Union are taking real steps to become a bit more green.

According to Sarah Van de Vooren, Environmental Program Coordinator at Fanshawe, nearly one million kg of waste was created on campus in 2010, but she and others on campus are taking real steps to reduce this number.

Fanshawe College
Of the 881,000 kg of waste created on campus in 2010, 336,000 kg was sent to landfills and 545,000 kg was recycled for a 62 per cent diversion rate, said Van de Vooren.

“We'd love to see that number (62 per cent) higher. I think realistically when I say higher, I think somewhere around 65 per cent would be the range we'd have a goal for,” added Marion Dietze, Assistant Manager of Facilities Operations at Fanshawe. “We're doing a number of different things (to get that diversion rate higher); every semester we change tasks to try to make improvements.”

Many students and staff here are well versed on the importance of recycling plastic and paper. One of the hardest things to get people on board with is composting, though the compost rate has increased greatly since the program began, according to Dietze. “Since September, what we're doing is also including the Tim Horton's coffee cups. We've got permission from our hauler that we can actually put that in with the coffee grinds ... We're trying to encourage more and more people to compost, putting more bins around the college, making sure labels are in place, anything we can do to communicate that to our users.”

In addition to paper and plastic recycling, students can recycle batteries in the bookstore (F1002) and ink cartridges from printers in the receiving department (B1037).

Another component of diverting waste from the landfills is ensuring something doesn't get thrown out in the first place. A few times a year, the College holds purge sales to get rid of old equipment, such as computers. A few years ago, that outdated equipment would have just ended up in the dumpster. The most recent sale in November diverted about 5,000 pounds of items from the landfill. “If you do that three or four times a year, that's quite substantial,” said Van de Vooren.

In addition to waste diversion, the College is also focused on buying more environmentally responsible products. “I think one of the (things) that the College is doing an excellent job with is the lighting system,” said Dietze. “I think around 90 per cent (of the lights at the College) are on motion detectors when you walk into a room. (Those are) huge, huge savings in terms of lighting.”

Not only is Fanshawe thinking green, they're building green as well. Fanshawe's new Z building was built with sustainability in mind, said Dietze. “Down at Z building we have a green roof — we don't have shingles — it's planting, growing and a sprinkler system. That's a really positive thing for the college.”

Another example of green measures on campus is the water bottle refilling stations. “I was just out in the hall here (in D building) and I noticed that 2,600 bottles have been refilled in there in maybe a month. That's huge,” said Dietze.

Fanshawe Student Union
“About two years ago, I was given a directive by the student council to go as green as possible,” explained Rodney Sutton, Building Manager for the FSU. “Since then, I have been researching the different cleaning chemicals and different methods in order to accomplish that while still staying financially viable.”

“Clean green” is the name of the game at the FSU. Custodians in SC and SUB buildings are reducing their dependence on chemicals — and using green chemicals, when the situation calls for tougher cleanup — in order to be more eco-friendly.

Sutton said that when doing research about how to take environmentally friendly measures in the FSU, he looked at using a water ionizer to clean with. “It's about as green as you can get. It basically uses water to clean. It takes the water, runs it through an electrical process that adds positive and negative ions to it. This causes an electric charge to be induced into the water that breaks up food particles and dirt on surfaces and allows it to be lifted easily and wiped away,” he explained. “It also acts as a disinfectant.”

The ionizer looks like a regular spray bottle with a small electronic component attached. After it is sprayed, the water holds its charge for about 30 seconds — just wipe away the water and the surface is clean. The ionizer is used on microwaves and tabletops, and, said Sutton, “It was expensive to buy, but it's pretty much saved me the amount of chemical in one semester to pay for the unit.”

Ionizers have been approved in the States for a number of years, but Canada has not yet approved it, as it doesn't fall into chemical or process categories as it is a device, said Sutton. “Certification is caught up in committee.” Once the ionizer is certified in Canada, “we could get rid of most of the chemicals in the Oasis and just clean with that,” he said.

The large floor-scrubbing machine uses similar technology to the ionizer and has eliminated the need for many chemicals used to clean the floors. “It's saved us about $300 to $400 a semester in chemicals by switching to this floor scrubber,” said Sutton. The machine also uses 60 per cent less water in the cleaning process.

In addition to the ionizer and floor scrubber, Sutton also purchased a steamer to use for sanitizing washrooms and other cleaning. It leaves no chemical residue and it cleans out the grout where bacteria can hide. “It uses such a small amount of water,” he said, but it is powerful enough to melt ink off walls, disinfect and remove grime from furniture and more.

Even with the new cleaning equipment, chemicals are sometimes required to tackle tougher messes. “The chemicals that I do use are from Enviro-Solutions,” explained Sutton. These chemicals decompose into carbon dioxide, water and other harmless substances, and they have less of an impact on the environment than other types of chemicals.

In addition to the methods used to clean the FSU buildings, the cleaning accessories are now more environmentally friendly as well. The FSU staff uses microfiber cloths — which can be laundered on-site — instead of paper towels, an initiative that started about four years ago. In bathrooms, where paper products are used often, the staff now stocks biodegradable paper towels and toilet paper made from 100 per cent recycled materials. The FSU also uses EcoLogo garbage bags, and the mop heads used to clean the floors are made from recycled pop bottles, which are made into a heavy-duty antibacterial fibre.

The FSU has also had the bright idea to switch lightbulbs — they went from incandescent lights to compact fluorescents, and Sutton is now looking at switching to LED lighting. He said the cost savings in electricity has been good so far, and that LED lighting could bring even greater cost savings, though the initial expenditure is much higher — a single lightbulb can cost up to $90 or more.

The Oasis and the Out Back Shack — the FSU's two restaurants — have also been taking some green strides as well. As of September 2010, the restaurants compost all food waste. “Every section has a compost bin. We save a lot of garbage from going to the dump. That's been very successful,” explained Ryan McTavish, General Manager of the Oasis.

Another initiative started in September 2010 is the eco-takeout containers. Students can purchase a card for $3, and every time they get a meal at the Oasis, they hand in the card and receive a plastic clamshell container with their food in it. After eating the food, they hand the container in to get their card back. People without the ecotakeout cards must pay 25 cents for a one-time-use container. “It's working well — I say ‘well' because the people that buy into the program support it and they love it,” said McTavish, adding that not everybody has been enthusiastic about the program. “Trying to get other people involved who don't care, it's a lost cause.” He said he thought the program would work better if Fanshawe and Chartwells restaurants got on board with it as well.

Overall, Sutton and Dietze said they will continue to look into green measures as they become available and accessible. “I think there are certain things that (will never change to become more green),” said Sutton. “But as things change, we try to convert over as much as possible.”

— With files from Kirsten Rosenkrantz