Sustainability Idea Competition Winners Announced

The competition sought the best ideas for promoting a campus culture of sustainability. The competition was jointly sponsored by the Office of the President, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the University Sustainability Committee. Submissions were evaluated by a student, staff, faculty, and administrator panel.

The panel recognized four first-place winning submissions and three honorable mention submissions. First place and honorable mention winners were:

Open Student Body category
Winners: Deanna Dippold and Kory Mueller
Rowdy’s Reuseables – One person’s trash is another person’s treasure under the Rowdy’s Reuseables idea. Useable, but no longer wanted, items can be collected rather than discarded as wastes. The proposed idea would have students, faculty, staff, and academic departments and offices donate items for reuse. Collection efforts would be greatest during move-out days in the residence halls. Used materials would be made available to others during move-in days and could also be offered at “garage sale”-like events.

Greek Organizations category
Winners: Lindsey Eudaley and Aryn Anderson of Alpha Xi Delta
No to Styrofoam--The University dining facilities use Styrofoam food packaging. Virtually all of this Styrofoam ends up as waste. The proposed idea would ask Chartwells, the University’s food service provider, to replace Styrofoam in the dining facilities with recyclable plastics. In addition, numerous and convenient recycling containers for plastics would need to be added to the dining facilities and other campus locations. Greater availability of recycling containers for plastics would also help with recovery of the numerous plastic beverage containers used and discarded on campus.

Faculty category
Winner: Dr. Glen Williams, Department of Communication Studies
Growing Green--The proposal by Williams is to reduce the areas of campus devoted solely to grass through greater use of alternative planting. These alternative plantings would include more use of ground cover plants rather than grass. In addition, the proposal calls for increased planting of flowers and trees on campus. The ideas presented would help to beautify the campus and reduce costs and efforts devoted to maintenance of grass. As Williams said in his submission, this is “a no-brainer and a much-gainer.”

Faculty category
Honorable Mention: Dr. Mark Langenfeld, Department of Health, Human Performance & Recreation
Bicycling is a Revolution in TransportationᾰThe proposal by Langenfeld is to encourage greater use of bicycle transportation at Southeast. The efforts in this direction are under way. Southeast is a partner with the City of Cape Girardeau in a recently awarded $300,000 “Ride the City” grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The grant funds will be used to develop miles of bicycle lanes within the City and for purchase of hundreds of additional bicycle parking racks. Langenfeld was very active in efforts to secure this grant funding.

Staff category
Winner: Eric “Red” Redinger, Student Recreation Center
Signs of Change--The proposal from Redinger is to use appropriate signage on campus to call attention to current efforts to improve sustainability on campus and to encourage even greater awareness and interest in sustainability. The proposed signage would highlight visible “signs of change” taking place at Southeast and would be viewed by both current members of the University community and visitors to the campus. Redinger indicated that signage is relatively inexpensive and provides “a lot of bang for the buck” in promoting sustainability on campus.

Staff category
Honorable Mention: Bruce Skinner and Kim Fees, Residence Life
Rowdyware--This proposal was similar to the winning idea in the Greek category. Rowdyware calls for eliminating or reducing the use of disposal Styrofoam packaging in campus dining facilities. The proposal from Skinner and Fees recommends the University ask Chartwells to explore the use of re-useable food-to-go containers rather than disposable Styrofoam containers. The net result of this proposal is similar to that from Eudaley and Anderson -- a dramatic reduction in the amount of Styrofoam waste generated on campus.

Staff category
Honorable Mention: Kara Grantham, Facilities Management
Moving Out and Some Stuff Has to Go--This proposal was similar to the winning idea in the Open Student Body category. The proposal from Grantham is aimed at preventing unwanted materials at move out time in the residence halls from ending up in dumpsters. Her idea is to collect these materials and have a University-run rummage sale open to the community. Any items not sold could be donated to the Salvation Army. Proceeds from the sale would be donated to a community organization that serves the needs of the less fortunate.