By Sustainability Coordinator Jacqui Moy
Our Spring 2024 Campus Race to Zero Waste (CR2ZW) programming has officially come to an end! CR2ZW is an eight-week waste reduction and diversion competition between colleges and universities in North America. We have been tracking Emerson’s waste data, hosting a wide variety of waste-related events, and launching our internal Scouts 4 Sustainability challenge. For more information on the Campus Race to Zero Waste, read the official competition website here.
The main focus of our annual participation in CR2ZW is our waste diversion rate. This is the percentage of total waste that we divert (ie, recycle, compost, or donate) instead of throw in the trash. Over eight weeks, our waste diversion rate was 17.7%. This is a 21.7% increase from last year’s rate of 14.5%. This improvement moves Emerson from 78th place nationwide in 2023 to 64th place in 2024! We love to see this huge improvement and look forward to keeping our diversion rate on this upward trend.
Throughout CR2ZW, we held various events to engage and educate the Emerson community. We started by hosting several waste signage focus groups, the first step in our process to overhaul all waste signage on campus. We gained valuable insights from community members and look forward to rolling out new signage before the fall, 2024 semester. We collaborated with Emerson Athletics for a half time waste sorting game at the Men’s Basketball game against MIT and two lucky participants went home with AMC tickets. The Office of Student Success won the annual Office Recycling Competition with a very impressive 92% diversion rate! We saw creative flair from students at the Upcycled Art Competition with the featured category of book art. In the midst of all these events, Emerson also held the second annual Teach-In on Sustainability with diverse events such as alumni panels, open classes, open mics, and gallery film talks with a wide range of themes such as storytelling, environmental justice, and green jobs.
We also held our exciting, new Scouts 4 Sustainability competition. Throughout the entirety of CR2ZW, Emersonians participated in sustainability challenges through the Scavos app, competing for points to win grand prizes. Challenges included solving sustainability riddles, attending events, visiting our weekly informational table, using reusable mugs and Ozzi containers, and so much more! First place winner, Anna Uehlein, completed 19 challenges, followed by Jack Magan in second place, and Zachary Collins in third place.
Overall, this was a successful and educational Campus Race to Zero Waste! Thank you to the entire Emerson community for participating. We look forward to the 2025 CR2ZW with you all next spring. In the meantime, you can refer to the Emerson Waste Guide and Recycle Smart MA to help reduce and sort your waste on and off campus.
Have feedback on our sustainability programming? We’re always open to new ideas! Feel free to email sustainability@emerson.edu or submit an idea to our virtual suggestion box, which is always available here.