By Gillian Taylor | Staff Writer
Baylor exceeded the goals outlined in the Sustainable 2020 plan and is looking ahead to reevaluate its next steps regarding sustainability on campus.
The Sustainable 2020 plan, which was established in 2015, set tangible goals for Baylor to increase sustainability on campus. According to Smith Getterman, director of sustainability, the plan had four primary focuses: using more locally sourced food for dining, waste diversion, energy reduction and water conservation.
“Across the board, we were able to meet all of the goals that we’re out to achieve,” Getterman said. “On some of them, we even exceeded our goals.”
Specifically, the goals were to have 20% more locally sourced food in dining halls, to divert waste on campus by 30%, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% and to reduce university-wide water use by 17%.
Getterman said getting locally sourced food was the most challenging of the four goals, primarily during the pandemic. He said resources became more sparse during COVID-19, so the university struggled to get food in an effective and efficient manner.
According to Getterman, achieving the goals was a united effort and involved working with several different partners on and off campus.
Getterman said there were many surprising solutions to some of Baylor’s sustainability issues. One of these solutions was reducing the number of recycling bin locations on campus.
When the sustainability department first started implementing recycling bins on campus, it initially had around 700 throughout the university; however, it discovered many were being used as trash cans or were not used at all. Getterman said this resulted in the recycling often being contaminated. After limiting the number of bins and redistributing them, he said the department was able to refine its recycling stream and increase the recycling intake.
As for existing sustainability efforts on campus, Getterman said Baylor currently has five LEED-certified buildings. This designation means a building is efficient, cost-effective and better for occupants and the environment.
The LEED-certified buildings are the Simpson Center, the Allison Indoor Practice Facility, East Village Residential Community, George W. Truett Theological Seminary and — with the highest level of certification, “gold status” — the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation.
Houston junior Meredith Mark said she appreciates Baylor’s efforts to be sustainable and is inspired to live a more sustainable lifestyle herself. She said she regularly recycles because of the convenience of the recycling bins on campus.
“I like how the trash cans clearly say ‘landfill’ or ‘mixed recyclables’ because it makes me more conscious of where my trash is going,” Mark said.
Mark said she hopes the rest of the Baylor community is also conscious of how their day-to-day choices — even things as small as using a recycling bin — can have a substantial effect on the environment.
Getterman said there is no tangible goal set right now, but the sustainability department is looking at refining and tweaking some policies already implemented at Baylor.
“The name is sustainability,” Getterman said. “So it’s not that we’re always trying to add new things; we’re trying to constantly make the things that we have better.”
