Beauty from the Ground Up

Producing award-winning results year over year, SSC’s Grounds Management team at Belmont Abbey College challenges themselves to make the college campus even more beautiful by reducing waste and feeding their soil naturally.

Their compost program turns green waste created during routine maintenance activities into a natural fertilizer and soil amendment used on campus. By composting 350 – 400 cubic yards of leaves and other debris on-site, the team adds this valuable compost to the soil each year without purchasing or transporting material from elsewhere.

A compost topdressing mix made from dining food waste is used on athletic fields, possible through a partnership between the school, Chartwells Higher Education, SSC and a local environmental collection company. This mix is spread on the fields each year, diverting approximately 350 tons of food waste from local landfills. The process creates a closed-loop system where waste created on site from multiple sources is turned into natural fertilizer for the campus. These compost programs reduce reliance on irrigation and fertilizer, forming the base of the grounds management program at Belmont Abbey College. With the application of this organic material to the lawns, landscape and sports fields, the campus has improved the soil biology and landscape appearance while diverting hundreds of tons of material from local landfills every year.

Minimizing SINGLE-USE PLASTICS

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY