DIGGING in

Central Sustainability works to make campus more sustainable

BY TERRI FINCH HAMILTON, ’83

When Eric Urbaniak, ’23, tells you he spent part of his four years at CMU digging through dumpsters, you might be concerned.

No worries. He loved it.

A few times a year, Urbaniak pulled on bright blue protective gloves and climbed in, pulling out bags of trash, opening them up and sorting the contents.

Before you can say, “Eewwww,” you’re learning something.

“Between 50 and 70% of what we find in dumpsters doesn’t belong in there,” Urbaniak said. It should be recycled or composted instead.

“The compostable stuff is probably the grossest, like half-eaten sandwiches,” Urbaniak said. He laughed. “I’m pretty desensitized to it by now. Yeah, it’s gross, but it’s worth it if it means educating more people about this.”

When you’re on the front line of sustainability efforts on campus, you get your hands dirty.

Urbaniak co-founded Central Sustainability, a unique student-run effort that’s making CMU a more sustainable campus. A team of six energetic students works with CMU Facilities Management, campus departments and community partners on a dizzying array of projects.

Urbaniak co-founded the initiative in 2020 with Teresa Homsi, ’22, an environmental reporter at WCMU.

• They helped advance CMU from silver- to gold-level ranking from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The association offers a framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.

This last one stopped CMU Provost Nancy Mathews, a big sustainability advocate, in her tracks when she was considering CMU as a place to work.

“That’s a really high honor and it’s not easy to get,” Mathews said. “These students were on top of it. That was huge.”

The pair saw lots of sustainability efforts scattered around campus, “like loose pieces of a puzzle,” as Urbaniak described it.

What if there were a sort of sustainability clearing house that pulled all these efforts together?

So, they started it.

Like empty pizza boxes piling up on Friday nights, these green-minded students are everywhere.

They show sustainability videos at sporting events, speak to student groups, lead sustainability walking tours on campus, and coordinate massive efforts, like a plan to give every incoming freshman a reusable shopping bag this fall.

Have electronics or batteries to recycle? They’ll hook you up.

It’s the week after Halloween and you have a mushy pumpkin and 53 crinkled candy wrappers? Hit their pumpkin compost bin and the Trick or Trash candy wrapper recycling station.

Leading the way

Dive even deeper (pretend you’re Urbaniak on dumpster patrol) and you’ll discover even more impressive feats:

• Urbaniak authored CMU’s sustainable purchasing policy that guides buyers to sustainable options, from avoiding plastic to choosing items that can be composted.

• They created a Sustainable Living Guide offering hundreds of tips, from reducing waste to saving energy to supporting local businesses.

The prestigious ranking helped attract her to CMU, she said, and it will help attract sustainability-minded top faculty here, too.

A university education in the 21st century has to make sure students recognize the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change, Mathews said — and give them the knowledge and leadership skills to address this change.

“It’s hugely important that students are leading the sustainability conversation,” Mathews said. “Their voices make the most difference, much more than if the message was coming from the administration.

“They’re spurring on change faster than it would otherwise happen.”

It’s a unique set-up, said Dave Ford, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, where Central Sustainability is based.

“I’ve never seen this model before,” Ford said. “Often, an administration creates a sustainability office and hires a person to do the job. It’s such an interesting model here. It’s based on the passion of the students.

“These students have fired up not just the interest of other students, but the faculty and staff, too,” Ford said. “You see the everyday evidence of their efforts all around. There are containers on campus for separating waste into different streams. At every athletic event I go to I see one of their videos. I see them out at events. They’re winning big awards. It’s very tangible. It’s authentic. They’re amazing.” >

No time to bask in the praise, though — their list of projects to tackle is longer than the concessions line at a CMU football game. (They sort and recycle trash after campus sporting events, too.)

“Students are the change makers,” Urbaniak said. “When we’re empowered to pursue our passions, we can make an immense difference.”

Sometimes the difference is personal. “My entire career outlook has changed because of this,” Urbaniak said. He planned to go into the pharmacy field, but now he’s headed for a master’s degree in sustainability with an eye on a career in sustainability policy.

“I’ve learned pursuing my passion can turn into a career.”

Transferable skills

The Central Sustainability team includes six paid students from a variety of majors, from biology to engineering to Spanish.

Ava Brewer, an integrative public relations major, handles the expansive social media for Central Sustainability, including Waste Reduction Wednesdays when she blasts out tips on fixing ripped clothing instead of sending it to the landfill and shopping at farmers markets to reduce the carbon footprint of food transportation.

“As a team, we’re in a unique position,” Brewer said. “We have a platform.”

College students are living on their own for the first time, Brewer said, and it’s a chance to get them to start sustainable habits and change any habits they may have learned at home.

“Maybe they didn’t recycle at home or use reusable water bottles,” she said. “Or maybe they recycle, but they haven’t yet thought about the waste involved in fast fashion, buying cheap clothes that they wear a couple times then it ends up in a landfill.”

She’d love to tell you more about it.

“This is a passion for them,” said Matt Liesch, professor and chair of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and the faculty mentor for the Central Sustainability students. “They get paid, but it’s more of a calling than a job. They’re working for the greater good of campus. There’s a lot of meaning to be had.”

A lot of learning, too.

“They’re learning how you get things done on campus,” Liesch said. “That involves lots of transferable skills they can use down the road. They’re learning systems thinking. They’re learning about programming, creating policy, collaborative partnerships.”

The students have partnered with the city of Mount Pleasant, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, and a host of other organizations, both on and off campus, on sustainability projects.

“The vision is to scale it up over the next few years,” Liesch said, “and make Central really known for sustainability.”

Sustainable learning

Behind the scenes is Jonathan Webb, associate vice president of facilities management, whose willingness to be part of a major shift in campus sustainability was crucial.

“What was housed in facilities management for many years has moved to the next level,” Webb said. “While facilities management conducts the daily activity of managing waste and recycling, now professional educators are helping guide the Central Sustainability students. Sustainability here is a learning experience, especially with degree programs in environmental studies and environmental engineering.”

Central Sustainability reaches students where they live, coordinating pizza box recycling and working with downtown business owners to offer discounts to students who bike or skateboard downtown instead of driving.

They also expand everybody’s knowledge of what sustainability means, offering discussions about justice and equity.

“Sustainability isn’t just about recycling,” Brewer said. “It’s about culture and ethics and fairness.”

Provost Mathews, who was dean of a school of environment and natural resources at the University of Vermont before she came to CMU, loves this.

“As resources get scarcer, and air and water quality are affected, the impacts are felt first by those with the fewest resources, the most vulnerable— communities who can’t afford to clean it up,” Mathews said.

“As our students learn about this, my hope is that their actions impact others,” she said. “Our students can be leaders who look out for everybody.” •