A GLOBAL LEADER IN GOING GREEN

From energy management and waste reduction to a state-of-the-art commercial composting facility, Marshall is on the forefront of sustainability.

By Katherine Pyles

For Marshall University Sustainability Manager Amy Parsons-White, M.S., there’s nothing better than seeing the (energy-efficient) lightbulb go off when people really start to “get” sustainability.

“When you see that lightbulb go off, when people begin to realize that sustainability has a positive impact not just on our environment but also on our students, our economy and our community, it’s really exciting,” said Parsons-White, who oversees sustainability programs for students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community.

People, planet, profit — “the three Ps,” as they’re often called — are what make sustainability sustainable, she said.

“People usually think of the environmental side of sustainability, but sustainability is actually an accounting framework,” she explained. “It’s known as the triple bottom line. Any program we start on campus has to encompass all three of those pillars.” that framework has been applied to department initiatives like recycling, utility management, trayless dining, bottle refill stations, the Rolling Thunder bike share program and an array of gardening projects: vegetable gardens, rain gardens, green roof gardens and gardens for local pollinators — even a waystation for migrating Monarch butterflies.

In other words, just because a project benefits the environment, that doesn’t make it sustainable; it has to have a positive social and financial impact, too. At Marshall,

Recently, the three Ps came into play for the department’s largest undertaking yet: a commercial composting facility, the first in the state of West Virginia and the second largest in the eastern U.S. The project was four years in the making, said Parsons-White, whose extensive preliminary work included drafting bills with state legislators to change the laws on postconsumer food waste.

The facility is groundbreaking (literally). It turns food waste, lawn waste, white office paper and cardboard into compost, reducing the university’s carbon footprint and saving thousands of dollars in waste haul fees. It’s home to an XACT BioReactor, an aerobic digester that takes in five tons of waste per day and completes the composting process in just six days. Marshall is the only university in the world with the digester, Parsons-White said. Then there’s the worm bin, where 50,000 red wigglers are hard at work composting an additional three tons of waste per day. Parsons-White said students pursuing a specialty agriculture degree will use the facility as their educational laboratory; elective courses and internships will be offered as well.

The facility, which became fully operational Feb. 1, has the potential to be a huge profit center for the university, she said. Soon, compost, worm castings and a compost tea called “Herd Dirt” will be available for purchase. Workshops, tours and a composting microcredential program, currently being developed, will be open to the community.

“We’re taking what was just going to be hauled off to a landfill and turning it into a product that we can use here on campus to make our soil better and that we can sell to make our community better,” ParsonsWhite said. “The facility has the potential to really change the dynamics of waste haul in West Virginia.”

Another trendsetter in waste reduction is the Marshall Thrift Store, which recycles items left behind by dorm residents during moveout days. The thrift store has reduced moveout waste by an overwhelming 50%.

“Students leave an enormous quantity of things behind when they move out of campus housing,” explained Sustainability Coordinator Carrie Uihlein Nilles, M.A. “And these are things that are surprising: mini fridges, microwaves, Keurigs, name-brand televisions and monitors, not to mention all of the clothing.”

At the end of each semester, Housing and Residence Life and the Sustainability Department host a Green Move Out event to collect unwanted items. Nilles said while the waste reduction during these events is significant, it’s what the Marshall Thrift Store does the rest of the year that’s even more meaningful. Since the store opened in 2021, it has served upwards of 400 students, who on their first visit pay $3 for a reusable bag to fill with as many items as they can fit. Each return trip with the same bag is $1.

Sometimes, students pay nothing.

“We’ve had students who’ve been put out of their homes for one reason or another or arrive on campus without the necessary supplies to thrive; they come to us through Housing, the athletic department or sometimes individual faculty members,” Nilles said. “We allow them to come in and take what they need, and we’re able to sort of give them the beginning of a rebuild to their life. That’s incredibly gratifying.”

The Sustainability Department’s shift toward the social equity and profitability aspects of sustainability has been a team effort, Parsons-White said, not only within the department but university wide. The College of Science, College of Business, Department of Social Work and Department of History have been key players in that shift, she said.

“The university is starting to see that we’re not just ‘the people that pick up the recycling,’” she said. “We’re working to make sure the university can take care of itself and thrive in the long run.”

The Sustainability Department emphasizes detailed recordkeeping and data management, ensuring each of its programs has a measurable impact. That’s where Nilles comes in. She tracks things like the output of recycling bins around campus, the number of students served by the thrift store and the thousands of pounds of paper waste sent to composting or recycling from the department’s shred room. When Marshall converted its incandescent and fluorescent lighting to LEDs, Nilles tracked energy savings throughout the transition.

“It was astounding,” she said. “We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars saved just by changing lightbulbs.”

The data makes sure the department remains sustainable as it grows, she said. And there’s a lot of growing to be done: the Sustainability Department just received grant funding to begin hydroponic gardening, and Parsons-White said the goal is for the gardens to eventually provide all of the produce on campus.

“Our dining halls will have fresh, organic food grown right here on campus. We’ll be able to offer courses and internships for business students and ag students, and anyone else who wants to come in and learn,” she said. “We’ll be developing programs that look at things like food production and social equity, while also educating students and making a profit for the university.”

She said her hope is that sustainability becomes everyone’s goal.

“On the university level, we want our students, faculty and staff to know that these programs exist for them, and to understand that it’s not just about saving the earth — it’s also about saving money and becoming more fiscally responsible, so that the university can invest in better programs, events and activities for them,” she said. “And then just being a university in a town the size of Huntington, it’s our responsibility to be that beacon to the community as well. If we can reach out and help people in our community with sustainability projects, that’s not just making a good name for Marshall — it’s making our community better. We all benefit.”

A worldwide pandemic may have put the world on hold for two years, but today students are lining up to study abroad once again.