For the eighth year in a row, The Ohio State University is proud to earn a Tree Campus USA recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation. Ohio State has received the distinction each year since it first applied in 2011. Tree Campus USA, an Arbor Day Foundation program, honors colleges and universities and their leaders for promoting healthy trees and engaging students and staff in the spirit of conservation.
The honor aligns with the Ohio State sustainability goals , including a commitment to increase the ecosystem services that campus lands provide to the university community.
Your recycling habits can make a difference for Ohio State! During an eight-week time period starting February 3, the university will measure the amount of recycled materials on the Columbus campus for the annual RecycleMania competition that includes more than 300 schools in North America. Ohio State finished in 5th place in 2018, diverting more than one million pounds of materials from the landfill. Y our participation this year can help us raise the bar and move Ohio State closer to achieving the zero waste goal .
We are appreciative for the efforts of those who...
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is commonly overrun by groups of children or school trips. But in early November, the zoo hosted a different kind of field trip. More than 100 high school and college students attended a two-day Teen Eco Summit, featuring inspiring guest speakers, do-it-yourself workshops, and interesting animals.
One of those guest speakers was Ohio State’s Mary Leciejewski.
“The concept is that they’ll hear from various organizations throughout the city about how to implement sustainability at their school,” said Leciejewski, senior sustainability coordinator with Facilities Operations and Development (FOD). “The second day, they created a...
Are you preparing for Thanksgiving dinner? Here are 4 tips from FOD's Energy Services and Sustainablity team to help you and your family have an eco-friendly Thanksgiving.
1. Shop local for your Thanksgiving menu.
Buying from a local farm or farmers markets can protect and preserve our environment and give your family healthy, fresh food.
2. Use reusable dishes, cloth napkins and silverware.
Using resuable dishes, cloth napkins, and silverware reduces waste and can make your Thanksgiving table look more tasteful and elegant.
On a crisp October day at Mirror Lake, senior Michael Madson surmises why dissolved solids in the lake have dropped in the past few months.
He discusses a few hypotheses with Audrey Sawyer, assistant professor of earth sciences. Could it be seasonal? Or manmade: The fact that the renovation of the lake is completed and construction work is no longer stirring up the lake’s sediment? Maybe it’s biological, caused by algae and plants growing in the lake. Or a more complicated possibility: The lake is currently supplied by both city water and groundwater from a limestone aquifer, and the...
The Historic Mirror Lake District that has been under construction since fall 2016, which included the renovation of Mirror Lake, Browning Amphitheater and Pomerene and Oxley halls, officially removed its fences Aug. 10. The project budgets were more than $69 million, collectively.
Fences have come down, walkways are clear and the iconic Mirror Lake is open on campus.
Video captured by Ohio State News shows the evolution of the new Mirror Lake after construction started in late 2016.
The historic Mirror Lake District renovation, which includes Baker Commons, Browning Amphitheater and Oxley and Pomerene Halls , aligns with the university’s campus master plan, Framework 2.0. The renovated Mirror Lake was designed with input from students, faculty and staff to be safer and more sustainable.
The new and improved Mirror Lake District will once again be open to the public. For the past two years, Mirror Lake has been under renovation with a focus on enhancing safety and sustainability. Click here to watch ABC6's story about about the work.
The Ohio State University was recognized as the 2017-18 Big Ten Champion of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any of its conference competitors.
Green power is zero-emissions electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, eligible biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and helps users reduce their carbon footprints.
Ohio State beat its conference rivals by using nearly 106 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 18-percent of the school’s annual electricity...
The Ohio State University once again had a strong showing in the annual RecycleMania competition. Ohio State finished in fourth place among 300 colleges and universities in North America in the total recycling category of RecycleMania in 2018, with nearly 1.3 million pounds of recycled material during the eight-week competition. This was an improvement upon its 2017 finish, where the university finished in eighth place overall, recycling 1.1 millon total pounds of material.
Ohio State also topped the Big Ten Conference in the Gameday Basketball diversion rate category, diverting 85%t of its material from...
