Day: August 15, 2016

Boston Ave Shuttle Will Now Stop at Whole Foods

Beginning this fall, the free campus shuttle which runs a loop along Boston Avenue on the Medford/Somerville campus will add a stop at the Whole Foods store on Mystic Valley Parkway.

Though there are several groceries stores near campus readily accessible by car, reaching them by foot or by bike — and returning with a load of groceries — can be difficult, inconvenient, and time-consuming.  The new shuttle stop will provide students with another option for fresh produce and other healthy food and make doing errands simpler and more sustainable.

The revised schedule will also include a stop at the Mayer Campus Center, thereby linking the Boston Ave and Davis Square shuttles and making travel between the different sectors of campus and its surroundings more feasible.

Recycling interns Alex Cherry and Megan Mooney worked with Administrative Services to make the change possible. Cherry notes that Whole Foods offers a bottle and can return station and hopes students will use the shuttle for that service as well.

Administrative Services hosts information about shuttle schedules and the shuttle tracker app. The shuttles will begin operating once the school year starts, but the Boston Ave shuttle is available here.

 

Tufts Wins Green Ribbon Commission Renewable Energy Prize

In February, PowerOptions, in cooperation with Tufts and Endicott College, was selected as the winner of the inaugural Green Ribbon Commission Renewable Energy Leadership Prize.

The Prize awards $100,000 to nonprofit institutions for their strategy for large-scale renewable energy generation. Through the Prize, GRC aims to inspire local large-scale energy consumers to implement renewable energy strategies.

The participants who did not receive the prize intend to move forward with their projects, extending the ripples of the competition. GRC hopes that renewable energy in Massachusetts will receive a boost from all the new projects. Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

The Prize is funded by the Barr Foundation, which has made climate one of its core concentrations. The Green Ribbon Commission is a group of business, institutional, and civic leaders supporting the implementation of Boston’s Climate Action Plan.

(Pictured above: The team from Tufts, PowerOptions, and Endicott College, GRC Staff, Barr Foundation Representative. Photo via the Barr Foundation.)

Tufts, PowerOptions, and Partners Healthcare are currently in negotiations to bring the proposal to fruition.

The Green Ribbon Commission has also released a case study analysis of the contest and its entries for greater insight and improvement for next year.

 

 

Recycling Interns Launch Apartment Composting Program

Tufts students on the Medford campus have been composting in their dorms for several years through the Eco-Reps program. But until last year, unstaffed dorms – that is, dorms without Residential Assistants (RAs) and Eco-Reps – were left to organize the disposal of their organic waste on their own.

The Recycling and Waste Management office run by Facilities Services office set out to rectify that situation in early 2016 by launching a composting program for on-campus apartments, including Hillsides, Latin Way, and Sophia Gordon.

The program aimed to divert food waste from the trash. On-campus apartments have full kitchens, meaning students living in those spaces are more likely to be cooking regularly – and therefore producing more food waste – than students in some of the other dorms.

22 apartments received bins during the first pilot round of the program and several more joined during the spring semester.

Students who signed up for the program received a bin at the beginning of the spring semester, along with instructions about maintaining their compost and locations around campus where the bins could be emptied. Recycling interns also sent out a weekly email with tips and reminders.

Recycling is currently working to improve the program and investigating the potential of having off-campus apartments participate.

(Pictured above: Savannah Christiansen, ‘16, Recycling intern, coordinated the program’s launch in the spring of 2016.)