Sustainability Initiatives
At Notre Dame, we strive to become responsible global citizens and environmental stewards while advancing women's roles in environmental initiatives.
Environmental Sustainability at NDMU
Preparing leaders in sustainability:
Notre Dame's innovative Environmental Sustainability Major offers three tracks for undergraduates: policy, science and sustainable entrepreneurship.
Notre Dame Sustainability Committee
A working group comprised of members of faculty, staff, graduates and students, the committee's 5-year strategic plan for sustainability at NDMU promotes campus awareness of green principals and practices.
Campuswide Commitment to Green Principles
Mayor’s Clean-up Day
Notre Dame students, faculty, staff join forces with the York Road Partnership for the Annual Fall Cleanup of the York Road Corridor. They spend the day planting, painting, beautifying the areas in and around campus.
Student Environmental Organization (SEO)
The SEO organizes events to promote responsibility and sustainability, including the sale of earthgrams, Research Day programming, themed menus in dining hall, campus-wide clean up day; educational displays and tree planting.
Forging alliances
Notre Dame faculty and students participate in the Campus Climate Action Group, sponsored by the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the Smart and Sustainable Campus Conference at the University of Maryland
Information technology initiatives
- Flat-panel displays replace CRT monitors
- All-in-one units or small-form factor units have smaller power supplies and use less energy consumption greatly reduced
- Laptops, monitors, printers and multi-function units are set to hibernation or sleep mode after several minutes of inactivity
- Lights in labs are turned off when not in use and new facilities are wired with multiple switches and/or auto-turn off sensor
- Equipment is recycled through vendors that purchase and repurpose equipment in bulk
- SAN (Storage Area Network) reduces the number of disk drives required on campus
- VMWare reduces the number of servers used on campus
- Cloud computing reduces hardware and energy costs
Implementing green practices:
- Tray-less dining saves 200 gallons of water for every 1,000 meals served, and results in a 25 to 30 percent reduction in food because students do not load up their trays with excess food.
- Indoor herb garden provides fresh flavor at a low cost.
- Local foods, including produce, meats, seafood, dairy and eggs, are used whenever possible to reduce transportation costs and greenhouse emissions.
- Composting vendors collect waste three times a week and return with mature compost for use by campus grounds crew.
- Compostable and recyclable containers are used in carry-out operations, such as Gator Alley.
- Several campus departments, including academics, conference services, maintenance and human resources, have switched to paperless processes where possible.
- Partnership with Baltimore Free Store and other organizations to collect unwanted items from students at the end of the spring semester.
- Partnership with Waste Neutral for organic waste recycling.
- Single-stream recycling throughout the campus.
- Used book recycling.
- Green Seal Certified cleaning products and recycled paper supplies are being used for housekeeping (when available)
- Environmentally-friendly paper and ink for all printing and marketing materials are used
- New construction/renovations (such as Knott Science Center renovations and construction of Bunting Hall) aim for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) Certification
Get involved!
Contact Dr. Patricia Brelsford and learn how to incorporate sustainable practices into your daily routine.