Foiling Food Waste, Battling Plastic Bottles: UMD Sustainability Fund’s Victories
300 Projects Later, Grant Program Keeps Greening Campus
Illustrations by Charlene Prosser Castillo
For today’s Terps, scraping stir-fry scraps into compost bins at the Stamp Student Union, picking up free lamps and cereal bowls from the Terp to Terp ReUse Store and swimming in a moss-filtered pool at Eppley Recreation Center are part of everyday life.
That’s thanks to the Sustainability Fund, which has funded nearly 300 environmentally friendly projects over the past 15 years.
“It’s really rewarding to see how these new initiatives have become successful,” says Scott Lupin, director of the Office of Sustainability. “They’ve grown from grassroots to become part of the culture of campus.”
Students, faculty and staff can apply each year for a grant to support sustainability-related research, internships and operational improvements. The fund has increased as the Student Government Association has voted to raise student fees; next year, a record $850,000 in grants will be disbursed.
High-impact projects include:
FOOD RECOVERY NETWORK
A student idea to collect unserved food from dining halls and donate it to local shelters received a small grant over a decade ago. Now, the initiative operates on 195 campuses and has recovered more than 16.5 million pounds of food.
TERPS HEART THE TAP
Long before Stanley cups went viral, a grant supported the installation of filtered water-filling stations across campus. Now, there are more than 100, preventing the use of millions of single-use plastic water bottles.
TERP TO TERP REUSE STORE
This project collects gently used dorm essentials like lamps and storage solutions to pass on to other students for free—and keeps the items out of landfills.
CAMPUS CREEK RESTORATION
Slowing the flow of water as it heads toward the Anacostia River and stabilizing the creek bed have improved the region’s water quality and led to the return of wildlife like fish and toads.
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