What is Marist College Doing?

A century ago the world population numbered 1.6 billion. Today, the world population is 7.5 billion people. This rapid population growth has forced us to reassess our use of the earth's resources and to institute environmentally friendly services in campus operations.

"Sustainability is an economic state where the demands placed upon the environment by people and commerce can be met without reducing the capacity of the environment to provide for future generations."
- Paul Hawken, "The Ecology of Commerce", 1993

Efforts towards campus sustainability include recycling, purchasing environmentally sound products, energy and water conservation, alternative fuel vehicles and the greening of residence facilities.

Campus Sustainable Initiatives

Positive Impact on the Local Environment

• The College has cleaned five large, contaminated industrial sites near campus and has turned them into attractive properties.
• The College purchased a 13-acre preserve at the north end of campus.
• In its Master Plan, Marist College reoriented its campus toward the Hudson River, emphasizing natural beauty and creating scenic vistas:
• The College created Longview Park, which is open to the public and which has significantly beautified our riverfront. In creating the park, Marist has stabilized and reclaimed the shoreline, closed the riverfront septic system, and landscaped with native species.
• The College created additional green space on campus, including the main campus green, which used to be a parking lot and the former site of the maintenance yard. A total of 27 trees have been planted at this site.
• Marist's Master Plan calls for a campus pedestrian core to encourage walking and biking, creation of green spaces and planting of trees throughout the campus and parking areas.
• The College has an environmental sciences lab inside the restored Cornell Boathouse adjacent to the Hudson River.
• Marist worked with New York State and Dutchess County to turn the Psychiatric Center's riverfront property into Quiet Cove Park. The Greenway runs from Quiet Cove through the Marist Fern Tor preserve to Longview Park.

Sustainable Operational and Building Practices

• The College has purchased recycling containers (commingle, paper, newspaper, trash), both indoor and outdoor, throughout campus in all public areas.
• Newly built campus academic and residence facilities conform with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) attributes.
• Marist is in complete compliance with the EPA's rules on the storage and disposal of hazardous materials.
• Marist uses insect-repelling soap instead of insecticide to control pests in the College's greenhouse.
• Marist uses T8 and T5 lower-wattage, longer-life light bulbs along with LED lighting in campus facilities.
• Marist uses green-certified cleaning products comprehensively.
• There are motion detectors/light sensors installed in many campus buildings throughout campus.
• In fall 2006, the College purchased a hydraulic compressor for cans and plastic to increase its capacity for the collection of recyclables.  In fall 2007, the College began composting food waste through campus dining services and in fall 2013,  converted to using a hyper accelerated food waste decomposition system.
• Where possible, the College uses low-VOC paints/glues and recycled carpets/ceiling tiles.
• The College collects used furniture and carpets, non-perishable food, appliances and clothing from within the residence areas and donates these to charity.
• The College collects and recycles printer and toner cartridges
• The College annually sponsors a campus-wide electronics recycling colelction
• The College uses high-efficiency natural gas washers and dryers, saving energy and almost two million gallons of water per year.
• It is Marist's general policy to buy Energy Star appliances for residential housing units.
• Marist uses doubled-sided printers in computer labs, library and offices throughout campus.
• "Free cooling" for information technology rooms is used in the Hancock ERCL Data Center and Lower West Cedar P LAN Room.  The principle is simple; when the outside air is cold enough the (warmed) chilled-water returning from the data center is cooled in a separate coil rather than using the compressor cycle – thus saving electricity.  Fans are still required to circulate the air and pumps to circulate the water.  
• Physical Plant staff are responsible for the collection of garbage and recyclables from campus residence areas and academic buildings and are trained to follow appropriate collection and recycling procedures.
• When the College does construction demolitions, everything is recycled (concrete, bricks, etc.).
• During college vacation breaks, all cleaning and housekeeping services are scheduled during the day in order to minimize the need for interior lighting.

Advocacy/Communication

• The Campus Sustainability Advisory Committee (CSAC) was appointed by the President to provide broad policy advice to the administration and to the Board of Trustees' Buildings & Grounds committee.
• Marist is a charter institutional member of the Hudson Valley Environmental Consortium.
• The Building & Grounds Committee approves annually $50,000 to support sustainability initiatives.
• The Marist Environmental History Project (MEHP) is dedicated to identifying, promoting, and preserving historically significant materials concerning the Scenic Hudson decision in our Library archives.
• Student clubs and organizations participate in Scenic Hudson's yearly Great River Sweep clean-up event.
• Yearly, CSAC sponsors a variety of lectures and workshops on sustainability, involving students, faculty, staff and community resources

Professional Affiliations

• Marist is a charter institutional member of the Hudson Valley Environmental Consortium.
• Marist is a member of the Hudson River Valley Greenway, which runs through the Marist campus. President Murray is also a member of the Greenway Board.
• The College is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (http://www.aashe.org).
• The College is a member of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
• Marist is a long time supporter of Scenic Hudson, which was founded by the late environmentalist Frances Reese who also served as a member of the college's Board of Trustees for many years.

Recycle Your Computer's Energy

All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to recycle their computer's energy and be part of the biggest philanthropic grid computing venture in the world. Marist signed on as the principal partner to IBM's World Community Grid in fall 2004. Since then, Marist has paved the way for schools and businesses alike to take the initiative and partner with this revolutionary program.

Here's how it works -World Community Grid is a global humanitarian effort that brings together the collective power of millions of individual PCs and business computers to address the world's most urgent challenges using grid computing technology. There are an estimated 650 million PCs in the world.