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Colgate highlights the importance of reducing food waste, using the example of the “Ort Report” at a summer camp, where leftover food (orts) is weighed after meals to encourage mindful eating. Younger campers often left pounds of food uneaten, but through education and friendly competition, older students significantly reduced their waste. In the U.S., roughly 40% of food produced is wasted, totaling about 133 billion pounds per year, much of which is avoidable. Individuals can reduce waste by: Taking only what they can eat and starting with small portions. Saving leftovers in reusable containers. Planning meals and prioritizing perishable items. Freezing excess food and using what’s already available before buying more. The key takeaway is that food waste wastes money and resources, and while it’s a collective challenge, everyone can take personal steps to minimize waste and influence others to do the same.

Colgate encourages purchasing paper that is both FSC certified and contains post-consumer recycled content, with brands like Hammermill®, Boise® Aspen™, Staples®, Wausau®, and HP Office™. Higher recycled content is always better for the environment.

Colgate has seen declining recycling rates, hitting a low of 14.45% in 2016 during RecycleMania. Contributing factors included insufficient recycling infrastructure and limited awareness among students, staff, and faculty.

Meet the Farmers

Colgate campus faces a significant issue with unsolicited mail, which wastes paper, ink, money, and time.

Summer & Fall Green Raider Interns - 2016

Colgate has installed four new Elkay water bottle refill stations on the first, third, fourth, and fifth floors of Case‑Geyer Library to make it easier for the campus community to fill reusable bottles with filtered, purified water. These sensor‑activated stations were added alongside traditional drinking fountains to help reduce single‑use plastic bottle waste by encouraging tap water use—an approach shown to significantly cut down on disposable bottles across many institutions. According to Elkay, their ezH2O® bottle filling stations have helped save tens of billions of plastic bottles from entering landfills globally by promoting reusable bottles.

Over the summer, Colgate’s Office of Sustainability ran the six-week Foundations of Sustainability discussion group for faculty, staff, and students from over a dozen departments. The program explored topics like food systems, water, energy, waste, climate change, and green buildings, encouraging participants to consider the ecological, social, and economic impacts of daily choices. Weekly readings and discussions inspired participants to take small but meaningful sustainable actions and recognize their potential ripple effect on others.

The Colgate Community Garden (CCG) serves multiple purposes: Education, Local Food Access, and Community.

Colgate’s garden interns attended Open Farm Day in upstate New York, touring several farms to learn about sustainable agriculture and local food systems