Oklahoma State University

Facilities Management

Students

Take action by making sustainable choices on capus through simple everyday actions that will reduce your overall carbon footprint. 

Campus Footprint
	Use LED light bulbs in all your light fixtures, use power strips and avoid phantom energy by turn them off when you're away or they aren't in use. When doing laundry only wash full loads and choose cold water if possible, if you have space use a drying rack or clothesline instead of the dryer. Use natural sunlight to light your space anytime you can and open a window to cool down a space if the temperature premits.
	Shop locally at the Stillwater Farmers' Market or Sprouts Farmers Market, prioritize plant-based proteins and minimize your meat intake, and eat mindfully by focusing on what you're eating and asking yourself how it got from a farm to your fork.
	Arm yourself with reusable water bottles, bags, straws, and utensils. Minimize or eliminate the food waste you create by only taking what you know you will eat. Avoid Styrofoam and make sure to recycle through the OSU Recycles and ResLife Recycles programs.
	Shop locally at the Stillwater Farmers' Market or Sprouts Farmers Market, prioritize plant-based proteins and minimize your meat intake, and eat mindfully by focusing on what you're eating and asking yourself how it got from a farm to your fork.

Faculty & Staff

• Research
  Sustainability is a vast and encompassing subject that has many facets for potential research. Not only can it be the main subject of research, it can also be a smaller component in practically all fields of study. Whether it is how to teach the three R’s in a third grade classroom, media research on the sustainability trend, or the chemistry of decomposition in composting, it’s easy to get creative with sustainability. OSU has many research programs that feature sustainability, such as: 

  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Conservation of natural resources and energy 
  • Zero waste
  • Waste management
  • Pollution prevention
  • Social and community sustainability
  • Sustainable development
  • Green architecture and landscape architecture
  • Green product design
  • Industrial ecology
  • Ecotourism
  • Business sustainability
• Teaching
  The classroom is your stage to showcase sustainability and lead by example. You can reduce, reuse, recycle and conserve energy in the classroom, as students learn positive habits while the University benefits from your leadership and initiative. 

  • Take your class on a campus sustainability tour.
  • Encourage students to bring a reusable water bottle to campus, to help decrease the usage of single-use plastics on campus.
  • Go digital! Use your online classroom for sharing handouts and for students to submit assignments and papers. 
  • Allow students to turn in their assignments virtually.
  • Instead of using paper note books and agendas, take notes and plan electronically!
  • If planning and taking notes electronically isn't for some students, suggest they get refillable notebooks or spiral notebooks made from recycled content for the class.
  • Let in more sunlight! Opt for natural lighting by opening the blinds in the classroom.
  • Encourage students to think of the campus as a sustainability laboratory.  Assign projects that allow students to create solutions to sustainability issues they identify in their own dormitories and dining halls.

  Find out more ways to teach about sustainability

• Office
  Your office is your domain away from home. There are basic actions that you can take to help your office be more sustainable. Encourage others to be sustainable and watch how the movement spreads. The benefits stretch beyond the office and help OSU on its way to being more sustainable. 

  • If possible, take the stairs instead of the elevator to your classroom and/or office.
  • Schedule office hours before or after class so commuting students don't have to make a separate trip to campus.
  • Set your printer default to double-sided printing. 
  • Purchase recycled content paper for the office.
  • Save printed paper for scratch paper and recycle paper you cannot re-use.
  • Make sure to turn off office lights when not in use. If you can, use natural light instead of electrical lighting.
  • Use "sleep-mode" so your computer automatically uses less energy when you leave your desk, even if it is just for a short time. Screen savers do not save energy.
  • Turn off your computer when you leave for lunch and at the end of the day.

  More ways to make your office sustainable