Georgia Tech has a major sustainability focus, with students and stakeholders providing conservation suggestions over the years. Take a glimpse of what some units within Campus Services are doing to make the Institute and the world a cleaner and a sustainable place. 

Barnes & Noble at GT started its sustainability practices in the past three years. Merchandise like water bottles, shirts, hats and diploma frames are made from recycled materials. Improvements include using LED lights, recycling cardboard boxes and installing water bottle filling stations. Receipts are optional to reduce printing; this practice is also used in the BuzzCard Center.

Composting is Dining’s sustainable initiative. About 95 percent of Dining’s service wares are compostable last year. Compost is collected from North Avenue, Brittain and West Village dining halls and Rising Roll Café and the Exhibition Hall. With more than 26,000 pounds of compost generated in fall 2019, this practice diverted 260,000 pounds of waste from landfills, saved 1.5 million miles of driving for waste management, and equates to about 26,000 tomatoes planted.

Housing and Residence Life provides single-stream recycling dumpsters for all residence halls to encourage students to recycle all materials without sorting. LED lighting upgrades are scheduled for all residence halls. North Avenue North and South, Center Street Apartments, Zbar, Nelson Shell, Crecine, and Undergraduate Living Center have received lighting upgrades. The remaining residence halls will receive upgrades soon. Water bottle filling stations are replacing water fountains in all residence halls to reduce landfill waste.

Exam rooms and facilities at Stamps Health Services are outfitted with LED lighting, motion light sensors, low flow toilets and sink aerators to reduce water usage. Stamps received the LEED certification back in 2013 for its sustainability efforts.

In 2016, Parking and Transportation Services began converting parking deck lights to LED. All parking decks are scheduled to be outfitted with LEDs by the end of 2020. Carpool spaces have been designated in the Dalney parking deck (W22), which encourage customers to ride together and reduce carbon emissions. Drivers can recycle plastics in several parking decks using newly installed recycling bins. Bike rooms in the Dalney and Tech Square parking decks provide indoor storage for commuters and student residents. Electric vehicle charging stations allow EV drivers to charge while in class or at work.