Outstanding Higher Education Award Winner:  Stanford University

While the majority of the nation’s colleges and universities have recycling operations on campus, far fewer have applied their most unique asset: academics.  The National Recycling Coalition’s Higher Education Award recognizes outstanding programs that connect higher education and the industry.  Not only do these schools have successful campus operations but apply academics through programs like student service learning and training, coursework and degrees, research and technology transfer, as well as career development and placement.  Fortunately, higher education and industry increasingly rely on each other and are realizing powerful partnerships.

The Outstanding Higher Education Award for 2024 is awarded to Stanford University for exemplifying the spirit and intent of this award.  In addition to operating an award-winning recycling program, Stanford advances an impressive array of applied academics that not only boosts campus operations, but contributes meaningful work to the community and future leaders to sustainability efforts worldwide. In fact, it is Stanford’s goal for all students throughout their academic journey, regardless of their major to “Explore Sustainability”.

Sustainable Stanford, a program supported by Stanford’s Office of Sustainability, has a robust Living Laboratory Program with four ways to enrich their experience with materials management, drive innovation and develop the next generation of change leaders. Through the Sustainable Stanford Fellowship and Internship Program every year over 50 students are supported to work on a variety of operational projects on campus, include decarbonizing construction materials, sustainable operating principles, carbon assessment and action plan, optimizing food recovery, developing a framework for waste justice, revitalizing reuse systems on campus, improving urban wood recovery and utilization, embodied carbon in Stanford’s purchased goods, inspiring culture change through storytelling, and breaking down barriers to waste sorting. 

Each of these students have a unique role in supporting sustainability challenges directly on campus.  Stanford’s Associate Director of Zero Waste Systems lectures in Stanford courses on “designing for zero waste” and how waste regulations influence change and impact industry, reaching over 300 students annually.  Students and staff attend tours annually of Stanford’s Recycling Center, recycling materials processing center in San Jose, and the Codiga Resource Recovery Center. Stanford Zero Waste Program collaborates annually on research with Stanford’ Design School and faculty leading behavior change, to study barriers and motivation to community behavior and action. 

The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability offers Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D degree programs and research opportunities across multiple departments that are relevant to sustainability, waste management, and recycling. 

Stanford’s career education program, BEAM, offers job and career support in environmental fields and hosts career fairs focused on sustainability and clean tech including waste management and recycling. 

Lastly, Stanford has a strong focus on applied research in the areas related to sustainability, waste reduction including behavior change and recycling technology.  For example, the Stanford Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering conducts research on sustainable construction, the Precourt Institute for Energy leads research in innovations in energy use including recycling energy resources and reducing waste in energy systems, and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment supports research on plastics recycling, waste reduction technologies, and the development of policies to reduce environmental impact from waste.

Summarizing Stanford’s success, student Sam Bunke stated:  “I never would have guessed that the part-time zero waste internship I casually applied for during my Ph.D program, would have led to me working on zero waste for three years, and that it would have impacted me to the extent it did, personally and in relation to my future career trajectory.” Good luck Sam and congratulations Stanford!  Keep up your important work.

For more information, visit https://sustainable.stanford.edu