• How Baylor works to steward the natural resources God’s given us

    Pat Neff Hall

    As Christians, we’re called to be stewards of God’s creation. We’re also proud of the beautiful campus we’ve been blessed with. With those things in mind, Baylor aims to take good care of all that we’ve been given — including our natural resources.

    In 2009, Baylor became the first university in Texas to earn LEED certification for an existing building, an honor given to facilities that meet a strict standard of environmental friendliness. In recent years, new construction such as Truett Seminary’s Baugh-Reynolds Campus, the Highers Athletics Complex/Simpson CenterAllison Indoor Practice Facility and the Foster Campus for Business and Innovation have all been LEED certified.

    The dining halls at Baylor have also made concerted efforts to “go green” through such means as trayless dining and reusable to-go boxes. They have also gone to increasingly great lengths to serve locally grown, organic, and vegan items, and to make sure unused food isn’t wasted; in 2017, Baylor’s Campus Kitchen student organization recovered more than 15,000 pounds of food from Baylor’s on-campus dining halls, which was transported to the Salvation Army Men’s Center and Caritas food bank where it was used to help feed the hungry. Additionally, Baylor Dining Services recently underwent a comprehensive overhaul of their food waste program, implementing streamlined methods to measure food production and leftovers.

    The most impactful effort has been Baylor’s recycling program, which includes the recycling cans you see scattered across campus, the Move In recycling and Move Out donation drive, and volunteers at tailgating events. On a campus with nearly 17,000 students and 2,500 faculty and staff, the little things we do go a long way. In 2017, the university recycled 580 tons of material through these programs — up more than 26% in just the last two years.

    Yet even with all these programs’ successes, Baylor Sustainability is still striving for more. In 2015, they began a 5-year plan aims to make Baylor a better, healthier environment, aiming to achieve:

    • 20% locally sourced food in dining halls;
    • 30% waste diversion rate;
    • 17% reduction in water usage; and
    • 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

    As of 2017, those numbers were already up to 13.5% of food coming from local sources, a 27% waste diversion rate, a 15.1% reduction in both water usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

    Sic ’em, Baylor Sustainability!