Grand Valley’s efforts to reduce waste generated by fans at home football games received national recognition from the National Wildlife Federation.
Since 2013, an initiative among the Office of Sustainability Practices, Facilities Services, Athletics, the Office of Student Life and Campus Dining has been working to reduce landfill-bound trash at Lubbers Stadium as part of the National Wildlife Federation’s GameDay Football Zero Waste Touchdown Challenge .
This year that work bore fruit, as GVSU was honored with the challenge’s Waste Minimization Per Capita category, the only Division II school recognized this year. Grand Valley joined the University of Colorado Boulder; the University of Minnesota; the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and the Georgia Institute of Technology as this year’s category winners.
“The most uplifting thing I’ve learned from this experience is that people genuinely care and want to help with waste minimization,” said Yumiko Jakobcic, director of the Office of Sustainability Practices.
“We often have people stopping by and asking us to teach them. A lot of folks have also said that they didn’t realize we do all of this and that they’re happy to see Grand Valley’s commitment to the environment.”
