The Office of Sustainability’s (OOS) mission at UW-Milwaukee lies in stewarding on-campus resources toward a prosperous environment for the university as well as the green space we live in. They enact these efforts by coming up with sustainable practices for campus operations, initiating programs that encourage green practices, and improving campus operations more efficiently and in the most cost-effective manner.
Lindsay Frost has served as the Sustainability Operations Manager for the OOS for the last three years. Before Frost stepped into this role with the office, she started as a student-employee during her time as an undergrad. Frost’s academic path shifted many times through different majors before settling on Conservation and Environmental Science.
“It felt like conservation was always right there in front of me, and I just hadn’t thought about it as a starting point for my career path,” said Frost.
The Office of Sustainability relies heavily on student involvement to get their work done. The involvement ranges from volunteering for service-learning hours to operating as student-employees at the office to facilitate new programs and initiatives that are continued after their graduation.
Students are the core of the office. In the past, students have been able to become employees, obtain internships within the office, and have been tasked with creating a plan/project within their classes for the office to undertake on-campus.
“Students are certainly at the foundation of why everyone is here at UWM, and in sustainability we really try to own and lead with that,” emphasized Frost.
The specifics of what the office does on campus can vary. They’ve improved UWM’s recycling operations for on-campus waste by switching to an internalized recycling system in 2020. Now, after saving money from contracting an outside recycling vendor, the office has one campus recycler who collects from all recycling bins on-campus and is taken to the recycling center off of Capital Dr. In 2023, they reported that the switch had saved them a total of $300,000.
Additionally, the office has often worked within the realm of food diversion and composting waste on campus. In 2013, a student-employee had the idea of developing a composting system for students and faculty. This allowed any food waste produced on-campus to be composted and used as fertilizer.
Panther Pail Composting Program
This initiative became what we now know as the Panther Pail Composting Program, a creative solution that was produced by another student during the COVID-19 pandemic when food waste wasn’t being produced as much at UWM. The program has continued since and allows students to compile waste at home and drop off their buckets to be composted on campus. From this program, in 2023, the amount of composted food totaled around 160,000 lbs.
Since the beginning of the composting program, more and more students have come in and refined the process and helped it flow more efficiently. In 2022, a student worked with OOS during an internship to create an “Earth Cube”. The “Earth Cube” is a compositing machine/method that lives in the UWM Hoop House and hastens the breakdown of food waste by two times an average composting pile. That means the cube cuts down the time from six months in an average composting pile, to three months.
“Often times you know what a better future looks like, but the pathway to that better future isn’t always going to be clear, and you have to take steps and the pivot while making progress towards that bigger goal,” said Frost in regard to the work done within sustainability and conservation.
Surplus Warehouse
Not only does the office work on-campus to remain sustainable, but their off-site facility at the Surplus Warehouse (where our recycling goes) houses many old furniture and items that are recycled from campus. At this warehouse, students and faculty can make an appointment to peruse the inventory and purchase some items at discounted prices. In 2023, a record-breaking year for the Office of Sustainability, they recirculated 3,275 items back to campus to be reused in more settings. Check out their website here for more information.
Needless to say, the Office of Sustainability works with students and the environment as their first priority. Their efforts are thankless yet require more hands-on-deck than they currently operate with. They need the help of students to keep these amazing triumphs happening for future Panthers.
If you’d like to get involved with the office, check out their Instagram “@sustain.uwm”. The office upholds an open-door policy for anyone to come in and ask questions, they’re located on the first floor of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning building (room 116). Feel free to email with any ideas and inquiries to Ask-sustainability@uwm.edu.