Andres Harris has been named the new assistant director of zero waste and logistics at the George Washington University. He will collaborate with Kristian Ferguson, who will serve as the inaugural recycling coordinator.
The new positions were created to support the connection between the practical management of campus waste conducted by Facilites Services in the Division of Operations and the sustainable goals and initiatives outlined by the university strategic plan and the Office of Sustainability, also in the Division of Operations.
“We are so glad to have Andres and Kris on board to bring fresh energy to our existing efforts to support the university’s sustainability goals,” Senior Associate Vice President for Operations Alicia Knight said. “Utilizing their combined expertise will bring us one step closer to a greener GW.”
Mr. Harris joins GW after serving as the Louisiana State University (LSU) solid waste and recycling manager, where he not only oversaw large-scale composting and recycling efforts, managing nearly 1,700 tons of material, but also took on the Herculean task of weekend football clean up.
“At LSU, up to 150,000 people come to campus on Saturdays for football games, and as you can imagine, they generate a lot of trash,” he said. “Through a strategic system, we were able to have the area clean by noon every Sunday.”
It is this sort of coordinated effort that Mr. Harris hopes to implement at GW.
“On an urban campus, space is limited and material management is the key to attaining a zero-waste goal,” he said. “Universities are big purchasers of goods, and since most of the things we buy, we throw away, our sustainable efforts have to focus on material management.”
Mr. Ferguson, a 13-year solid waste and recycling industry consultant for various municipal, private and sustainability-focused nonprofits, such as Keep America Beautiful, agreed.
“Proper solid waste management on an open-campus such as GW presents its own unique challenges,” Mr. Ferguson said. “Through my research at Keep America Beautiful, I have found that in the U.S. we are spending more than $12 billion annually in litter management alone. Therefore, our campus-wide goal is to divert more material from landfills and integrate efficient composting, recycling, litter prevention and other waste diversion efforts.”
Both Mr. Harris and Mr. Ferguson are eager to assess new strategies to bolster current initiatives such as the single-stream recycling system implemented this fall, the Green Office Network which trains staff in proper recycling techniques, Tru20 to reduce plastic waste, the Recyclemania competition, Green Move Out, the pilot composting plan on the Mount Vernon Campus and the Ecosystems Enhancement Strategy launched in 2012.
“Currently, we are researching best practices across universities and evaluating the processes for recycling that are in place on campus,” Mr. Harris said. “Specifically, we will focus on analyzing the types of containers available, where material goes, what material is being diverted and the roles of different offices and the students in supporting recycling at GW.”
They will meet frequently with green student groups and Eco Reps, the student green leaders in the Division of Operations, in early 2014.
“A major draw of working at GW is the ability to interact with the student population and the faculty and staff,” Mr. Ferguson said. “I am looking forward to working on long-term strategies and seeing how the sustainable projects at GW grow and benefit the university.”