Jones is Green, Green is Jones

This is a series of environmental initiatives started by the leadership of Jones College to serve as a testing grounds to refine and hone improvements to the residential colleges' environmental track record.

Jones is Green has recently received a grant from Envision (a grant at Rice for innovative ideas in leadership and service), to provide some funds for various projects. The hope is that Jones College will be able to test and perfect different ideas and thus serve as a example for other colleges to "green" their operations.

Jones has already begun to separate their food waste from food service meals in the commons. Here's the chart and stats for this collection.

Current Proposed Ideas are:

• Install can crushers by each can recycling bin, both to improve the efficiency of the recycling (more cans per bag) and to make recycling more fun (crush that little can...).
• Publish an environmental handbook for Jones, providing some basic environmental education and college-specific guidelines for how to alter your habits to improve the sustainability of your college.
• Start a college mugs program, with personalized mugs with the Jones Crest on it, to reduce the ammount of paper cups used in the kitchens. Hopefully, we will also be able to work out drink discounts in nearby restaraunts as well as on-campus locations.
• Arrange the Jones kitchen to discourage waste and disposables, as well as work with the Kitchen Staff and the Food Department.

Plastics recycling was also considered, but the Rice Housing department is currently working on that, so we decided to use our resources elsewhere.

Do you have another idea that would make a good college-based project? Let us know.

We will update this page as the initiatives start, to keep you abreast of their development. Stay tuned.

Accessed times since 9-2-99