Bike to Work Week • Earth Month Recap • Meet the Interns • Freezer Challenge • Reducing Healthcare Waste • Green Move-Out Guide |
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After a whirlwind of Office of Climate and Sustainability (OCS) events throughout April, May is here – and with it comes finals, move-out, graduation, and other end-of-semester activities! Check out this edition of the Blue Jay’s Green Guide for a recap of Earth Month festivities, tips for making your move-out process more sustainable, an introduction to our talented team of student interns, information about upcoming events, and details on community composting, the Free Food Alert program, and the ongoing Freezer Challenge. Plus, read an excerpts of our latest interview with medical student Melanie Alfonzo Horowitz about reducing waste at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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Bike to Work Week May 12th – 16th |
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Bike to Work Week is May 12-16! Staff, faculty, and students are invited to join the movement and bike to campus to enhance their personal well-being and reduce the environmental footprint of their commuting. Take a photo of yourself during Bike to Work Week and post it to social media with the hashtag #JHUBikes. You can also upload your photo and tell us why you love biking for a chance to win a raffle prize! Visit hr.jhu.edu/bike-to-work for more information.
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April was an exciting month for OCS as we hosted and participated in Earth Month celebrations across campus and beyond! The month kicked off with our 6th Annual Sustainability Symposium, which connected more than 330 students, faculty, and staff from departments throughout the university to foster multidisciplinary dialogue on climate and sustainability research, practice, and education.
The 3rd annual Earth Fest featured bike-powered smoothies, tabling from student organizations and campus departments, plant-based food, sustainable giveaways, upcycled art, live music, and a visit from Jay. We also gazed at the stars, learned about toxic pollution in South Baltimore, cleaned up our neighborhood, gave away plant cuttings in recycled lab glassware, collaborated with three other local universities on an Earth Day panel and networking event for college students, and spread the word about Johns Hopkins’ ongoing sustainability efforts.
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Meet the OCS 2024-2025 Student Interns |
Thank you to our amazing intern team for all of their work this Earth Month and the entire academic year! Learn more about our Communications, Engagement, and Research and Operations interns. And congratulations to our graduating seniors!
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| OCS Communications Intern Skye Neulight (right) was nominated for student employee of the year! Skye attended the awards ceremony with Claire Runquist, Senior Sustainability Specialist for Engagement and Community-Building.
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Freezer Challenge Runs Through June 30th |
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Did you know that ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers (-70C and below) consume as much electricity as a typical single-family household and that JHU maintains over 1,500 ULT freezers? Join the 2025 Freezer Challenge and learn how to lower your lab’s carbon footprint, improve sample safety, and prolong the life of your freezers by improving your cold storage practices.
In addition to making your lab and JHU more sustainable, the top performing labs from each school/campus can win up to $3,000 in awards to be used for sustainable purchases, upgrades, or repairs. The 2025 Freezer Challenge runs through June 30th – sign up here.
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Community Food Scrap Collection Programs Continue at Homewood & East Baltimore |
In partnership with Baltimore City’s Department of Public Works, JHU, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Loyola University were joint recipients of a USDA-funded food waste diversion grant. The grant was to expand the network of food scrap drop-off sites across the city in order to reach more community members. Since August of 2023, the Homewood and East Baltimore campuses have had a food scrap collection site which allowed JHU affiliates and community members to drop-off compostable items from home. In that time, over 4,900 lbs of waste have been collected and composted from 626 visits, 75% of which were JHU affiliates and 25% were local community members.
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While the USDA grant came to a close this past March, the two sites are continuing thanks to the generous support of the Homewood Recycling Office and the School of Medicine Facilities Department. To encourage use of the program, OCS will be at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Farmers Market on May 22nd giving away countertop food scrap collection bins, while supplies last.
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Free Food Alert is Now Live at Hopkins Bloomberg Center |
The Free Food Alert platform is now available at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.! Developed by Hopkins graduates, Free Food Alert enables event hosts to post about available leftovers to reduce food waste and treat fellow students and colleagues to a free meal. Students, staff, and faculty can sign up to get email alerts and/or mobile app notifications when free food is available. Subscribe to receive and send alerts here. Free Food Alert is available at Hopkins Bloomberg Center, Homewood, Peabody, and East Baltimore campuses.
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Save the Date: Green Labs Vendor Fair on June 3rd |
JHU is hosting a green labs vendor fair! We invite students, researchers, and staff to visit with vendors who provide sustainable services and products. Sign up for the JHU Green Labs newsletter to receive registration information when it goes live.
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Reducing Waste in Healthcare |
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Most procedures in the operating room include administering general anesthesia, which requires patient intubation with single-use laryngoscopes. After about five minutes of use, the laryngoscope is discarded and sent to incineration. Funded by the Campus as a Living Lab program, medical student and Hopkins graduate Melanie Alfonzo Horowitz aims to divert this waste to a recycling program at Johns Hopkins Hospital operating rooms. To work on “stopping the perpetual cycle” of waste and pollution, Alfonzo Horowitz has partnered with Dr. Nick Dalesio from pediatric anesthesiology, Moriah Barr in JHH facilities, and Sharps Medical Waste Services to set up a system of recycling laryngoscopes that does not affect surgery efficiency. She has used the grant to eliminate any cost obstacle that would pose a barrier towards hospital administration approval.
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SCRAPS Project Team Wins WSE Dean's Award |
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20% of methane emissions come from food waste in landfills. Continuous, quantitative monitoring is essential to managing and reducing food waste. The team developed a data-driven solution that automatically collects and processes compost weight data from post-consumer plate waste in campus dining halls. SCRAPS collects the ongoing weight of the bin without disrupting existing student and staff workflows. These data are visualized and analyzed with a user-friendly interface, which allows staff to easily extract insights that inform sustainability goals and operational decisions.
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How can I make the move-out process more sustainable? |
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As the academic year comes to a close, colleges face a sharp spike in waste production as dumpsters and curbs are piled with furniture, clothing, office supplies, bedding, and food during move-out. But, if you plan ahead and opt for more sustainable choices, you can prevent waste and reduce the impact of your move!
Donate, sell, or recycle items
Do you have items you no longer need or are unable to bring home with you? Find a way to donate, sell, or recycle those items instead of sending them to the landfill. And this is also a great time to be on the lookout for secondhand goods from others!
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One option is to donate to the annual Sustainable Hopkins Innovative Projects (SHIP) move-out collection drive, which is collecting unopened toiletries and nonperishable food items on May 10 from 4 – 6 PM. Students living off-campus can donate bulk items like furniture, clothing, and other items to be donated or trashed to the JHU Off-Campus Housing Office’s Trash and Donation Pick-Up program. See our full guide for details.
Sustainable packing
Reduce packing waste by using items you already have, reusing old boxes and packing materials, and passing those materials on to others once you’re done with them.
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| Tree ID Hike
With Baltimore City Rec & Parks
May 17 | 10 AM – 12 PM | Carrie Murray Nature Center
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Pollinator Hotel Building Workshop
With Dept. of Public Works, BMORE Beautiful, and Reservoir Hill Improvement Council
May 20 | 6 – 8 PM | Reservoir Hill Community Garden
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