UM Green Fund

The university’s composting program (then the UM Compost Program) began as a pilot project funded through the UM Green Fund in 2013. The UM Green Fund supported the composting of pre-consumer food waste from the Marketplace at the Residential Colleges. After a successful first year, the Green Fund Committee voted to fund the expansion of the UM Compost Program. The program is now in its ninth year and is operated fully through the UM Office of Sustainability. The UM Compost Collective composts pre-consumer food waste from all residential dining locations including Ole Miss Catering and P.O.D. locations. Since its establishment in 2013, the program has successfully diverted more than 145,000 lbs of food waste.

Learn more here.

The Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management’s student-run restaurant, Lenoir Dining, is in the process of seeking certification from the Green Restaurant Association. Prior to beginning the certification process, nutrition and hospitality management faculty worked with Facilities Management to make energy-efficient upgrades, conserve water and recycle in the facility. Additionally, all students who work in Lenoir Dining are trained on how to compost through the UM Compost Program. Lenoir Dining also features a sustainable menu at least once per semester, highlighting locally produced ingredients. Because this is a lab operated by students, all undergraduate students and some graduate students will learn firsthand what is required to achieve, maintain and improve sustainable restaurant practices on a daily basis.

Phase two of a project to incorporate more native plants into the university’s landscape was completed in 2017. In November, student volunteers, representatives from Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, and UM faculty and staff planted more than 2200 Christmas fern and wood aster on half an acre of campus near Fraternity Row. Phase one of the project was completed in April 2015, when UM ornithology students installed 142 native plants in the same area to enhance wildlife habitat and provide an educational tool on the importance of native species.

In collaboration with the City of Oxford, members of the Active Transportation Advisory Committee and Office of Sustainability installed a temporary demonstration project on Gertrude Ford Boulevard in April. This pop-up project utilized “Complete Street” strategies, meaning it used street design techniques that accommodated all users of the road, including cyclists and pedestrians. The project is ongoing and aims to enhance the road using nonpermanent modifications such as bike line buffers and crosswalk signage, while also collecting community feedback to better inform future design decisions regarding this road. Feedback collected during April and May was overwhelmingly positive and indicated that the project had accomplished its goal by creating a safer bike lane for cyclists and calming motor traffic.

Ole Miss Market Days were a series of on-campus farmers markets intended to educate students, faculty and staff about the importance and many benefits of eating locally as well as to provide resources about where to purchase local foods in Oxford. Through the Green Fund, this event provided access to local produce, honey, bread, Gulf seafood, cooking demonstrations, free samples and more.

University Of Mississippi student dancers joined dance groups across the nation to bring awareness to water issues as part of the National Water Dance 2016. Students in the university’s Mississippi: The Dance Company performed in the waters of Mud Island’s Mississippi River replica.

The Mississippi River Water Dance began with a poetry reading by UM students. The dance moved along the model of the river, followed by the audience. Throughout the performance, docents recited facts about the river and its culture. The dance was live-streamed on the National Water Dance’s website, along with dances from across the nation.

This summer the J.D. Williams Library has installed Low-E Film on the library’s south-facing windows, including those in the Faulkner Room, thanks to funding provided by the UM Green Fund. The film works by reflecting 57% of total solar energy, thus keeping cooling costs down. This project is expected to lower the Library’s energy use in those rooms between 10-40% and to pay for itself in 3 years. The project was proposed by the Library’s staff members, who are diligently working to record energy data on the project and increase student awareness of the energy savings that stem from sustainable building practices such as this. The project leaders are Librarian and Green Team Chair Buffy Choinski and Library Operations Manager Stan Whitehorn.

The UM Green Fund funded several of the campus’ first hydration stations to encourage the use of reusable water bottles. Locations funded by the Green Fund include Brevard Hall, Holman Hall, the law school and the J.D. Williams Library.

The first project funded by the UM Green Fund was the H2Otty Toddy Water Bottle project proposed by writing professor Milly West and her Freshman Writing Class. Their project sold reusable H2Otty Toddy Water Bottles at the 2013 Sustainability Fair as a part of Green Week. The water bottles were sold to raise student awareness of the waste created by non-reusable water bottles and to promote reusable water bottle use. The proceeds of the water bottle sales raised just over $2,000 which was put back into the Green Fund.