Sustainability Earns Campus, Community Awards

Student leaders from the NC State Stewards accept an award at the L.E.A.D Awards on April 19.

A successful NC State waste diversion program and a long-time university faculty member received top honors at the City of Raleigh Environmental Awards on April 25.

NC State’s Zero Waste Workplace program earned an Education Award for diverting more than 2,300 pounds of compostable material and increasing recycling by 11.2 percent in three campus buildings in the program’s first six months. A few days prior, the program also received NC State’s 2017 Green Brick Award for Innovation and Impact.

Also at the awards ceremony, NC State Extension Professor Emeritus Jean Spooner received the Legacy Award for lifelong commitment to the environment. She served as an extension specialist in water quality for 34 years, retiring in 2014.

On April 19 at the university’s annual L.E.A.D. Awards for student involvement, students took center stage with sustainability-related student organizations earning several honors. The NC State Stewards, a sustainability leadership program coordinated by the University Sustainability Office, won the Wolfpack Leadership Challenge: Inspire A Shared Vision award for its members’ passion to make a difference on campus. The Stewards were also honored with the Outstanding Development By A Student Organization Award for contributing to learning outside the classroom.

The NC State chapter of the Food Recovery Network earned the Outstanding New Student Organization Award for its efforts to distribute campus dining hall leftovers to downtown Raleigh nonprofit organizations. Food Recovery Network also won a Green Brick Award.

At the Outreach and Engagement Awards Celebration on April 25, two recipients of the Deborah S. Moore Service Awards have sustainability connections. The student winner, Samuel Shain, has been involved in campus sustainability efforts, and the student organization winner, SOUL Garden, is a student-led garden that educates about sustainable agriculture.