Reduction: Economic Sustainability 

  • Environmental Health and Safety's Chemical Redistribution program minimizes waste by giving unused, surplus cleaning products to researchers.
  • ISU diverts glass out of the waste system to assist the City of Ames in keeping non-beneficial fuel out of the Resource Recovery Center, reducing maintenance costs and equipment repair.
  • Custodial Services saves money by using accurate chemical dilution systems to eliminate unnecessary waste by measuring out the exact amount of cleaning product needed for a given task. With this dilution system, Iowa State mixes the cleaning product solutions on site, which saves transportations costs and reduces associated carbon emissions.
  • Instead of using paper cleaning products, cost-effective, versatile and reusable microfiber cloth is being used by Custodial Services throughout campus for a variety of cleaning needs.
  • BYOC! Save $0.35 per coffee drink for bringing your own cup to any ISU Dining location. Not only does this save money for customers, it also prevents nearly 35,000 disposable cups from entering the waste stream each year.
  • All of Iowa State's residential dining facilities are “tray-less,” dramatically reducing food waste costs compared to facilities using trays.
  • Information Technology Services (ITS) uses virtual servers to reduce the space needed for physical servers. This is cost- and resource-effective, as Iowa State can house 50 virtual servers on one physical server and not need to use space, money or energy on physical hardware in multiple spaces.