Laura DiMario, Executive Director of Stanford’s Redwood City campus, has demonstrated how sustainability can be incorporated into the operations of a building.
A switch in custodial service providers has flooded Stanford’s Redwood City Campus with opportunities for sustainable cleaning initiatives. It has become a testing ground for two unique products. The first is an alternative to polyester cleaning wipes. The Redwood City campus has switched to using a biodegradable wipe that comes in a reusable container, allowing for refills of just the roll to reduce excess packaging.
The second is an alternative to the traditional soap cartridges that are maintained by custodians in restrooms. The replacement of these soap cartridges generates hundreds of pounds of plastic waste each year. The new product being tested, from a company working to eliminate the use of single-use plastics in sanitization, uses a foaming powder concentrate, which reduces the need for replacement soap cartridges.
Other waste reduction initiatives Laura has helped implement with custodial partners include removing plastic liners from waste baskets in restrooms, being an early adopter of Stanford’s Zero Waste Building System, using Cardinal Clean to reduce packaging waste, and being an early leader in switching back to reusable items in cafes and food service halls after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Laura continues to find ways to operationalize sustainability, save money, increase efficiencies, and reduce waste.
Witness how fellow students, staff, and faculty are creating a wasteless community, and gain inspiration to implement waste-wise practices in your daily decisions.
Stanford has set a new benchmark for sustainability at live events through its first major concert hosted by Stanford Athletics and Stanford Live. Sustainable Stanford hosted a fireside chat with sustainability leadership from Live Nation and Warner Music Group in tandem with this milestone.
From reducing embodied carbon in construction to piloting organic landscape management, the annual Student Sustainability Symposium highlighted how student-led innovation is driving sustainability at Stanford.
Laura Segura Gonzalez, a second-year design student, is leading jean upcycling workshops to combat fast fashion waste, empowering students to transform old jeans into something new.
