
Greener Gatherings: Cutting Waste, Increasing Impact
Ideas to responsibly reduce waste at your next event.
At Stanford, we’re wise about waste. Our vision is to establish a model wasteless community that takes a scalable, holistic, systems approach to advance zero waste culture and waste justice.
Stanford has a long history of waste reduction and has consistently diverted over 60% of waste from the landfill over the past two decades.
A wasteless community is one where overall waste is minimal, single-use items are the exception, reuse is the norm, and people are educated and empowered to easily recycle and compost the rest.
A wasteless community can be achieved when our systems and our culture work together to stop waste from the start, and ensure the highest and best use of materials that are discarded, but still have value.
To achieve a wasteless community, Stanford leverages data, standards, technology, and behavior change to advance zero waste systems and develop a culture of waste reduction.
Digging into the material we send to landfill is key to understanding the barriers and opportunities in moving towards a wasteless community and circular economy.
Stanford conducts ongoing waste audits to assess what is ending up in the landfill waste stream by amount, location, material type, product, and brand. The university also conducts regular inspections to ensure the waste infrastructure is maintained and to spot-check for proper sorting.
This data helps us optimize our operations, tailor our resources, and inform waste reduction strategies to meet the university’s zero waste goal.
Just as water and energy flow through pipes and transmission lines, materials flow through a building through a system of standardized waste infrastructure. Stanford’s waste standards are designed to provide convenient access to recycling and composting and to encourage waste reduction and proper waste sorting.
Stanford leverages cutting-edge technology to track our waste from its source within buildings to its destination at the recycling facility. By using an AI-driven mobile app to spot-check proper sorting and camera-equipped trucks to monitor dumpster capacities, the university optimizes operations and streamlines sustainability. And by partnering with facilities that use robots and AI to sort recyclables, Stanford can ensure the highest and best use of materials.
Creating a campus culture of waste reduction is essential to achieving our zero waste goal. By incorporating social science principles into everyday programming – from signage to social media – Stanford promotes waste reduction and proper sorting as the norm.
By connecting operations and academics, we leverage the university as a living lab for sustainability to test behavior change interventions that can be scaled across campus and beyond.
Stanford is currently updating its Climate Action Plan, which will include strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through waste reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, and sustainable procurement.
Stanford has a rich history of waste reduction efforts and continues to be a leader in zero waste. Explore where we’ve been and where we’re headed.
Shape the strategies Stanford will prioritize to achieve a wasteless community by getting involved with the zero waste action plan.
Ideas to responsibly reduce waste at your next event.
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.