The University of Mary Washington is a 2014 recipient of the Virginia Green Travel Leader Award in recognition of its ‘green’ initiatives on its Fredericksburg, Stafford and Dahlgren campuses over the past year.
Virginia Green is Virginia’s program to encourage green practices in the state’s tourism industry. Through its sustainability initiatives, UMW is able to offer green amenities on all three campuses, contributing to its ability to draw visitors from around the region. UMW was listed as one of 16 organizations that received the 2014 award for exemplary commitments to green practices.
In the past year, UMW’s sustainability initiatives and recognitions have included:
- Obtained LEED silver certification for the new Information and Technology Convergence Center on the Fredericksburg campus
- Ranked first in the ‘per capita’ category for Virginia’s 2014 RecycleMania competition
- Collaborated with the City of Fredericksburg on a campaign against cigarette butt litter
- Working on a Tree Campus USA designation for the Fredericksburg campus, a certification awarded by the Arbor Day Foundation
The most notable of UMW’s sustainability efforts is its recycling program. Available on all three university campuses, the program collects recycling in all buildings and at all outdoor events. During this past year, UMW students custom-painted the lids of recycling bins to draw more attention to the program. In addition, UMW’s collection of 244,944 pounds of material during the 2014 nation-wide RecycleMania competition was comparable to the result of removing 67 cars from the road or the equivalent of the energy consumption of 30 households.
For more information on UMW’s sustainability initiatives, please visit http://sustainability.umw.edu.
