Sustaining St. Olaf
For years, St. Olaf College has been a national leader in sustainability initiatives. Ask your friends at other schools if their colleges offer:
- a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine that directly supplies about 30 percent of campus electricity
- a LEED Platinum science center, designed to be functional for faculty and students (and the planet)
- sustainable building guidelines that aim at LEED Gold quality in every building
- a cafeteria that regularly ranks in the top ten nationally, and that’s committed to sustainable practices from farm to fork
- an organic farm created and staffed entirely by students
- an in-vessel composter annually keeping almost 200,000 pounds of food waste out of landfills
- green transportation options, with Green Bikes and WeCars
- a stormwater drainage system that keeps rain water and snow melt on campus and in wetlands, where it can recharge the Jordan aquifer
- over 150 acres of natural lands and restorations, with prairie and forest and wetlands, and four student naturalists to help other students learn what comes naturally on campus
- a student government with a designated Environmental Senator
