Annual Sustainability Report 2023-24

As stewards of our planet's future, the University of Montana embraces its responsibility to cultivate sustainability initiatives that extend beyond the confines of our campus. With a commitment to environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic vitality, the University of Montana Office of Sustainability proudly presents its Sustainability Report Card for the 2023-2024 school year. 

This spring, the Kless Sustainability Fund Committee awarded $26 thousand to 8 student sustainability projects on campus. The Kless Sustainability Fund is supported by a mandatory $6 student sustainability fee distributed in grant and loan funds to ensure students have a voice in sustainability. In the 2024 ASUM elections, a majority vote by students was received to increase the fee by $3 per student each semester. This will offset inflated construction and labor costs while helping support more sustainability projects and outreach.  

UM Sustainability and Recycling implemented a compost pilot program in the first academic building on campus, Gallagher Business Building, this spring. Five new composting bins were installed both upstairs and downstairs by the Biz Buzz Coffee Shop. Every Wednesday, the waste project manager and intern completed “dumpster dives” to determine the effectiveness of this pilot program. Results show a steady increase in use since installation. With this program, all classroom trashcans have been removed from the garden level of the GBB. Also in Fall 2023, the Mansfield Library and the Health Science Building were added to the All in the Hall Program with bins installed on multiple floors. All in the Hall is now installed in 8 buildings across campus.  

The Office of Sustainability completed its first Zero Waste guiding document meant to align UM’s goals and strategies with that of the Missoula community, including identifying Zero by Fifty as a target. Part of this plan includes the new MT Silver Springs aluminum canned water for concessions at Griz Stadium. 

ASUM Transportation has seen positive growth throughout its programs in the past year. The Bike Program has been able to increase rental bike fleet size by 20 bikes this year and now employs 2 student bike mechanics that operate open bike shop hours 3 days a week. UDASH bus service has seen a 24% increase in ridership across all routes, and UDASH maintenance staff have completed training to perform maintenance and repair on the fleet's 5 battery-electric buses. 

Across campus, four bear-safe dumpster enclosures and two bear-resistant trashcans were installed this year. This was possible because of multiple grants, including a Kless Sustainability grant! These installations are just some of the starting steps to becoming a bear-safe campus and minimizing negative bear-human interactions on campus.

This spring, UM submitted its first-ever Bee Campus USA application. To facilitate this application and the goal of becoming a Bee Campus, a Bee Campus Advisory Board was created.  

The ASUM Food Pantry partnered with Campus Dining this year to roll out a new program called Catering Cupboard! The goals of the program are to curb food waste and continue to feed pantry customers. Catering Cupboard successfully rescued 1.7 thousand pounds of leftover food this year.

The Office of Sustainability launched a new employee sustainability ambassador program called the Sustainability Sentinels. Throughout the spring, participants attended three sustainability seminars dealing with sustainable swag and purchasing, zero-waste on campus and in life, and sustainable food, dieting, and catering. The program is comprised of 21 participants from 15 departments.  

Every year, UM Sustainability and UM Housing team up to put on the Campus Thrift event, which continues to grow every year. In spring 2023, we saw 38 thousand pounds of donations collected, 294 volunteer hours, and 7.2 thousand pounds of items donated to charities. We hope to make Campus Thrift this spring even bigger and better! 

Thanks to the addition of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, the UM campus now has five dual-port electric vehicle chargers available for public use! We hope to use these as a jumping point to eventually switch over to an electric vehicle fleet in the future.  

This year, we completed our biennial Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The results showed that our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are holding pretty steady, but Scope 3 emissions did increase since the last inventory. This is largely due to increased employee/work air travel. 

The Iron Griz Garden at the UM Golf Course, managed by Campus Dining, grew over 3 thousand pounds of produce this year. Valued at $16.7 thousand, this produce was used for catering and Food Zoo patrons.