Bottled Water Reduction at Champlain College

Summary of Bottled Water Reduction/Restriction at Champlain College
December 2013

Summary:  Over the past year, there has been significant effort in educating the Champlain College community about the various issues with bottled water (including, but not limited to, privatization of a public resource, access and equity, waste in production and disposal, etc.) as well as adding the physical resources necessary to create an environment where access to free, safe drinking water is easy for all. In April 2013, the campus community was surveyed to see if they would support removing the sale and use of regular, un-flavored bottled water on campus and this was overwhelming supported by those that responded. In June 2013, Champlain switched from solely working with Coca Cola as our beverage vendor to being an open source campus where any retailer can work with any provider. At the time of the switch, the vendors were informed that we were likely to stop the sale of bottled water on campus as of January 1, 2014.

Therefore, we (Sustain Champlain and collaborating departments) recommend that as of March 8, 2014 (following spring break) we will no longer sell bottled water in campus vending machines, Jazzman’s, The Lodge, or the Bookstore. Additionally, bottled water will not be available at most catered events (may have special exclusions for some catered events including some summer groups or Admissions events).

Champlain College would then be joining the company of more than 35 other institutions of higher education across the US and Canada, including the University of Vermont and St. Michael’s College, who have banned or restricted the sale and use of bottled water. Once the sale/use restriction is in place at Champlain, we will create signage for vending machines and other points of sale, explaining the rationale for this change. The outline below shows the various educational and infrastructure efforts made over the past year to support this restriction.

Educational Outreach

  • Bottled Water Awareness work by students:  Film screenings, water taste tests, informational tabling, petition (114 signatures) – projects/work of ENP100: Intro to Environmental Issues students as well as Eco-Reps
    • Film Screenings
      • Blue Gold screening on March 19th, 12:30-1:45 in Alumni Auditorium
      • Tapped  screening on March 19th, 8:30pm in Fireside Lounge + tabling by ENP 100 students
      • Flow screening on March 26th, 8:30pm in Fireside Lounge + tabling by ENP 100 students
    • Water Taste Tests
      • 3/19 at 12:30-1:45 in Alumni Auditorium (Eco-Reps)
      • 3/21 at 11am-1pm in front of Caf (Eco-Reps)
      • 3/27 from 3:30-5:30pm in front of the Caf (Eco-Reps)
      • 11/18/13 from 4:30-5:30pm in front of the Caf (Sustain Champlain students)

    • Posters shown on Campus Compass Screens in Spring 2013 – created by ENP 100 students and by Lindsey DeBerry as a project for SCI 155 – Global Environmental Earth Science (Montreal) – see examples below

     

  • Campus beverage survey sent out to students, faculty, and staff (April 2013). Contained questions regarding beverage vendors (Coke, Pepsi, etc.) as well as bottled water.  96% of survey respondents were students.
  • Question as posed:  Bottled Water
    Background: Sustainability is one of Champlain College’s values and we continue to make strides toward becoming a more sustainable institution. One step that other campuses (such as St. Michael’s and UVM) have made is no longer having regular, unflavored bottled water available.  Champlain has a continuing effort to upgrade water fountains with combo water filling stations (see map of available water on campus at https://bit.ly/CCWater) and bulk water is offered for catering. All first year students are given a refillable water bottle at new student orientation. Burlington’s city water is a safe water supply and there are no issues with consumption of tap water.
  • Survey Responses: 
  • Overall, survey results showed support the move to multiple vendors, banning bottled water, increasing access to water bottle filling stations, and a high percentage of comments also asked for local products in vending machines.
  •  Ongoing Infrastructure-Related Work
  • Installing goose neck faucets in at least one bathroom in each main campus residence hall (to allow for filling bottles/pitchers) – Fall 2013
  • Event Center purchased multi-drinking fountain station for use at outdoor events – Summer 2013
  • Dining Services/Catering purchased multi-gallon drinking water containers for use at events – Spring 2013
  • Added water bottle filling stations in Ireland, Bader Hall, Juniper Hall – Summer 2012
  • Starting in Fall 2011, all new first year students, as well as new employees, receive a stainless steel water bottle, courtesy of Sustain Champlain & Orientation
  • Clarified beverage ordering options in EMS catering request system – to show same product and choice for individual bottles vs. pitcher/bulk service – Spring 2013
  • Map of water station locations https://bit.ly/CCWater