Get Money for Sustainability Projects

Faculty and staff who want to make their offices and departments more sustainable can get some green to go “green.”

With help from Duke’s Green Grant Fund, an annual fund made available to support a range of projects that benefit the Duke and Durham communities, Sustainable Duke is providing money to employees who want to purchase sustainable office supplies like energy-efficient desk lamps. Faculty and researchers can also apply for financial backing to update equipment in labs to cut energy or water use.

The goal is to provide assistance for Duke community members to earn a Green Workplace or Lab Certification, which recognizes efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of a workspace.

“Even purchasing a few small environmentally-friendly items for the workplace can wind up making a difference for lowering carbon footprints across campus,” said Casey Roe, outreach coordinator with Sustainable Duke. “The more reusable or high-efficiency items we can use daily, the better.”

 To begin the application for funding, a representative from an office or department should write sustainability@duke.edu with a brief description of the project idea.

Green Grant applications for workplaces and labs typically range between $50 and $500, but employees can request any amount to budget for sustainable items. In this year’s pool of Green Grant funding, $5,000 was earmarked for offices and another $5,000 for labs.

Since 2011, 138 workplaces and labs have received certification by Sustainable Duke. About 30 have also applied for financial assistance through the Green Grant Fund after it became available in 2013.

This fall, Donna Sell received $600 to outfit kitchens in the new LEED Platinum certified Environment Hall with reusable dishes, utensils, drying racks and more. She applied for funding as part of the Nicholas School of the Environment’s staff sustainability committee.

"With kitchens on each floor of the building and single-stream waste management stations designed to reduce the amount of non-compostable waste, we want to encourage everyone to use real dishes instead of disposable options,” said Sell, a staff specialist in the Nicholas School’s marketing and communications office. “We want sustainability to be second nature so people don’t have to think about it.”

Additionally, greening labs across Duke has become a priority. On a per square foot basis, research labs can require five times more energy to operate than classrooms and office spaces, said Randy Smith, departmental manager in the Department of Biology.

Smith helped create a Green Lab Certification checklist that recommends tactics for energy and water conservation, as well as chemical storage and use. He said Green Grant funding could help cover part of the cost for things like energy-efficient freezers, glove boxes or incubators.

“If it doesn’t take extra effort or cost to the individual to do something a little better, why not do it?” Smith said. “We can reduce costs and do our part for better stewardship of the planet.”