Wyn Caudle
Editor in Chief
On Aug. 26, Secretary of the College Angila Tracey sent an email to faculty, staff and students regarding environmental sustainability — attaching the first ever sustainability report, for the 2024-2025 academic year. The report includes information on waste reduction, peer education initiatives to build environmental consciousness and cost effective sustainability programs like the College’s to-go container program with Creative Dining and paperless initiative among faculty.
The report was compiled by Brian Webb, director of campus sustainability. Webb started his tenure in 2023, his position the first in campus history. The Office of Sustainability is made up of one administrative coordinator, Eva D’Intino, as well as eight student interns. The report highlights other students working towards sustainability on campus through the Green Scots program — a volunteer group of 20 students that works on projects to make campus more eco-friendly.
The report also included information about several Office of Sustainability initiatives. The Reuzzi program had a 99% successful turn-in rate and over 1100 users, resulting in $3800 saved. ScotShare — the College’s electric carshare program — has seen an increase of 156% in usage since the program began in 2023, with new users up by 55%. Additionally, the carbon footprint of the College declined by 3.5% in the 2024 academic year, with the report showing the exact metric ton breakdown.
The report also recorded 23 campus events, including Party for the Planet, Holiday Swap and Shop, Brewfest, Sustainable Collage Night and others. Webb also launched a new course called “Global Climate Solutions,” which focused on current world solutions and innovations to address environmental change from global warming. According to the report, Webb also advised an Independent Study focused on composting around campus and designed a TREK for summer 2026 focused on climate justice in Fiji and Tuvalu, two low-lying nations in the South Pacific affected by rising sea levels.
“Since my sophomore year, which was the first year that Wooster started an Office of Sustainability, I have been incredibly thrilled to see and be a part of so many new initiatives to make our campus more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” said Nurain (Sammy) Amier ’26, a sustainability peer educator for the Office. “I cannot wait to see the results of the work that the Office has done thus far and what the Office will continue to do in the future.”
There are also student interns for Ex Uno Fonte, a program under the Office of Sustainability focused on the intersection of faith, spirituality, religion and sustainability. Intern Naomi Kaczor ’27 is optimistic about the future of sustainability efforts at the college. “I was impressed that we kept [the report] to one page because we did so much and I thought it would be a lot longer. I was like ‘oh wow! We summarized it well,’” Kaczor said. “We see a lot of incoming freshmen … interested in sustainability and it seems to be a growing concern in the student body, so it’s nice to see people getting involved. I would say, just try and get admin and trustees to continue to support us and all of our initiatives is a big goal.”
The report also included information about Wooster’s Sustainability, Tracking and Rating System (STARS) report. STARS is an external program that evaluates universities’ sustainability efforts. Staff and students working on campus sustainability efforts are able to quantitatively measure how the school has improved through the STARS report.
“I’ve met with several members of the faculty here at the college and it seems like everyone is really on board with sustainability, but I think we have a long way to go and some major steps to make,” Basil Keck ’28, sustainability peer educator, said. “We’re doing pretty well, and I’m excited to do even better.”
The Office of Sustainability continues to work towards making campus and the Wooster community a more sustainable place — plans are listed in the report for the two Electric Vehicle chargers now located in the Douglass Hall parking lot, and employees are working to ensure that the Compton Hall renovations are as sustainable as possible.
“This year we are very excited to have our second fall break trip, to expand to include more interfaith programming and to deepen our impact within the community by working on pollinator projects grounded in creation care with area churches, and to help one of our partner churches get climate justice certification,” D’Intino said.
Updates from the office will be posted to the Sustainability tab of The College of Wooster website, the weekly Sway and @woosustainability on instagram.