Residence

With one in three students choosing to live on Iowa State's campus, the Department of Residence (DOR) serves more than 8500 individuals who live in 3.6 million square feet of housing. Over 90% of all freshmen live on campus and many current residents remain on campus for the following year.

To meet the needs of such a large population, the DOR considers sustainability to be an integral component of its work. The DOR's green initiatives include the use of chemical-free cleaning products, campus-wide recycling programs and an ongoing effort to replace lighting with more energy-efficient LEDs.

In "re-educating" over 5,000 new residents a year, the DOR continually seeks student feedback to improve its facilities and services. For example, the DOR installed water bottle filling stations in every campus residence after students proposed the idea themselves. More than 1,600 leadership opportunities are available to students within campus housing.

See the dropdowns below to see how Department of Residence is making an impact within each of the three facets of sustainability. Contact DOR via email at housing@iastate.edu.

When moving out of campus housing, students are encouraged to participate in the Move Out Donation Program. The program enables students to place unwanted items such as housewares and non-perishable foods in easy-to-find drop-off sites. The Department of Residence (DOR) then donates these items to local charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army, which can sell the donated goods to support their own causes while also preventing waste from entering the landfill. The program is organized with assistance from the DOR's student sustainability team, Central Stores and Facilities Planning & Management.
The DOR continually takes on "life cycle projects" to replace outdated materials with more economical and sustainable counterparts. Currently, the DOR is installing new energy-efficient windows, replacing all light bulbs with cost-saving LEDs and putting down carpet made from recyclable materials. As most DOR construction takes place during the summer when students are gone, life cycle projects usually take 5-10 years to complete.

Recycling programs have existed in campus housing units since 2009. Recyclable materials include paper, plastic, aluminum cans, glass and cardboard. At the Schilletter and University Village Community Center, students can also recycle items such as batteries and cell phones. Each residence hall has a recycling chair and sustainability chair that oversees the program.
The Department of Residence (DOR) always strives to recycle or donate outdated materials. In collaboration with Live Green! and Ohio Mattress Recovery and Recycling, the DOR recycled 900 used mattresses from Frederiksen Court. By utilizing this service, the DOR saved roughly 20,000 cubic feet of landfill space, as 94% of the materials in each mattress can be recycled. The DOR also donated cloth curtains from wardrobes located in Maple-Willow-Larch to local non-profits for reuse in other projects.
With the help of ISU Custodial Services, the DOR exclusively uses green products that are free of harsh chemicals to clean all residence buildings. The only exception is a chemical-based product that strips floors of wax and debris. However, this is product is only used once every few years in any given building.
Six new Frederiksen Court facilities are certified Gold in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) initiative, an internationally recognized certification program that offers third-party verification of sustainably-constructed buildings.
Every residence hall has a bottle filling station, which encourages students to drink from reusable containers. This helps students rely less on bottled water, and on average, each filling station has already prevented tens of thousands of plastic containers from entering the landfill.

There are more than 1,600 leadership positions available within campus housing. Students can be a house president, a sustainability coordinator, an apartment community council member or a recycling chair, just to name a few opportunities.
The DOR offers 21 different residential learning communities (RLCs). These communities are small groups of students who live together in designated houses or floors in order to share academic interests, classes, living spaces and develop friendships as part of an innovative program based on cooperative learning. Many RLCs focus on issues of sustainability, such as Agriculture Education Studies, Food Science and Human Nutrition and Science of the Environment and Sustainable Systems.
Additionally, the DOR offers five theme houses that bring together students with similar interests without academic requirements. For example, the Cross Culture House requires students to live with roommates from another country.
The DOR always welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with student organizations. For example, DOR collaborated with Engineers for a Sustainable World to offer apartment composting at Frederickson Court Apartments.
As one of the nation's largest student housing programs, the DOR's staff frequently attends conferences in an ongoing effort to share its knowledge and resources.

Residence

Economic Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability

Social Sustainability

By integrating sustainability into our residence halls, we not only reduce our environmental impact but also empower students to become leaders in sustainability, carrying these values into their future communities.