About Ripon | Sustainability

Sustainability at Ripon College

A Commitment to Environmental Responsibility

In addition to making Environmental Studies a focus in our academic life, Ripon College is committed to environmental initiatives and goals.  Our campus community is committed to environmental sustainability in ways large and small. We hope you will join us in these efforts to preserve, protect, and improve not just our campus, but the global environment.

Institutional Efforts

Ripon’s Physical Plant has made a dramatic difference in the College’s consumption of natural resources. With an extensive campus recycling program and intelligent investments, such as variable speed fan systems in the school’s kitchen hoods that save $30,000 in electrical costs every year and LED light fixtures replacing older incandescents, Ripon is saving natural and financial resources in myriad ways.

The College makes an effort to purchase fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles whenever possible and continues to update heating and cooling systems for campus buildings. In addition, newly installed low-flow showers and toilets saved 6 million gallons of water at Ripon last year alone, and more installations are planned in the near future. Ripon has installed six water bottle filling stations in Spring 2013 to reduce the number of plastic bottles purchased and discarded on campus, and a number of other exciting efforts, from on-campus composting to solar powered lighting, remain on the docket for the near future.

EGOR

Thanks to student organizations such as the Environmental Group of Ripon (EGOR) and the Ripon Outdoors Club, students with a passion for environmental causes have a strong peer group and a voice on campus that collectively make a difference.

EGOR has established a 100% student-run campus garden and programs focused on recycling everything from batteries and cellphones to shampoo bottles and cosmetics containers. Spring semester, 2013, will see the introduction of Ripon’s first student-run honey bee hives. Learn more about these and other efforts by visiting EGOR on Facebook.