Campus Innovations

CU-Boulder continues to build a strong campus community, increase teaching and research capacity, improve technology, and complete renovations to current facilities through a variety of initiatives.

• CU-Boulder has six decades of environmental leadership. A few of the many efforts include creation of a conservation education major in 1951, the nation’s first student-led environmental center established in 1970, the nation’s first collegiate student-led recycling program, and the nation’s first student-negotiated prepaid bus passes in 1991, among others.
   
• CU-Boulder has been named one of the top 15 campuses in the nation for sustainability by the Sustainable Endowment Institute.
   
• In 2008, Folsom Field became the first major sports stadium in the nation to collect all materials in recycling or compost containers, eliminate trash cans, and transform its materials collections systems into a zero-waste process.
   
• The University of Colorado Student Government requires all student-funded food/dining events to be zero waste.
   
• A growing number of buildings on campus meet the guidelines of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings.
   
• CU-Boulder was the first university or college in the nation to rank "gold" through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Ratings System, or STARS. STARS is a system developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, with broad participation by sustainability directors and other members of the higher education community.