Using water for cleaning oneself after using the washroom is something that is prevalent in may other countries Europe and Asia. However, USA has not changed at all from using paper towels. MIT can set an example by installing bidets in...
Idea Bank
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Displaying 119 submissions
Several universities have held "ECOlympics" competitions among dorms. As far as I can tell, MIT has never done this. How about one division for dorms and one for workspaces/labs? Given the nature of the MIT campus, thinking...
The Lobby 7 entrance from Mass Ave is one of MIT's highest traffic and most visible doorways. If that rule of thumb about revolving doors wasting 1/8 the energy of old-school swinging doors is real, then a high-throughput revolving...
Incorporate the carbon/environmental footprint into the price of food in retail dining locations, e.g., increase the price of meat options relative to vegetable options. Use the increased price on meat to subsidize local/low-carbon...
Partner with vendors to charge a tax for getting disposable foodware (e.g. 10 cents for a styrofoam container and plastic utensils, 5 cents for biodegradable utensils) or provide discount for bringing reusable things (e.g. get 5 cents...
Put automatic hand dryers in dorm bathrooms instead of paper towels
Creating biodiesel generates glycerol as a by-product, which can then be used to make homemade soap! Loyola University Chicago has their campus vehicles (like MIT shuttles) running off homemade biofuel and all their soap is created on...
Stop leaving infinite reams of paper around every athena cluster, reduce the print limit to something reasonable so people can appreciate that its not an infinite resource and be driven toward electronic solutions.
So many people don't recycle stuff in their own rooms, and it's a pain to go out to the main lounge's recycling bins all the time. It seems that it would be pretty simple to paint half of the trash cans blue (at least in...
We have several main composting bins in Stata, Lobby 10, and a few more elsewhere, but having more in strategic locations would be good. Dorms without dining halls, the student center, and department hubs should also be given composting...