by Kathleen Alexander

With growing scientific concern over rising global temperatures, Michiganders can take pride in knowing institutions within their own state are working toward greater sustainability. The University of Michigan is one of the nation's leaders evolving into a sustainable campus for the future. After a 100 million dollar investment, U of M received a gold star rating from the Association for Advancement in Sustainability in Higher Education.



The university recently released its Sustainability Progress Report for 2015.



To learn more about the university's environmental achievements and goals, the Greening of the Great Lakes host, Kirk Heinze, speaks with Drew Horning, who works to promote sustainability on campus. Horning is deputy director and chief of staff at the Graham Sustainability Institute at U of M. He explains how the institution can attribute its success in sustainability to the M Planet Blue initiative.



"Planet Blue was born out of the fact that sustainability is such a complex and broad topic that touches every unit imaginable at the University of Michigan," he says.



Planet Blue recently released its annual sustainability progress report for

2015 including faculty research, student education, campus operations and community engagement, all around increasing sustainability.



"Sustainability touches a little bit of everything," says Horning.



Through a dynamic and interactive website, users can visit and learn more about the sustainable changes happening in and around the University of Michigan. The push has resulted in over 25,000 planet blue ambassadors who have signed up to learn more about sustainability and how to make it a part of their lifestyle.



Horning talks about how changes around campus have paid off saying they, "...have paybacks, and are good economic investments as well as environmental investments."



Moving forward, the University of Michigan plans to reduce landfill waste by 40 percent on campus by 2025, as well as transitioning Michigan Stadium into a zero waste system. Zero waste can be achieved through initiatives like changing some stadium operations and supplying compostable packaging at football games.



"It's really a way to show the students, the faculty, the staff, and all of the thousands of people who come to those games, who don't work for the university and don't come here on a daily basis, that this is a priority for the university, and they can help us."



Other programs such as Mcity and the DOW Sustainability Fellows program also play a role in the green movement on campus, where environmental strides are made, and students can collaborate.



"The Dow Sustainability Fellows program, is really where I think it all comes to together," says Horning. "... It brings together students from social science disciplines and humanities, with engineers and natural scientists..."



Click here to hear the Heinze/Horning conversation.



Greening of the Great Lakes airs every Sunday evening at 7:00 on News/Talk 760 WJR and around the state each weekend via the Michigan Talk Network.