Students take lead on sustainable practices at UH Hilo

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The Students of Sustainability club at UH Hilo takes seriously its mission to stimulate new ideas for “green” initiatives on campus.

Alexis Stubbs, Brook Hansen and Jack Rossen stand next to recycle bins.
From left, student Alexis Stubbs, recipient of the $10k Green Student Leadership Award, Brooke Hansen, co-advisor of the Students of Sustainability club, and Jack Rossen, co-advisor of SOS, stand in front of the new recycling and food waste collection bins that are about to debut in the UH Hilo Campus Center Dining Hall. The bins were built by the students of SOS. Courtesy photo.

By Anne Rivera/UH Hilo Stories

The Students of Sustainability club at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is taking seriously its mission to stimulate new ideas for “green” initiatives on campus.

SOS is currently working on a campus compost initiative by securing bins for the Campus Center Dining Room. The bins will help UH Hilo reduce its food waste because the waste collected will be composted near one of the campus’s sustainability gardens. Members of the SOS club are providing the labor for this project and will help ensure the composting process is completed correctly and safely.

Students building bins.
SOS members build waste bins for the UH Hilo Campus Center Dining Room. Courtesy photo.
Compost bins.
One of the six composting stations around campus. Courtesy photo.

Sustainability projects on campus also give students the chance to apply the learned theoretical material they are receiving in class to real world problems.

“The SOS group offers to do zero waste for community events,” says Brooke Hansen of the UH Hilo anthropology department and SOS advisor. The club also includes coordination with Recycle Hawaiʻi for programming and events through Vicki Haili, a UH Hilo alumna who was a sustainability intern two years ago—now she has graduated and works as an administrative assistant with RH. “She comes to SOS meetings where we discuss how the club can work with the county on solving our enormous land fill and recycling issues,” says Hansen.

Group with warehouse in background.
SOS executive board members and advisor Brooke Hansen (at right) at the most recent Chamber of Commerce event hosted by Sustainable Island Products and Recycle Hawaiʻi. Courtesy photo.

Award-winning leadership

Alexis in green gloves, weighing a large plastic bag of waste with a hand held scale.
Alexis Stubbs takes measurements of collected waste material on the campus of UH Hilo. Courtesy photo.

As part of a delegation of 12 from UH Hilo attending the 5th Annual Hawaiʻi Sustainability in Higher Education Summit on Oʻahu last spring, Alexis Stubbs, former president of SOS and a senior specializing in plant science and agroecology, won a $10k Green Student Leadership Award for the composting initiative. The prize money will go into expanding the composting program into other parts of the campus such as the dormitories.

“This is all really student driven,” Hansen says. “The rest of us are here just to help make it happen but it’s coming from the students.”

“We are an island,” Hansen adds. “We have to think like an island. The reality is we need to do something—this is about human and cultural survival.”

Group of students carry bags of shredded paper in an outdoor setting.
SOS group collecting the first community donation of shredded paper from a local advertising company. Courtesy photo.

Story by Anne Rivera (senior, communication), a public information intern in the Office of the Chancellor.

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