Sustainability at the Forefront: Graduation is Greener in 2015

Smith is “greening” its Commencement.

In an effort to further minimize the environmental impact of this annual 8,000-person event, Smith hopes to almost completely eliminate plastic water bottles from graduation. To help guests keep happy and hydrated, the college has purchased a mobile water fountain called a Flexi Fountain.

In recent years, Smith, like many of its peers, has kept Commencement cool by providing professors, members of the platform party and other special guests with bottled water. Steve Campbell, assistant director of events management, says that last year, the college purchased hundreds of bottles of water. While recyclable, these bottles take energy and petroleum to make, and it costs money to ship water. If the bottles somehow end up in the landfill, each bottle can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.

This year, instead of bottles, the Flexi Fountain will be set up inside of the Quad, where the ceremony takes place. The fountain has six spouts, making it easy for several guests to drink simultaneously.

The fountain will draw water from the college’s regular water system, thus eliminating the financial and environmental costs associated with purchasing bottled water and transporting it to campus. Because the Flexi Fountain is portable, it can be detached from the water supply after Commencement, stored, and used at later events.

Corrine Walther ’15, who works as an intern in Smith’s campus sustainability office—says that when she was asked to research options for a bottle-free Commencement, the Flexi Fountain quickly became a top choice.

“This is a great example of an effective compromise,” Walther notes. Commencement is held mid-day, and people sitting outside for the two-hour ceremony tend to get warm. “Hydration is important,” Walther says. “But the fountains show that being sustainable is also easy.”

Smith will still provide a limited number of re-usable water bottles—about 200—primarily to people seated on stage. “Our intention,” said Merrilyn Lewis, associate director of events management, “is to re-use as many containers as possible.”

Commencement is the third major college event that Smith has “greened” this year. (Earlier events were the Staff Winter Solstice Party and an event for student government leaders from the Five Colleges.)

Sustainability intern Walther says that each event has provided lessons for the next one. “At one event, for example, we found that the honey for tea came in wrappers that couldn’t be composted. So at the next event, we put the honey in a bowl,” she says.

This anecdote illustrates an important point, she adds. “People think that sustainability is hard,” Walther says. “But really, it’s easy. You can make a big difference just by keeping sustainability at the forefront of your planning.”