Happy Holidays from the Office of Sustainability
As this calendar year comes to a close, we’d like to express our deep gratitude for the faculty and staff who have advanced our campus sustainability commitments this year. Earlier this summer, we engaged campus stakeholders in the process of reaffirming our vision to transform Wake Forest into an institutional model of sustainability for place-based education. Our collective success continues to be powered by distributed, cross-functional leadership - by everyone who champions sustainability in campus life, operations, teaching, and research. Throughout the fall, we have centered our attention and efforts on what grounds and unites us all - our relationship with this place. We have invited new students and families to join us for Strolls Through the Forest - inviting them to connect with the natural beauty and ecosystem services across our storied landscapes. We have taken classes to Historic Reynolda and facilitated unique experiential learning activities highlighting the trails, wetlands, and meadow as spaces for learning. And we have invited all who explore our campus to pause for moments of reflection and appreciation. Below, we invite you to celebrate some of this year’s collective campus sustainability highlights. And as we look forward to the winter solstice, a time of rest and renewal, we await the excitement of a new semester and all it brings - hope and optimism for deeper transformation.
- Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, VP for Institutional Sustainability
Wake Forest leads the way in energy efficiency, responsible food sourcing, alternative transportation, and more. Keep reading for highlights from this year across our areas for transformation.
- Climate Change Mitigation
- Support for Research, Education, and Creative Works
- Land and Ecosystem Management
- Connectivity in the Built Environment
- Materials Management
- Culture of Resilience and Adaptation
Dining and Food Systems
Starting at the Source
Wake Forest continues to be at the forefront of responsible food sourcing in higher education. The Harvest Table Culinary Group (HTCG) team at Wake Forest strives to meet a commitment to sourcing at least 30% of our food, by spend, from producers that have achieved third-party certification for their sustainable production practices. The team reached an all-time high of 37% third-party certified foods in March of this year - a major milestone. Director of Culinary Development, Chef Jonathan Burns, was awarded the Service and Social Action campus sustainability award for his commitment to prioritizing products that have earned third-party certification and for his support of independent small-scale farming operations that prioritize the health of soil, ecosystems, and communities. Learn more about the Wake Forest campus sustainability awards program, Champions for Change.
It's Not Food Waste Until It's Wasted
The HTCG dining team continued to deliver on a range of commitments by reducing food waste before it reaches guests' plates. Over the course of 2025, North Dining Hall reduced pre-consumer food waste by 21% compared to a 2023 baseline. This achievement was driven by restructured ordering practices, including closer inventory tracking and more frequent deliveries of smaller quantities. Strong team communication in the kitchen has led to improved preparation practices, monitoring overproduction daily, and creatively repurposing menu items, significantly cutting waste upstream while maintaining service quality.
This semester, over 150 students in classes including Italian 212, Philosophy 163, and Communication 110 activated course learning objectives during tours of North Dining Hall where they learned about food systems and waste reduction strategies. In the 2024/25 academic year, HTCG’s partnership with Matriark Foods transformed over 3,000 lbs. of not-quite-perfect vegetables, that otherwise would have been discarded, into delicious base products like tomato sauce and vegetable broth concentrate for use in recipes across residential dining locations.
Climate Change Mitigation
Leading on Energy and Climate
By the close of the fiscal year, Wake Forest’s in-house Utilities Operations team realized a 47% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from the university’s 2007 baseline, even as campus square footage included has grown by over 52% in the same timeframe. This year’s continued progress puts the university close to the interim goal of a 50% reduction in GHGs by 2030, five years ahead of schedule. Read Wake Forest’s climate action plan update here. The Utilities Operations team’s commitment to energy efficiency and healthy buildings in conjunction with the university’s broader commitments to building renewal and adaptive reuse can also be seen in the 46% decrease in energy use intensity (EUI) since 2007.
Campus as a Model for Climate Solutions
The renewal and expansion of Wake Forest’s South Chiller plant bolstered the efficiency and resilience of the critical chilled water system, while also accounting for future demand.
Students explored the new chiller towers as a sustainability learning space during class tours facilitated through our Campus Engaged Learning program.
Demonstrating the breadth of disciplinary perspectives activated through class visits, over 100 students learned about Wake Forest’s energy efficiency and emissions reductions initiatives this fall through the unique lens of their courses:
- COM370 (Made In Italy/Making Italy: Fashion, Mobility, Nature) - Students toured the Heating Plant and Chiller Plant, as well as the Campus Garden, as a means of understanding regional climate solutions and how these compare and contrast to those in Italy.
- GES340 (Welcome to the Anthropocene: German Contemporary Literature in a World of Climate Change) - Based on what they learned at the Heating Plant, students reflected on their personal philosophy on the relationship between human beings and the energy systems that support us. They analyzed how the convenience masks the scale and complexity of the production required.
- ART 211/221 (Intermediate Drawing; Advanced Drawing) - Through an interactive tour, students learned the purpose and history of the systems and applied this knowledge to draw original art pieces of the district heating and cooling infrastructure. Three of these drawings are featured here, by students Carole, Kayla, and Mercer, respectively.
Support for Research, Education, and Creative Works
A Model for Place-Based Learning
Each semester, we work with faculty across the disciplines to integrate a range of collaborative, campus-based engaged and experiential learning opportunities into their teaching and research to help students expand their understanding of complex sustainability challenges. In spring 2025 alone, we coordinated 57 campus engaged learning activities for 23 different faculty members who taught 28 unique courses, reaching over 1,000 students – roughly one-fifth of all undergraduates.
Featured left: a student in Dr. Chelsea Hilding's fall Dance Composition course, DCE 223, stretches out in a tree at the Winston Hall Rain Garden, as part of her interpretive choreography.
Infusing Sustainability across the Curriculum
Faculty members from 13 academic disciplines gathered in the days following commencement for the 2025 Magnolias Curriculum Project workshop. Participants came together as a learning cohort to infuse sustainability principles into their courses; activities included a learning outcome improv exercise, practitioner panels, and place-based explorations.
“I really appreciated how the Magnolias workshop combined focused work time, more abstract discussions of sustainability in the classroom, and the chance to connect with faculty across disciplines. I’m coming away from our two days of conversations feeling energized and inspired to rethink my course design," said Molly MacVeagh, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities.
This year’s faculty joined the growing group of over 130 Wake Forest faculty members who have participated in the program since it started in 2012. A fall survey revealed that past participants often apply what they learned to other courses, in addition to the one (re)designed during the workshop.
Land and Ecosystem Management
Building Climate Resilience
In June, The Nature Conservancy facilitated a community resilience building workshop that brought together Wake Forest leaders with local and regional officials to inform future climate resilience and adaptation strategies for the Reynolda campus.
The resulting summary was shared with the Bicentennial Comprehensive Campus Space Planning (BCCSP) team to inform planning considerations, including stormwater infrastructure, emergency responses, and energy systems.
Stormwater Management
During guided tours of our campus stormwater management practices across the semester, students explored how low impact development (LID) strategies can enhance resilience in the face of increasing high wind and heavy rain events. Utilities Systems Manager Seth Looney was named an Everyday Champion for supporting the integration of stormwater management and utility projects into courses and Campus Engaged Learning assignments.
Utilities Systems Manager, Seth Looney, provides an overview of campus stormwater management systems, showcasing how the Utilities team manages runoff and builds resilience through a combination of low-impact development and traditional practices.
Celebrating National Arbor Day
Connectivity in the Built Environment
The Wake Line in Action
The centralized shuttle hub continued to support the growth of alternative transportation solutions in FY25, with the Wake Line shuttles transporting over 150,000 riders for the second year in a row. Annual ridership has more than doubled since FY19.
Emphasizing Efficiency
The Transportation and Parking Services (TaPS) team continues to maximize fuel efficiency by right-sizing the shuttle fleet to match trends in user demand. The fleet now consists of 3 seven-passenger vans, 6 twelve-passenger vans, 3 fourteen-passenger buses, and 11 twenty-two-passenger buses. Fuel use efficiency has consistently improved even as the Wake Line transports over two times the number of riders it transported in 2018.
Connectivity & Pedestrianization
Connectivity and pedestrianization continued to be emphasized by participants in the BCCSP process throughout the year, with improving walkability, wayfinding, and safe multimodal access emerging as important considerations.
Materials Management
Circularity Spotlight: University Surplus Program
A unique surplus “shopping” opportunity at Alumni Hall this spring helped rehome 383 units of furniture and other usable goods from the building following Advancement’s move to the UCC. The effort diverted over 33,000 pounds – approximately 16 tons – from the landfill and represented nearly $230,000 in avoided costs for new furnishings and supplies for offices and departments across campus.
Since the Surplus Property Program began in 2011, over 14,000 items have been repurposed and reused within WFU departments and units, avoiding an estimated $4.3 million that could have been spent on new items. In total, over 800,000 pounds of goods have been repaired, recycled, re-purposed, reused and diverted from the landfill – that’s around the weight of 60 male African elephants.
E-Waste Refurbished
In addition to keeping office materials and equipment within Wake Forest for re-use, the Surplus Property Program collects electronic waste (e-waste) for proper disassembly and recycling. The e-waste collection bins and locations were updated this year, making it easier for the campus community to put waste in its place.
Culture of Resilience and Adaptation
We do this by encouraging the adoption of systems perspectives, cultivating opportunities to experience awe in our natural surroundings, and practicing curiosity, compassion, and courage in our daily interactions.
Sustainability in The Forest
This fall, at least 45% of first-year and transfer students were introduced to opportunities to get involved with sustainability volunteer and leadership programs at Wake Forest through New Deac Week.
Our Strolls through the Forest continued to be a popular offering, inviting students and families to connect with the beauty and ecosystem functions across our campus. And our signature involvement event, Let’s Taco-Bout Sustainability, introduced students to the myriad ways they could participate and lead on campus.
First-Years Develop Leadership Skills
We welcomed the 7th cohort of the Sustainability Leadership Group (SLG ‘29), where first-year students have the opportunity to grow as peer leaders, expand their knowledge of sustainability topics, and build community. Since 2019, nearly 140 first-year students have developed essential leadership skills through the program.
SLG '29 Fall Retreat
Members of SLG '29 enjoyed time together at their fall retreat in October. The group participated in team building exercises and bonded while enjoying the natural beauty at Camp Hanes.
Career Development
Students and alumni mixed and mingled at our inaugural virtual sustainability networking event in November. The event added to the nearly 250 career connections made through our WFU Sustainability Career Network. Five of the network alumni shared their perspectives and career journeys with students at our fifth annual Alumni Career Panel in February.
Thank you for looking back and celebrating this year's milestones with us. We extend our gratitude to all who contributed to these collective campus sustainability highlights. Happy Holidays!
Credits:
Content published by the Wake Forest Office of Sustainability