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PepsiCo Recycling to Award Sustainable Colleges, Universities
Applications are now open for the Zero Impact Fund, which offers up to $10,000 for campus sustainability initiatives.
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PepsiCo Recycling is continuing to expand its Zero Impact Fund, which offers eligible colleges and universities an opportunity to bring campus sustainability ideas to life.
Through the Zero Impact Fund, schools can submit ideas to accomplish their environmental, economic and social goals. Winning applications can receive up to $10,000 each from PepsiCo Recycling. In its first two years, the Zero Impact Fund received applications from more than 100 different campuses and awarded grants to 27 schools.
“We’re excited to expand the Zero Impact Fund again this year by increasing the amount of funding available and potentially the amount of campuses that may benefit from it,” said Tom Mooradian, manager of environmental sustainability at PepsiCo, in a statement. “As part of PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose agenda, Zero Impact Fund encourages our college and university partners to promote and foster innovative sustainability initiatives that help make their campuses better stewards in their communities. We thoroughly enjoyed reviewing all of the proposals last year because they were so creative and impactful, and we can’t wait to see even more innovative ideas from our campus partners this year.”
For the 2018-19 school year, colleges and universities interested in submitting project proposals for the PepsiCo Recycling Zero Impact Fund should complete an application at PepsiCoRecycling.com on or before December 21. Schools selected to receive funding will be notified in February 2019. A PepsiCo Recycling committee will evaluate each school’s proposal based on the following criteria:
Environmental Impact: How the proposed project creates a more sustainable campus
Social Impact: How the campus community is engaged and positive behavioral change is fostered
Ingenuity: How positive sustainability impact will be achieved in a new or innovative way
Desirability, Feasibility, Longevity: The demonstrated support of campus leadership and the extent to which the initiative is scalable
Cost Effectiveness: How effective the proposed project is at implementing sustainability initiatives on campus in relation to cost
Past winning project proposals include campus-wide single stream recycling programs, solar- and human-powered phone charging stations, pollinator-friendly gardens, food waste diversion plans, solar-thermal systems and compost container cleaning stations. Millersville University in Pennsylvania developed a kit to promote sustainability at various campus events.
“The PepsiCo Zero Impact Fund really helped to catalyze student-centered sustainability activities here at Millersville University,” said Chris Steuer, sustainability manager at Millersville University, in a statement. “The event kit we developed helps us host events that are full of ‘positive energy’ at our new zero-energy Lombardo Welcome Center.”
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