Three new hydration stations join our fleet

New hydration stations will greet students returning to Reynolda campus. Facilities and Campus Services installed three new stations in high traffic areas: outside the Fresh Food Company, on the ground floor of Benson near Pugh Auditorium, and in the atrium of the Z. Smith Reynolds library.  Hydration stations provide chilled, filtered water and are designed to encourage the use of refillable water bottles.  A built-in sensor starts the flow of water when a thirsty Deacon places a refillable bottle under the tap, and stops the flow when the bottle is removed.  Each unit keeps a running count of how many disposable water bottles we have avoided by choosing to refill.

The success of the first three hydration stations installed last year, outside the Office of Sustainability on the first floor of Reynolda Hall, in Winston Hall, and in the Worrell Professional Center, has demonstrated the demand for hydration stations across campus.  This July the original station outside of the Office of Sustainability broke the 20,000 mark for the number of disposable water bottles avoided.  Plastic water bottle disposal is an increasing environmental hazard, adding 2 million tons of waste to landfills in the US each year, according to National Geographic. And disposal is not the only problem; plastic water bottles require an incredible amount of energy to produce and transport (if you filled a plastic water bottle up with all the oil required for its production, that water bottle would be about a quarter of the way full).  By installing six hydration stations and using refillable water bottles to stay hydrated, our campus community is participating in an important global transition away from disposable water bottles.

As older water fountains fail, Facilities and Campus Services will replace them with new hydration stations.  Departments can also co-sponsor the installation of a hydration station near their offices.  The Office of Budget and Financial Planning sponsored the installation of the new hydration station outside the Fresh Food Company.  For information on how to co-sponsor a hydration station, contact Tiffany White whitetn@wfu.edu. If your department would like to jump to the front of the line and install a station in your area, contact Donnie Adams at adamsdl@wfu.edu. Also look out for The Office of Sustainability’s reusable water bottle give away at Think Green Thursdays.  For dates and times, check our office calendar.

By Annabel Lang, Wake Forest Fellow