By: Hannah Cushman ’26
Through a new collaboration between the Office of Student Involvement and Office of Sustainability, Lafayette students are making a positive environmental impact with every water refill.
The Office of Student Involvement provided first-year students with reusable water bottles with a QR code on them. Every time they refill at campus water bottle refilling stations, they can scan to track bottle usage. Melissa Dalrymple, associate director of student involvement, explains that this year they wanted to give first-year students a product they could use daily that would have a positive impact.
Fill it Forward, the organization responsible for this initiative, tracks the QR code scans, and donates $0.02 to the current global project for each scan, which changes as soon as the need is met. Currently, donations are going to Charity: water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean drinking water to people in developing nations. The current initiative is focused on a school water system in Bangladesh. To date, the campuses and companies who have joined Fill it Forward have helped donate over $1,516,000 through water bottle scans. Lafayette’s campus currently has a total of 2,171 scans, and counting!
Students, staff, and faculty can participate in the Fill it Forward initiative by filling their own water bottle at a refill station, and scanning the QR code with a phone camera. (Download the Fill It Forward app and scan the customized QR code to join the Lafayette community, and to keep up with challenges, projects, and the refill leaderboard!)
Samantha Smith, sustainability outreach and engagement manager, shares that Lafayette has a goal of diverting 40% of waste away from the landfill by 2030 and 60% by 2035. “More zero waste solutions like Fill it Forward are crucial to reaching this campus-wide goal,” Smith says.
Smith shares that technological tracking solutions, like this new initiative, could also support existing Lafayette programs like the Reusable Clamshell Program and ECO Cafe Smoothie Cup, Pard-to-Pard Campus Thrift Store, and many more, all of which have contributed to reuse and the goal of reducing waste on campus.
“Our goals are ambitious, yet achievable with the collaboration of the campus community,” Smith says. “All of our individual actions contribute to this goal, including simply reusing a water bottle instead of purchasing a plastic beverage container!”
In terms of growth within the project, the Student Involvement and Sustainability offices hope to hold challenges and competitions throughout the school year to further incentivize scanning at refill stations and reduce overall waste across campus.
Want to learn more about living and working sustainably on campus? Students can assess their current sustainability behaviors through the Sustainable Living Certificate, and faculty and staff can join the Sustainable Office Program.