New Hand Dryers for a Sustainable Campus

Hand Dryers for a Sustainable Campus

Installing the Dyson Airblade V during the renovation of a campus building and relocation of the admission center allowed Boston University to greatly reduce landfill waste and further their mission of sustainability.

Chartered in 1869, Boston University (BU) is one of the nation’s largest private urban research universities. With over 33,000 students, nearly 10,000 staff and 17 schools and colleges offering 250 fields of study, BU ranks in the top 50 of U.S. News & World Report ’s annual ranking of the nation’s top universities.

Boston University’s aim is to drive change on campus and integrate sustainability into existing education, research and operations programs to reduce energy consumption and decrease waste across its two campuses. With the Facilities Management & Planning department, the initiative aims to improve the sustainability of existing campus buildings, renovations and new construction.

To improve a prospective student’s experience with a larger, more technologically advanced space, BU decided to renovate an existing campus building and relocate its admission center there. To support their mission of sustainability at the Leventhal Center, the university decided to try the Dyson Airblade V hand dryer in four of the admission center restrooms.

In the four restrooms with Airblade™ technology, paper towels were not installed as a hand drying option, therefore reducing the waste that’s generated from paper towels. Assuming that an estimated 70,000 annual visitors to the Leventhal Center use the Dyson Airblade hand dryer instead of paper towels, over 140,000 paper towels would be saved from going into a landfill annually.

www.dysonairblade.com

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Florida District Completes Construction on New Leadership Institute

    Pinellas County Schools near Tampa, Fla., recently announced that construction is complete on the new Dr. Michael A. Grego Leadership Institute, according to a news release. The district partnered with Rowe Architects for the project’s design and with Skanska for construction services.

  • KWK Architects Announces Full Transition to Lawrence Group Branding

    KWK Architects recently announced that it will complete its transition to the Lawrence Group brand effective July 1, according to a news release. The merger marks the end of a three-year strategic integration process that began in March 2023 to unite the firms.

  • GeoCam and UCLA: Modernizing Campus Accessibility Mapping

    In early 2025, UCLA partnered with GeoCam to capture and modernize its pedestrian infrastructure data. The goal was ambitious but clear: to produce a high-accuracy, imagery-backed digital map of every sidewalk, pathway, ramp, and ADA-related feature on UCLA’s 419-acre campus.

  • Big Horn Academy

    Big Horn Academy

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. Big Horn Academy has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.